OK I just finished The Expanse

[Gingerbread Demon]

And I freaking love it.

However the rings, Stargates much? That's what they made me think of.
I know nothing is original any more but they're like Stargates but without the dialing.
NOTE: This is just my own personal opinion so anyone here please don't be offended. However having said that I did like the rings and found their formation pretty damn awesome if dangerous.


But I FREAKING LOVE THE SHOW.

Chrisjen is awesome. She and Draper were my two favourite females and I liked Amos.

But the aliens are kind of boneheads, why would you create something so dangerous like the protomolecule and unleash it on unsuspecting solar systems? I get it they don't care but why would you make stuff like this to begin with? Also was it their creation that wiped them out because it didn't really seem to care what it assimilated.

There are still loose samples of it with the Belters and Mars, and a tiny bit still onboard the Rocinante.

I kept thinking protoculture haha, but that was Robotech.

Now that we have a season 4 (thanks Amazon) I hope we will find out more about them or will it be like cryptic soup and we have to muddle through cryptic clues which I find an annoying trope and overused.


Also the ships are all vertical in design like skyscrapers. I love that aspect of the show and they don't make traditional horizontal ships with lots and lots of corridors and rooms, and have to wank an explanation for why they walk without floating off the floor.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

You could also read the novels and novellas of course.

Why would the aliens unleash dangerous tech on the universe, you ask? Why would mankind despoil the natural environment of the only habitable planet that we know to exist? Some mixture of hubris, ignorance, nihilism, and downright irresponsibility perhaps...

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

You could also read the novels and novellas of course.

Why would the aliens unleash dangerous tech on the universe, you ask? Why would mankind despoil the natural environment of the only habitable planet that we know to exist? Some mixture of hubris, ignorance, nihilism, and downright irresponsibility perhaps...

Perhaps..... A mix of all of that. "ahahaha look what we made we are awesome" next minute super new tech they made eats them.

 

[David cgc]

But the aliens are kind of boneheads, why would you create something so dangerous like the protomolecule and unleash it on unsuspecting solar systems? I get it they don't care but why would you make stuff like this to begin with? Also was it their creation that wiped them out because it didn't really seem to care what it assimilated.

There are still loose samples of it with the Belters and Mars, and a tiny bit still onboard the Rocinante.

(Show-watcher only, this is all speculative)

Given how it didn't seem to collect need that much organic material in the grand scheme of things to build the Ring, I'm not sure how destructive the protomolecule would've been if it had been used as intended and was delivered to Earth. Sure, the impact itself might've been a world-killer, but then again, the protomolecule can steer, so maybe it would've landed gently, gourged itself on plants, animals, and sunlight, and then flew off to assemble into a Ring, leaving the eventual intelligent life that might develop on the planet none the wiser. Sure, you'd kill a lot of critters, but like @Asbo Zaprudder pointed out, you can't make a space-omlette without breaking a few space-eggs. Consider that the contamination on the Rocinante hasn't been moving to expand, so it seems that it isn't a total "gray goo" scenario, and the protomolecule only takes as it needs and doesn't just devour insatiably forever.

 

[Christopher]

However the rings, Stargates much? That's what they made me think of.
I know nothing is original any more but they're like Stargates but without the dialing.

Ring-shaped spacetime portals have been around in science fiction since long before Stargate, since they're a natural shape for such a thing; indeed, they even exist in real theoretical physics, in the form of a Kerr ring singularity within a rotating black hole. If anything, I'm more reminded of the 1994 Stephen Baxter novel Ring (coincidentally from the same year as the Stargate movie), about a gigantic cosmic-string Kerr loop on a galactic scale, built to serve as a portal to another universe. (It's a major story element in Baxter's Xeelee Sequence universe, not just that novel.)

And while we're at it, the term "stargate" or "star gate" has been in use in science fiction since at least the 1950s:

https://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/361
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_(disambiguation)#Other_uses

But the aliens are kind of boneheads, why would you create something so dangerous like the protomolecule and unleash it on unsuspecting solar systems? I get it they don't care but why would you make stuff like this to begin with?

Automobiles kill more than a million people a year worldwide. Why would we make something like that to begin with? We do because it's beneficial when it's used right. Power is always dangerous. The more good something can do when used the right way, the more harm it can do when used without control or judgment.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

So what was the correct way to use the Protomolecule? BTW show watcher only no interest in the novels. Have too many to read as it is.

 

[Christopher]

So what was the correct way to use the Protomolecule?

I think Holden is just starting to learn that as of the end of season 3. Would you ask a toddler the right way to operate a car?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I think Holden is just starting to learn that as of the end of season 3. Would you ask a toddler the right way to operate a car?

I gather that. But the ring makers launched it toward Earth so I can't help but feel sorry for any life on primitive Earth that came into contact with it. Was that the best application of such an advanced tech? Why not just launch it into a an automated station and let it do its thing there away from life forms?

 

[crookeddy]

I gather that. But the ring makers launched it toward Earth so I can't help but feel sorry for any life on primitive Earth that came into contact with it. Was that the best application of such an advanced tech? Why not just launch it into a an automated station and let it do its thing there away from life forms?

Would you worry about ants being burned by your cigarette bud?

 

[thribs]

Oh, I thought you meant the Enterprise arc.
Apologies.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I gather that. But the ring makers launched it toward Earth so I can't help but feel sorry for any life on primitive Earth that came into contact with it. Was that the best application of such an advanced tech? Why not just launch it into a an automated station and let it do its thing there away from life forms?

Perhaps the alien tech requires organic compounds to function - carbon chemistry is much more versatile than the chemistry of any other element. As a species, we exploit numerous other "lesser" life forms to achieve our goals - cutting down forests, slaughtering veal calves, killing animals for sport, and so on. Why should one assume that aliens are any more "kindly" or conservation-minded just because they have advanced technology? Maybe they just have a very pragmatic and unromantic view of the universe, its resources and their place within it. Some modern-day politicians also appear to take this view but we probably shouldn't digress down that track.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Would you worry about ants being burned by your cigarette bud?

Perhaps the alien tech requires organic compounds to function - carbon chemistry is much more versatile than the chemistry of any other element. As a species, we exploit numerous other "lesser" life forms to achieve our goals - cutting down forests, slaughtering veal calves, killing animals for sport, and so on. Why should one assume that aliens are any more "kindly" or conservation-minded just because they have advanced technology? Maybe they just have a very pragmatic and unromantic view of the universe, its resources and their place within it. Some modern-day politicians also appear to take this view but we probably shouldn't digress down that track.

I agree with both your points, just from the POV of someone living on this planet it would irk me if the same scenario was played out against modern Earth and not primitive Earth, my feelings would more or less be the same but you guys make good points so I can't but agree reluctantly

 

[Jedi Marso]

I gather that. But the ring makers launched it toward Earth so I can't help but feel sorry for any life on primitive Earth that came into contact with it. Was that the best application of such an advanced tech? Why not just launch it into a an automated station and let it do its thing there away from life forms?

Remember, it wasn't the ringmakers themselves that aimed it at Earth- it was Julie, or what was left of her consciousness. She was 'flying home.' People keep forgetting the protomolecule was buried in an asteroid in our solar system for uncounted tens or hundreds of thousands of years before humans found it and it became active. When the aliens launched it towards our solar system eons ago, there wasn't really anything 'of note' here. The protomolecule by itself was more like a pre-programmed machine with a job to do- gather the resources to build a ring in our solar system. Nobody really knows if it would have wound up on Earth to do that or not- it could just as easily have gone anywhere in the solar system with the proper elements/mass it needed to do the job. All the other weird, bad stuff that happened with the protomolecule happened because good ol' dumbshit humans were trying to weaponize it.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I gather that. But the ring makers launched it toward Earth so I can't help but feel sorry for any life on primitive Earth that came into contact with it. Was that the best application of such an advanced tech? Why not just launch it into a an automated station and let it do its thing there away from life forms?

Maybe it’s a test: if you are smart enough to not wipe yourselves out, you are smart enough to travel the universe.

It’s probably a mystery that will get more unpacked as the show goes on.

 

[David cgc]

Remember, it wasn't the ringmakers themselves that aimed it at Earth- it was Julie, or what was left of her consciousness. She was 'flying home.' People keep forgetting the protomolecule was buried in an asteroid in our solar system for uncounted tens or hundreds of thousands of years before humans found it and it became active. When the aliens launched it towards our solar system eons ago, there wasn't really anything 'of note' here. The protomolecule by itself was more like a pre-programmed machine with a job to do- gather the resources to build a ring in our solar system. Nobody really knows if it would have would up on Earth to do that or not- it could just as easily have gone anywhere in the solar system with the proper elements/mass it needed to do the job. All the other weird, bad stuff that happened with the protomolecule happened because good ol' dumbshit humans were trying to weaponize it.

Dr. Psycho was pretty convinced the protomolecule was aimed at Earth specifically (though it seems sloppy that someone who could target Earth from another star system wouldn't aim around Saturn and Jupiter).

 

[tomalak301]

I'm waiting for the third season to come to Prime, but I've been really enjoying what I've seen in the first two seasons. Really liked how Season 2 ended with Draper and Avasarla working together, and what is going on the Rociente is always fun. I almost feel like I'll have to see the first two seasons again when Season 3 does come before this is such a rich and multi-layered show.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I'm still waiting for season 3 to show up on Netflix in the UK - supposedly, in September.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'm waiting for the third season to come to Prime, but I've been really enjoying what I've seen in the first two seasons. Really liked how Season 2 ended with Draper and Avasarla working together, and what is going on the Rociente is always fun. I almost feel like I'll have to see the first two seasons again when Season 3 does come before this is such a rich and multi-layered show.

You will not regret it. Season 3 is awesome.

Draper is awesome so is Chrisjen and the Roci.

I really do love the idea of vertical ships as opposed to what every other show does with their ships and wanks an explanation for how they walk around their ships.

 

[Reverend]

(Show-watcher only, this is all speculative)

Given how it didn't seem to collect need that much organic material in the grand scheme of things to build the Ring, I'm not sure how destructive the protomolecule would've been if it had been used as intended and was delivered to Earth. Sure, the impact itself might've been a world-killer, but then again, the protomolecule can steer, so maybe it would've landed gently, gourged itself on plants, animals, and sunlight, and then flew off to assemble into a Ring, leaving the eventual intelligent life that might develop on the planet none the wiser. Sure, you'd kill a lot of critters, but like @Asbo Zaprudder pointed out, you can't make a space-omlette without breaking a few space-eggs. Consider that the contamination on the Rocinante hasn't been moving to expand, so it seems that it isn't a total "gray goo" scenario, and the protomolecule only takes as it needs and doesn't just devour insatiably forever.

I'm pretty sure had it impacted Earth, it would have absorbed, or at least dismantled anyone or anything that even got close. It wouldn't have actively gone after the population, the the impact itself and the inevitable and futile attempts to obliterate it would have irreparably destroyed an already royally screwed up biosphere.

My read on the way it works, is that the Phoebe was pretty much the same design as what lifted off from Venus. It was sent here to build a ring but at some point during it's interstellar journey, whatever *happened* happened and when it arrived in our system, there was no activation signal from the nucleus, so it parked itself in orbit around the nearest gas giant and went into standby mode.

I think the reason the protomolecule behaved the way it did is because it/they works collectively; the more of it/them there are, the more it can do and and understand. What was on Eros was grown from a scraped off sample from a larger whole.

So it was only running off a holographic operating system with a baseline directive ("can't stop the work!") Essentially like an animal operating on instinct.
It wasn't attempting to rebuild itself physically so much as rebuild it's knowledge base. That means mapping and absorbing neural pathways of the living organisms it keeps getting injected into, as those were the most complex structures available. It was incomplete and didn't know *how* to do what it was supposed to do, but it knew it could reteach itself.

By the time the hybrid was on board the Roci, it was deep enough into "the work" that it didn't need to spread anymore and it had enough of a hold on itself that it wasn't just acting out of instinct, but conscious and already wondering why the activation signal never arrived.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I read on one synopsis that Phoebe got caught in Saturn's gravity and so was caught and orbited that planet instead of hitting Earth.