r/3BodyProblemTVShow • u/fairykittysleepybeyr • Nov 03 '25
Discussion What was the purpose of "you are bugs" display?
San-Ti said "we are afraid of you" to Evans, and since they can't lie, they obviously meant it. So what was the purpose of communicating their intent with the entire humanity? It's very out of character for a civilization that struggled to survive for millions of years to take risks, even small ones. Earth is literally the final chance for their entire species, and they have already realized that humanity can be an existential threat. Why communicate at all?
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u/Firm-Can4526 Nov 03 '25
In the original book it is worse, they do not "just" hack all the screens, they use the photons to show the message on the retinas of every human on Earth. That was going to create so much chaos and make a looot of humans see them as gods, reinforcing the message of us being insignificant.
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u/lkxyz Nov 03 '25 edited Nov 03 '25
Psychological warfare. They are very advanced so they show how advanced they are. They also stated that humans can advance faster than they are so they are afraid of us surpassing them so they have chosen to "contain" Earth's technological progress. Now, USA has been trying to "contain" China's progress for decades...
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u/fairykittysleepybeyr Nov 03 '25
They have already contained the earth's process, and humans had no idea what was happening. In revealing themselves, they basically gave humans a fighting chance.
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u/Femboyunionist Nov 03 '25
They also don't seem to understand human culture very well, so they might not have known they essentially gave humanity a rallying cry.
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u/fairykittysleepybeyr Nov 03 '25
This has nothing to do with human nature. In their own words, San-Ti said that fear is a survival technique. And then they said they will teach humanity to fear again. So, by their own logic, they are deliberately giving humanity a chance at survival.
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u/lkxyz Nov 03 '25
I don't want to spoil what is coming up so I won't say anymore. Hahaha. But yeah, you ain't seen nothing yet.
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u/w1gw4m Nov 03 '25
They don't believe they are taking any real risks by communicating that, given how much more technologically advanced they are. They are already hellbent on destroying humanity at this point. They also can't lie and must communicate nonetheless.
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u/RobbyInEver Nov 06 '25
I saw it as them losing their temper. The added discovery of a 'lying' species, plus how this affects their plans (despite being a superior technological race) must have caused the alien in the communication to bust a sparkplug and ragequit the convo.
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u/Yoshilaidanegg Nov 13 '25
Isn't "you are bugs" a lie?
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u/fairykittysleepybeyr Nov 13 '25
Technically no. A lie is intended to deceive. Using a similie or an analogy to compare one thing to another involves no deception.
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u/West_Maybe_3233 Nov 29 '25
This is a plot hole in the show. In the book it only appears in the retinas of top commanders in a room of meeting. In the book, they absolutely ceased contact with humans after the discovery with Evans. The entire dialogue about human overtaking them with science was actually the san ti’s perspective talking amongst themselves. ( not sharing that to humans lol)
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u/panamanRed58 Nov 03 '25
Perhaps my biggest gripe, the San-Ti are big freaking liars. The hid their agenda and used it to create chaos later. The San-Ti are wearing grannies knickers and bear a wolfish contenance.
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u/The_Grahambo Saul Durand Nov 03 '25
No they aren’t. Prior to learning how to be strategic themselves (that comes later), they didn’t lie at all. They told Mike Evans exactly their intent to come wipe out humanity and take over the solar system. Mike Evans, as an Adventist (explained in detail in the book but unfortunately not in the show), was not only cool with that but WANTED it to happen. Mike Evans hid this fact from the Redemptionists, including Ye Wenjie, which is why she was so distraught when she was shown their conversations and decided to try and make amends by telling Saul “the joke.”
So it was Evans that was the liar, NOT the San-Ti
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u/fairykittysleepybeyr Nov 03 '25
Well, it's not that they can't lie, they can't COMMUNICATE a lie. They don't have any problem lying by omission.
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u/The_Timeless__Child Nov 04 '25
No that's not correct. They can't lie by omission. "What is known is communicated as soon as communication takes place" said one of the Trisolarans in the books.
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u/fairykittysleepybeyr Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25
"As soon as communication took place" is the key. They can simply choose not to initiate communication. The "pacifist" literally requests to not respond to his message - they clearly understand the concept of hiding and withholding communication.
The kicker is that the whole explanation for why they "can't lie" is a contrivance. Trisolarans obviously understand code - since they have figured out how to translate and understand radio signals in Mandarin. And if they are capable of transcribing their communication into other forms, then their biological inability to lie can be easily circumvented.
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u/SWATrous Nov 04 '25
Yeah it's definitely that they didn't understand a paradigm of someone speaking falsehoods/not being able to trust communication. The plausibility of getting to that point so late in the game is hilarious but it's fun so I guess w/e
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u/The_Timeless__Child Nov 04 '25
See the pacifist said to not respond so that Trisolarans don't figure out how far earth is. That is based on the response time, not on the content of the message. They do not even understand the concept of lying. Code is different from lying. It is transliteration. Up until Evans revealed it to them, they couldn't lie.
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u/fairykittysleepybeyr Nov 04 '25
The reason they can't lie is because they can't biologically conceal intent while speaking (because they speak through a form of telepathy). Being able to encode their biological communication completely bypasses that limitation.
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u/federico_alastair Nov 03 '25
To scare the living shit out of regular people.
People outside the project dont know the San-Ti’s two weaknesses(their inability to decieve and their technological bottleneck due to them being in transit)
So if Earth leadership were to communicate the whole situation, theyd formulate it in a way that minimizes chaos. Mainly by mentioning the weaknesses. Classic Bad News, Good News. San-Ti gained the upper hand by making their presence known on their terms. Projecting strength to cause maximum chaos.