The staircase plan was even more stupid than I thought... Already noted that when they sent the bombs they didn't know when they would send the module, so how could they have planned their positions ?
There's "a couple hours" before reaching the first detonation after launch. But the bombs can only have been left behind (you can't position them on Earth orbits because orbital speed is fixed, so there would be no way to line them up), and Earth moves way faster on its orbit than we can send spacecrafts. So if they sent them two days before, it would need at least 3 times that to reach the first one. Anyway the first one needs to be far enough from Earth that its EMP does not affect existing satellites, so several thousands kilometers from geostationary orbit at the very least. This alone is days.
And with all that they need the sail to pass exactly centred on the bomb. And no way to adjust (extra propulsion on the module won't have any effect if it's dragged by the sail). Which means really 0 margin for calculations errors (like a few extra grams ?).
But anyway the worst thing, since it's centred, it means the explosion occurs between the sail and the module (otherwise the module would just bump into it). Which means that not only does the module gets the full blast (so need to be armoured to take it + radiation protected so that the brain survives) it also fully pass through the explosion.
And that means the explosion simultaneously pushes forward on the sail, backwards on the module, sideways on the cables... Really a shitty design.
No wonder it breaks... But I assume Will is not lost, because this was the only point of the character, so... that'd be pretty annoying to have to endure his storyline for this.
The Wallfacer part was pretty fun. Though I still don't know why the San Ti would not be able to read our minds (they can manipulate extremely precisely what our brain sees but they wouldn't be able to read it ? When they actually communicate by telepathy between themselves ?). But this simple realization and efficiently turning it into this worldwide project shows again how amazing Wade is.
And the whole bit with Saul saying he refuses, and everyone being "yes sir, of course sir", was hilarious. I guess his brain is still on weed and can't realize yet :)
But however smart and fun that is, as a project it is probably not much better than the staircase one. 1) They can be killed easily. Do they get 24/7 protection like Saul ?
2) The attempts at his life were pretty weak. They have the means for much smarter, either precise, or with massive collateral damage, attacks. They could also chain them non stop with backup over backup plans. And just for starters, why the hell are they always on plane (taking him to UN, and Wade afterwards) ?? Just mess up the bits with the instruments and it's done. Smart saying that they want to meet Wade, that gives a plot armour that takes care of (a bit) of this plothole.
3) Even without outside plans to kill them, apparently just seeing the countdown drove some people crazy. They could do so much worse (maybe a bit like Wade's horror visions) 24/7, see how much they can think of a plan with that, and how long they survive without being able to sleep.
4) Even if they're safe, they can't keep a 400 years plan in their mind. Specially as the other two are already pretty old. They can't even transmit secret plans to their successors.
5) And even at their own time scale, they can't communicate between themselves either, so they could have similar (hence useless) plans, or even worse interfering ones.
The bug analogy was a bit on the nose and corny, but yeah, I'll buy, was a good way to end.
Review by FLYVIP 2BlockedParent2024-04-04T00:39:58Z
The staircase plan was even more stupid than I thought...
Already noted that when they sent the bombs they didn't know when they would send the module, so how could they have planned their positions ?
There's "a couple hours" before reaching the first detonation after launch. But the bombs can only have been left behind (you can't position them on Earth orbits because orbital speed is fixed, so there would be no way to line them up), and Earth moves way faster on its orbit than we can send spacecrafts. So if they sent them two days before, it would need at least 3 times that to reach the first one. Anyway the first one needs to be far enough from Earth that its EMP does not affect existing satellites, so several thousands kilometers from geostationary orbit at the very least. This alone is days.
And with all that they need the sail to pass exactly centred on the bomb. And no way to adjust (extra propulsion on the module won't have any effect if it's dragged by the sail). Which means really 0 margin for calculations errors (like a few extra grams ?).
But anyway the worst thing, since it's centred, it means the explosion occurs between the sail and the module (otherwise the module would just bump into it). Which means that not only does the module gets the full blast (so need to be armoured to take it + radiation protected so that the brain survives) it also fully pass through the explosion.
And that means the explosion simultaneously pushes forward on the sail, backwards on the module, sideways on the cables... Really a shitty design.
No wonder it breaks... But I assume Will is not lost, because this was the only point of the character, so... that'd be pretty annoying to have to endure his storyline for this.
The Wallfacer part was pretty fun. Though I still don't know why the San Ti would not be able to read our minds (they can manipulate extremely precisely what our brain sees but they wouldn't be able to read it ? When they actually communicate by telepathy between themselves ?). But this simple realization and efficiently turning it into this worldwide project shows again how amazing Wade is.
And the whole bit with Saul saying he refuses, and everyone being "yes sir, of course sir", was hilarious. I guess his brain is still on weed and can't realize yet :)
But however smart and fun that is, as a project it is probably not much better than the staircase one.
1) They can be killed easily. Do they get 24/7 protection like Saul ?
2) The attempts at his life were pretty weak. They have the means for much smarter, either precise, or with massive collateral damage, attacks. They could also chain them non stop with backup over backup plans. And just for starters, why the hell are they always on plane (taking him to UN, and Wade afterwards) ?? Just mess up the bits with the instruments and it's done. Smart saying that they want to meet Wade, that gives a plot armour that takes care of (a bit) of this plothole.
3) Even without outside plans to kill them, apparently just seeing the countdown drove some people crazy. They could do so much worse (maybe a bit like Wade's horror visions) 24/7, see how much they can think of a plan with that, and how long they survive without being able to sleep.
4) Even if they're safe, they can't keep a 400 years plan in their mind. Specially as the other two are already pretty old. They can't even transmit secret plans to their successors.
5) And even at their own time scale, they can't communicate between themselves either, so they could have similar (hence useless) plans, or even worse interfering ones.
The bug analogy was a bit on the nose and corny, but yeah, I'll buy, was a good way to end.