Why the Trisolarans (San-ti) are actually scared of Humans
The Trisolarans (San-ti), the alien race from The Three-Body Problem (Novel / Netflix TV show), Imagine living on a planet where your three suns could fry, freeze, or crush you at any moment — that’s their reality, and it’s made them cold, calculating, and really good at survival. The Trisolarans are so advanced they can mess with the laws of physics and send messages across the galaxy like it’s no big deal. So if you have read the novel or watched the Netflix TV series you are well aware that these guys were heading to Earth to eliminate humanity, y’all remember the iconic message they send to humans “YOU ARE BUGS” basically saying that we are way beneath them and it’s hopeless to even try to stop them. So you might be wondering… Then why the hell would they be scared of Humans?
SPOILERS!!!
Well in the following novel “The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu” we get more insights into the conversations Evans had with the Trisolarans (Basically Envas sent all information regarding Earth and Humans for them to study), and they seemed to understand most parts very clearly except for just one thing! The difference between “Think” and “Say”. The Trisolarans go on by saying “In our understanding, they ought to be. ‘Think’ means using thought organs to conduct mental activity. ‘Say’ means communicating the content of thoughts to a counterpart. The latter, in your world, is accomplished through the modulation of vibrations in the air produced by the vocal cords. are these definitions correct?”
that’s when Evans asks a very good question “My lord, what are your organs for communications?” this is a very good question because I don’t know about y’all but I was dying to know what these creatures look like, even though we don’t get the full description but at least we get to learn something about them Their brains can display their thoughts to the outside world, which is how they communicate. In other words for them, thinking means speaking.
As their conversation continues Evans tells the Trisolarans the story of the wolf, the child, and the grandmother, In the story the Grandmother leaves the children in the house and tells them not to open the door to anyone else but her, on the road she met the wolf and of course it ate her then put on her clothing and assumed her appearance. Then it went to the house and said to the children “I am your grandmother. I’ve come back. Open the door.” The children opened the door, and the wolf came into the house and ate them. Easy snack! But the Trisolarans didn’t seem to understand why the children would open the door if there was communication between them and the wolf. That’s when we learn the shocking truth that the Trisolarans are incapable of lying or deceiving.
At first, they thought that humans not being able to display their thoughts made them inferior. But it turns out that not being able to see what humans are thinking therefore gives them the ability to lie and deceive. Which is kinda dangerous if you think about it. well, the conversation ends with the Trisolarans saying “I am afraid of you”. which was kinda satisfying to be honest considering in the last book they were being cocky saying we are bugs
Please lemme know what you think! Thanks for reading.
