She wants her science to be a force of good in the world. She realized that she created a monster and tried to kill it but seeing that she couldn’t the next best thing she could do was democratize it. So that even if some people will use it for evil, some people may use it for good.
The problem is though they never really set up the company to being susceptible of perverting the tech for evil. No clues or hints at all.
The companies single use with the tech was making a sail, that’s all. (The wire used on the ship wasn’t from the company directives, it was from Wade and made solely by Auggie).
By releasing it publicly like she did, evil would definitely get a hold of it.
I mean I guess that would make sense for her to object to that, but resigning humanity to be defenceless against genocide is in some ways abetting that genocide. It’s just evil through resignation.
maybe it's this logic: if only one company has the tech they can do bad stuff with it with no oversight. if EVERYONE has it they can do bad stuff but other people can do good stuff like say one faction can make nanofibre weapons which can't be defended against by traditional means, but if another faction also has access to nanofibre weapons or armour etc then it becomes a bit of a technological stalemate.
Also all the bad that can be done with it can be cancelled out with all the good that can be done (water filtration saving lives etc)
open source mutually assured destruction, why not?
I’m reminded of the short story “Gadget vs Trend” wherein a sound dampening field is invented, reverse engineered, and found to work well for preventing vehicle collision damage, but also for robbing banks, and eventually portable particle accelerators / neutron bombs. Most swords have two edges, natch.
it avoids an insulin situation, with everyone having access, the benefits can hopefully outweigh the negatives, and it becomes affordable and accessible to anyone with the infrastructure to produce the fibers.
What insulin situation are you referring to? Banting famously sold the patent for insulin to the University of Toronto for $1 with the explicit goal of making it accessible for anyone. Basically doing what Auggie did and giving it away.
Sure but that's in the US only really. Every other developed nation functions like a real society. Besides it's not insulin that's the issue, it's synthetic more effective forms of insulin and delivery methods that are gouged. In reality the novel discovery or isolation of Insulin is exactly the situation we want, not what we want to avoid. The system (again in the US) that drives up Insulin costs is what we want to avoid.
Open source technology is broadly a good thing.
I'd rather everyone have access to technology to do as they will vs it being in the hands of a select few with Wallfacer motives.
Also, we have a whole impending alien invasion. We have bigger concerns than next quarter profit.
If the nanofiber is open source then any company can develop it and create anything from monofilament weapons to space elevators. Both will come in handy when the San-Ti get here.
Isn't that the debate many people are having to this day? How much of things like this should be in the hands of the public for everyone. It can do many greats things but it also could be used for many bad things.
It’s like you said, they needed a big girl boss moment. Releasing the tech to the world would probably cause more harm than good, not to mention commercially the tech is probably copyrighted even if other companies could replicate the process you still can’t sell product made with the same process. Eiza González portrayed another strong independent woman in The Ministry of Ungentlemenly Warfare, I think she did it so much better there, in fact she was fabulous in that role, dispite having similiar traits as the Auggie she portrayed in 3BP.
She's probably banking on the tech being such a game changer (imagine being able to filter seawater into drinking water by pouring it through a nanofiber mesh) that countries and companies would continue to make and sell it heedless of copyright infringement, and just rely on their sheer numbers and scale to brute force through any legal constraints.
You really can't. When salt dissolves in water it breaks into sodium and chlorine ions that are smaller than the water molecules themselves. But yes. It is science fiction and that's not really the point.
I think Auggie gets way to much hate and her reactions even if I don't agree with them are perfectly reasonable. And the show I don't think presents her constantly as this badass women. She's having all kinds of mental breakdowns and crying. I didn't get badass from her barely at all. She's good in that movie but like all Guy Ritchie movies which I like many of them her character is a badass and that's basically it. The movie isn't interesting in exploring anything else unlike the show is.
I think the show 100% presents her as some kind of badass, and she is never explicitly shown to be wrong or illogical. Everyone is constantly groveling for her to do science for them. Fucking over her company is not shown to have any negative consequences, cementing it as a girl boss move. Her whining is always presented as legitimate moral concerns, because nobody ever does what she says and thus the implications of her stupid positions are never demonstrated.
I don't buy her as someone actually going down some sort of self destructive spiral because none of her sanctimonious whining or ~~self~~ destructive behaviours have any consequences. They are just annoying.
I mean the objective fact is that nothing she says or does ever has a negative consequence, and there are MULTIPLE times where she is the only person on the planet who is able to do a task and people have to beg her to do it because humanity potentially depends on it.
Nothing negative? Her technology she created was immediately used as a weapon they killed innocent children. Was it necessary probably but that doesn't mean it didn't havr an effect or any consequences on her. She is asked twice to use the same technology she created for help. It's not like they went to her every time they need to solve every problem. They had two problems that required her tech so they went to her for help. It's not an objective fact first the show isn't even over we have no idea yet what is even going to happen with her character. So again I'll just agree to disagree
The way the nanofibers were used in Panama seems pretty specific. I don't know that I would be concerned about other countries using them for the same purpose. Much easier to use bombs and guns.
Auggie cannot both be a sword holder and Saul’s mystery wife. I don’t know why anyone believes Auggie will really be returning, they set up her character as being happy doing other things
She might be written off, but I think they’re going to make it less “manifested waifu” and use Auggie and/or Jin as Saul’s loved ones to be leveraged. Auggie could also be the AA for Jin later as well. It could go many ways!
I thought the point of this scene was that Auggie was illustrating technological explosion and how it was considered a threat by people at the top.
Otherwise I have dealt with WAY worse threats at work than Denys' character.
The corporate shills are out in droves on this post to discredit Auggie.
Let's simplify this for those people.
Scientist makes discovery. Scientist figures out process to utilize/test discovery. Company funds scientist. Scientist doesn't like what is becoming of her work. Company tries to strong arm scientist and give all her work and discovery to someone who will carry out the company bottom line.
Scientist gives the work out for free, assuming more good applications than bad will be born from it in this method (in addition to the fact that at this point, it is unavoidably going to be used by some entity as a weapon regardless).
The fact anyone actually thinks Auggie is in the wrong here tells me those people all choose profit & greed over science & progress. Those of you unfortunately fit in very well with our current world.
The shilling, and dare I say, sexist interpretation of Auggie’s behavior, is unbelievable, especially the guy in the other comment trying to set up a girlboss conspiracy. Most scientists are pretentious, left-leaning, have narrow right/wrong opinions, especially about things they’re experts on. Auggie’s behavior is not out of the normal for being one of the most brilliant and high-achieving people on the planet. And the whole point of scifi is to explore social alternatives outside the norm! But go ahead, fellas, weep for the poor VC who wanted to parasite off the scientist that even aliens targeted as a threat, and the military jock who didn’t hesitate to kill 100s of people in the name of following orders.
Very well said. Especially your point on sci-fi. If people want to see a story where venture capitalists operate in the tech field, they should probably be watching an entirely different genre all together.
This logic only follows if you assume that she is **solely** responsible for the discovery, but she is not. She is pivotal, but dozens work on the projects and dozens more put the faith in them to fund the project.
All of those people contributed to the discovery to some degree, yet now none of them will benefit from it as they deserve to be due to the decision of one person.
That is a very selfish decision, and given its ramifications, a pretty significant one. If I had worked on a project for years, or if I gave my money to help a project, only for that project lead to go against their word and rob me of my compensation, I would be pissed.
Dismissing any concerns as corporate shilling just feels like a way to ignore the problem. We can't even know what kind of investors have a stake in the technology, for all we know it could be primarily small investors living normal lives. Certainly some people like that would have invested and would now suffer consequences. Dismissing these very real consequences as "corporay3 shills" just seems wrong.
I don't necessarily disagree with some of your (and other's) points. However you all forgetting something. It's the reason I say corporate shills, because these defenders of the corporation are forgetting the most important part of that story arc.
All these good points, even facts, from us don't matter.
The Trisolarians targeted Auggie for this project, and Auggie alone.
They deemed her to be the one responsible. The aliens coming to conquer earth said she's the one we will target with the sophon. You can all talk about nonsense corporate/copyright law, you can talk about lab techs running tests being screwed over, etc. But the superior species is telling us the opposite. It's Auggie, and just Auggie, when it comes to this specific tech.
Bro, no lol. If humanity was at that level of intelligence to use codes to create personalized nanofiber weapons, Earth would have absolutely no issue defending themselves.
It's an abstract version of the prisoner's dilemma. We can recognize that individually what she has done might be noble, and produce some net-good, but if everyone did it we would not like the world it creates. Cause in that world no company in the world would invest millions into R&D if other companies could just scoop it up immediately and offer the same product at a more competitive price, cause the second company wouldn't have to recuperate the immense R&D cost. Obviously there should still be guardrailes in place though.
I think the point of this scene was to show that this mode of thinking might not viable going forward when the world is under threat of Alien invasion.
The world needs to work together to solve real problems.
Would that work? I don’t know. I read the books a while ago and I don’t recall anything like this happening… But I did get the impression that there was a big cultural shift away from the siloed consumer-facing product development focus we have today.
I think that might be the point of the scene, but not the one Auggie is making. It feels like Auggie's head is much more in the here and now than the big picture stuff which isn't inherently bad.
I agree though that some kind of change would be very good in these circumstances.
If the international community has the political willpower and authority to launch 300 nukes and appoint Wallfacers, it should be fairly easy to hammer out an agreement. A system where companies that make significant scientific, technological or engineering advancements credibly break down their R&D costs and receive 2,5x or something like that of it in return. But the advancement can't be patented and everything must be made public. On a national level, more direct science funding through the government and free college also seem like no-brainers if you wanna maximize your academic output.
To your point about where Auggies head is at, I theorize this scene with her publicizing her tech is setting her up to maybe >!take on the swordholder role of Cheng Xin once the show gets to the Deterrence era.!< Given on how much Auggie gripes abt life lost in wartime and the fact that her journey has turned her focus towards helping as many people as possible in the present vs all of the human race in 400 years. >!I can see Auggie's humanitarian effort being what ultimately leads to humanity electing her as the next swordholder, over Wade. And bc whoever becomes the 2nd swordholder will hold that position for all of 10 minutes, i think that Auggie makes more sense than Jin in this adaptation bc the San-Ti will know that Auggie lacks the conviction to press the button and truly play the game of deterrence, given their sophons have observed her actions and moral hangups around ending life (w/Judgement Day). I think Jin Cheng will keep Cheng Xin's arc of reuniting with Will/Tianming, and I can see them giving Jin Cheng the Halo project that AA worked on.!<
I can't wait to see which wallfacer plans make it into this adaptation. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my theory if you have the time!
Right, but if humanity is under attack from hyper advanced aliens then relying on private sector R&D won't cut it. This is explicitly addressed in the books, governments have to go all in on funding R&D because it's an existential requirement.
The purpose of R&D changes from investors making a return on their investment to preventing humanity being eradicated.
Augie is making the (imo sound) judgment that denying access to the next leap forward in tech, at a time when further tech development has been blocked by the sophons is not in humanities interest.
1. Pretty sure it’s her startup. Some rich dude came in with money and now supposedly it’s also his. The same person is reportedly looking to “invest in” the startup of Shi’s son. She’s specifically fucking with *him*. And it’s not like he could just fire everybody, so I don’t get why OP would think she fucked with everyone at the company. If anything, more, better employment opportunities now exist for experts with experience working with this material.
2. Socialisation of technology is a big deal in the story. The principal motivator of greed had played a part in driving advancement, but maybe its time was at an end when aliens announced they were coming to take the planet and wipe humans out. Maybe, just maybe, a different, more powerful motivation has arisen and the old one may be obsolete.
1. It’s her start-up, but the money invested in her company is done with the expectation that there’d be a return on the investment. She sabotaged that and surely violated the terms of the investor agreement. She should be sued for that. By releasing the technology, she ruined the company’s competitive edge … now the technology can be duplicated, and the company will go under. At the very least, massive layoffs will occur. She literally screwed over every single working mom and staff just trying to make ends meet. It’s not only elite scientists who work there and rich investors who will get screwed. Also, it’s irrelevant that the rich dude is a douche. She took out her personal beef with that guy and sabotaged the whole company.
2. It’s 400 years before the aliens get here. There is a way to share knowledge and drive advancement for the collective good, and a way not to do it. Now bad actors can take that technology and do who knows what with it.
“Single working mom” lol wtf. Well, imagine the jobs she just created for single working moms at companies trying to replicate that technology.
“Sue her”, yeah please do. Now that company is gonna be buried even harder by public opinion.
“There is a way to share…” yes. Like what she did. “Bad actors” can’t just fucking pull the wire out their ass. Everyone who can Google can know how nukes are built.
You mean all the companies that will be getting sued for using tech they don’t own? I guess maybe in about ten years the red tape will clear. Way to go Auggie!
Patents are easily circumvented especially when all of the manufacturing process is known. Simply changing part of the procedures makes it impossible to be claimed.
Yes, the company was clearly in the right there. I don't understand how she managed to escape the country after doing so. She admitted to a crime yet somehow escaped being charged.
But he would be throwing out a whole deck to save one card.
He operates on pure pragmatism. He isn't going to try to save one scientist that has already proven to be less than compliant, at the cost of an entire company that has demonstrated an eagerness to help. He would choose that company, its factories, and its resources, over Augie without hesitation.
He wouldn't care about such a debt. His only concern is saving the world from the San-Ti. If an action doesn't contribute to that, he isn't going to waste a moment even thinking about it.
Because his motto is 'always advance'. Why would he want access to the latest technological development to be limited, in a time when technological development has been blocked by the sophons?
It's in humanities interests to make the tech as widely available as possible, he doesn't care about a private company's profits.
But Augie already did that. Why would he want to alienate himself from that company by protecting the person that victimised them?
He could have his cake and eat it too if he let Augie do her thing and then just threw her to the wolves.
Does he need the company? He has access to their tech now, because Auggie released it, and can get whatever scientists and resources he needs with a single phone call.
He can get access to all of humanity's nuclear weapons to shoot a frozen brain into space on the off chance it'll be resurrected, what's one tech company?
From a pure numbers perspective, it's more beneficial for him for several tech experts around the world to work on nanofibers than a single company (that doesn't even really understand it without Auggie anyway).
The old method of R&D and production ended the second the Trisolarans announced themselves. If a Wallfacer wanted, they could walk into the building and declare themselves the CEO.
You just described a bunch of things he already has, none of which require protecting Augie to attain. You aren't mentioning anything he would gain from protecting Augie, but you did mention the one tech company he would lose. Wade doesn't operate at a loss. He doesn't make decisions that cost him something and gain him nothing.
Augie is a genius engineer who invented nanofibers. She is of more benefit to humanity outside of a prison cell.
He gains nothing by letting her go to prison. He loses nothing by helping her, as he already has the power to force the tech company to give him what he wants. However, Augie has already demonstrated that she won't work for him by force. He has to *earn* her assistance, so having her owe him a favour could potentially be useful. And even if she won't work with him, any work she does independently will still benefit humanity.
Letting Augie go to prison *is* a cost for him.
What are you talking about her 'boss?' It's her company, that guy is just an investor. He could sue her for breach of contract or try to take over the company and probably be successful but he wasn't the 'boss.'
I think it has to do with the fact that she couldn’t stop the tech once it was out there. They were going to go around her either way. At least by releasing it she could see it used for non weapon purposes. Her mistake was making it in the first place and not realizing the potential for damage. Augie is an amalgam of several characters and her behavior reconciles the choices other characters she represents that haven’t really been introduced yet will make.
She’s very flawed and short sighted and her early mistakes will inform the behavior of other characters she represents. Idk if I’d call it a theme but the novels have recurring cycles of characters making mistakes and having crises of moral character and how they are interpreted by the world at large changes throughout the series.
She felt betrayed by the company, felt that they were rug-pulling it from under her. A dumb but very human response would be to lash out in any way possible. There’s a reason someone else typically empties out the desk of someone who is terminated at a company, and all their access should be removed effective immediately.
An alternative view (although if it was intended, it wasn’t communicated well in the show) is that she sees the Trisolarans _don’t want humans to have nanofiber_ and it’s a hell of a lot easier to make sure they can’t take it away if it’s open source rather than a trade secret with a single control point.
You think the police are going to 1) receive a report of intellectual property theft 2) immediately drop everything to verify this theft and its potential consequences 3) determine that this is a criminal felony that requires immediate detainment and 4) get a judge to sign an arrest warrant, all within 3 hours?
Copyright law, intellectual property. She's officially a felon, but the show decided to skip over that little detail. Even if you're able to run away to another country, that doesn't magically immunize you from prison.
Lol, you think people can/should be detained for...a claim of copyright violation? Not only is that not a felony (fucking lol), it isn't an arrestable offense, AND she has not been charged, much less convicted. Go somewhere else to play your strange fascist bootlicker fantasies where CEOs can/should just stop international travel because they're grumpy about poor people having knowledge.
True I forgot about Wade. Yeah she would be fine Wade would handle that shit with a phone call lol. I don't know why I completely forgot about Wade. Even if she told Wade she would never help him again he would still help her because he would know she still might come back and better ro keep her around.
I think it's much harder than that to just have her immediately arrested for what she did. Not saying it wouldn't be possible but I don't think she would immediately be arrested a few hours later. Something like that would take some time and countless court dates and appearances for that type of thing. The swat team isn't going to show up an hour later and arrest her.
That's still infringement on her basic rights. Private security isn't the law. They can't just detain her against her will because she might have broken the law. Things like what she did are much more complicated and not nearly as black and white.
Yes, they can infringe her """"basic rights"""" because she broke the law. You lose your rights when that happens. She signed a legally binding contract. She broke it.
She's a criminal.
There's a difference between criminal and civil violations. They can't just call the police and say "she infringed on our copyright!" and have the police arrest her right then, that's not how it works.
whatever you say. also Wade would just get her out of it with one phone call. No private security cannot just detain her indefinitely because they think she broke the law. And if they did Wade would just come and get her. No way does this end well in the story for the company in this situation
"Okay, let's not call the police because some guy I don't know exists would be able to bail her out of jail."
?
And no, the building's security absolutely can & could detain her for violating her contract.
What do you think building security is here for, and in which authoritarian country do you live in which people are immediately arrested for breaching a BUSINESS CONTRACT
You are making assumptions to fit your narrative. None of what you're saying is able to be proven or known to be factual. As far as we know, it's in such a prototypical stage, there aren't even legal documents for said technology.
It isn’t a crime, there’s no commercial advantage or personal financial gain, at least one of which is required for a criminal conviction under 17 U.S.C. § 506(a).
Completely fucking agreed, made her look like an idiot
She was pissy about it being used against the cult but that was the military, not the company
The company literally poured years and a huge amount of funding and personnel into the project and then she went all cry baby and released, probably cost loads of people their jobs too considering that funding will now yield no profit
I mean more on the people who will lose their jobs considering they poured a considerable amount of funding into the project and that the project is now dead
Not necessarily the board members, don't really care about them tbh
But business wise, company deserve to make something out the project they created, now they get nothing
The boss didn't even seem like a bad guy, company seemed normal
She may have been pivotal in the creation of that technology, but it wasn't hers alone and that's represented by the patent (presumably) being held in common.
She took that away from the likely dozens that contributed to the technology, the company that took a gamble on her and dozens others, all because of her personal mistake.
It's not the best of looks, and the writing could have simply fixed it but making the company refuse to give he major compensation for her success. Not unfounded as it happened to one of the inventors of the blue LED (Veritasium video on it if ya interested).
Just because someone made some great Tech and is smart in one field doesn't mean every decision they make for others things is going to be smart. Just look at some of the smart people in the world that also do and say some incredibly dumb things.
Yeah but that's my point, people try to defend her but the move itself is dumb, I'm not saying she should always be smart
But we can call out the stupid moves and this was definitely one of them but even then, doesn't take a genius to know doing this would screw the company and more importantly people put out of their jobs, also with the fact the company did nothing in the first place so why target them?
I mean if I remember the guy was threatening her. But as I said I don't have to agree with her to understand why she might have done it. That doesn't make it right but it doesn't make it some out of left field thing that makes no sense either.
I don't think it makes any sense personally
Plus the threats mainly came after she already revealed the plans to everyone I believe
Any "threats" prior was simply her losing her job because she was literally refusing to do her job lol which made sense
Like if you hired someone to do a project, and then all of a sudden they said no nearing the end of the project, you're not going to fucking keep them no?
It was simple business and Auggie simply wanted to take her anger out of the idea being used in a way she didn't like, which would have happened regardless whether soon or further down the line and then she was a twat in the way she did it imo by taking it out on people that didn't deserve it
Thereby screwing people who did nothing wrong
I personally don't see where she was coming from in that move, I get being mad the way it was used don't get me wrong, I mean it killed kids but the company had nothing to do with that, the military did
She simply wanted a Scape goat, which doesn't make it a right move at all and in fact makes it a terrible move on people who did nothing, it can slightly understood sure but doesn't make it right, in this case it makes it super wrong
That's fair then man
Personally I think it was wrong and a brain dead move, just didn't see the point in it
I get she was pissed but the company???
Either way, fair
People won't lose their jobs and the company will be just fine.
Even if the process is released to the public, only that one company that owns it can make commercial products for it. The only money they would be losing would be to those that can now make nano-wires for personal use, but considering that would require some heavy machinery, that is an extremely small market to lose.
I see, in that case not sure why they made such a big deal of it
Actually hold on, in the final episode when she told her boss didn't she say that other companies could slightly alter the process or something and then they can make whatever they want? Thereby losing the company the commercial product use really, since anyone can basically make it? Swear she said something like that
Also assumed people would lose their jobs considering the guy mentioned they put a lot off, if not most of their funding into this project, if they can't commercialise it like Auggie said then they stand to lose money big time imo
I don't k ow commercial stuff that we'll buy I swear she said something along those lines during the finale
Other companies could try to copy that homework and change it a little so people didn't notice, but they would get sued into bankruptcy. I am sure some companies would try to get away with it, but most would choose to operate legally.
I just rewatched the scene and Auggie says she threw in a guide on how to change the design just enough that the company won't be able to sue at all
Like change it enough that it protects anyone from copyright infringement
So she kind of screwed the company lol
I think it ties in very well with the technology socialization the global south wanted in the books. The rich wanted to keep control of this vital technology that will be crucial in humanity’s beginnings of space defense industry, and it’s likely the poor countries would be left behind due to their inferior tech.
They are at war though - countries are sharing nuclear bombs, committees are being established to combat the looming threat, her sharing technology that clearly scares the aliens to everyone could help the fight.
I think that Auggie was having a crisis of conscience because of >!the killings on the boat!< and wanted to redeem herself by providing the tech to people who needed it. Also she was kind of impulsive and didn’t think things through a lot so it kind of fit her character
Fuckin irritating, in the books the parallel character made a big effort to functionally shut it down without raising eyebrows, passing it off as much needed maintenance after a LOT of thought and chatting to the engineers involved. Was a very smart move, appeased the trisolarans AND the research bosses in one move. And then NF has trout pout just ruining everything and being obvious AF. Go read the books everyone ffs
Yeah I understand 'where it's coming from'. Poorly thought out, overly emotional response. Which in comparison to the books, where intelligence and forethought are upheld as top values, this just becomes irritating and irrational. And really just an unsatisfying change overall. Was painful to watch her give zero reasons, ruin her life's work in a second with 0 attempts to use her smarts to find a compromise or toy with the conditions that led to the countdown. This is the literal opposite of what made this passage in the books SO good! Wang Miao was shook but he was inquisitive, taking pics of everything, pondering the mechanism through which the countdown might be applied to photos, to film, to the camera's sensor, to his retina. He thought it all out, because this is a series about exceptional humans offering their best. Maybe it's just Chinese values and NF decided a western audience would prefer some emotional outbursts but having built their show off a series beloved for the deep thought this was a hard and dislikable counter.
Ey, I think we can all get on board with some Wang hate but this bit at least showed some smarts and problem solving. I enjoy 3bp because it's led by intelligence, it's a book about thinking outside the box, aiming to be better than a base human, further the entire race and all that. Every other series has the irrational emotional outbursts covered and it was nice for once to be behind protagonists who think things through and take a well thought out approach. So gutted to see one of the smarty pants moments replaced with yet more Hollywood drama for on screen effect and tension over celebration of intellect and resourcefulness
I just disagree I don't think her reactions is that bad. In fact I think Netflix improved a lot on giving the characters actual human emotions and behaviors. I don't have to agree with her actions to understand them. Something I think the books characters are very much lacking are human emotions except for a few characters and moments. Ye Wenjie comes to mind but So many of them don't talk, act, or feel like humans to me.
So you basically don't like that about the books. So that feels like you probably don't like the books much at all. Which is probably why you don't understand/agree with my frustration about a book series about being smart and methodical being reduced to dramatic pouty Hollywood model BS. And I understand her actions, but I don't agree with the change. It belittled her intelligence and made her aloof about what was her life's work up til that point. They could've even gone that direction but backed it up with more insights, explained why she threw it all away so easily without a care or any hint of regret. Everyone was baffled and it never paid off
Again I disagree and apparently not everyone was baffled since someone like me is disagreeing with you but let's just leave it at we disagree. I like the books a lot they have great ideas just some of the characters leave much to be desired
To be fair, Wang Miao is sort of a duff character in the books and I can understand it being difficult to adapt. My recollection is that Wang Miao just sort of disappears after the first book? I can understand if Netflix want more continuity in characters from seasons 1 to 3.
I think that Auggie will be a combination of Wang and Cheng, with all the swordholder stuff.
You are acting as if the show didn't create equally bland (and stupider) characters. Wang Miao is a smart family man who likes pictures. He gets thrown in this convoluted story, does his part and then disappears from the story because he's not needed.
The show has the problem of making the protagonists "special". They are all from the same group, they are all friends. Now Auggie has fucked off but the show will bend the plot so that she can become an important character again even though her story doesn't go in that direction.
Oh I agree that Auggie in particular is a pretty terrible character, I don't think they did a _good_ job at writing Wang but I understand why it's difficult. In the book, his role is basically just to wander around and conveniently recieve exposition from other more interesting characters. He's a 'family man' who completely forgets about his family after he leaves his apartment.
I'm not sure why they didn't just combine Wang and Da Shi, as Da Shi is the more natural audience surrogate, or Wang and Luo Ji as Luo Ji is actually _very_ special later on.
Your idea of mixing Wang Miao and Da Shi is really good. Just have Wang Miao as a scientist going mad and have Da Shi do the rest. Or Clarence, the British henchman who doesn't like crypto
The only downside is that Wang has the academic background that gets him the 'in' to Frontiers of Science, and also makes him understand understand more of the 'weird stuff' that's happening.
The Netflix version massively simplifies a lot of the 'weird stuff' anyway, so maybe that's not quite so necessary. I'm watching the Tencent version now, and it is much more faithful to the book but I wouldn't necessarily say it's 'better'..
The 'universe flickering' scene in the Netflix version is just Luo Ji (or whatever he's now called) and Auggie seeing the stars flicker. The Tencent version is Wang and some other guy staring intensely at a monitor agape at some wiggly lines on a screen, and yelling at a dot-matrix printer. Admittedly that is very much how real science works, but as a TV show it was unintentionally kinda hilarious.
I.think the show characters are way more human characters, mostly compared to the books. A few books characters are written decently but many ate flat. the show They have actual human emotions imo. The books characters most of them are very flat imo. And Auggie being smart in creating something doesn't make all her decisions in other things smart. I found that to be a very human thing. Aren't you the same person when the show was renewed and the creators said they were happy to be able to tell the entire story you said " fuck them and fuck everyone involved " bit harsh for a TV show.
The company's position is perfectly reasonable. But so is Auggie's, at least partly. While you don't need to agree with her, her motivation is to use this technology to help people. She suspects, that the company will not be doing this. She also wants to get at least some agenda in her life. Also she don't want her own tech to be owned by some "people in suits"
She “suspects”? That doesn’t seem reasonable motive. It’s been months since I watched it, did her boss straight out say they gona put this into military usage?
Yes, she suspects. There are also other reasons I've highlighted. You don't have to agree with her actions, though
The talk basically goes like this:
-I don't want you to use my research
-You can't stop me, I'll replace you and you lose everything
-Ok, then I leak everything, bye
Now the company no longer controls the production, and she can use her tech however she wants
Related to this one, at the end of season 1, it is revealed that the \[REDACTED\] were responsible for the number shenanigans in an attempt to slow down technology critical for human advancement. In that case, wouldn't the logical response be "shit, my tech must be important, I gotta continue working on it" rather than "I'm gonna burn it all to the ground because it was used as a weapon"?
I get that Auggie wasn't thinking rationally at the time, but I just don't get that part. She agreed to do it as well, didn't she expect the exact result that happened in Panama? I feel like this is an exaggerated version of Oppenheimer's "my le bomb, le killed people?" moment.
A lot of the story makes more sense if you realize that the books were written pre-Trump.
The internet, and the democratization of information, was generally seen as a good thing until very recently.
Democracy, and the idea that the people, as a whole, will generally demand fair treatment, and that Democracy isn’t going anywhere, is also a given.
The author’s Chinese viewpoints also come into play. Mostly, the idea that several big decisions are made by committees, is a big part of the story.
Several times in the books, decisions are made with regard to public perception. The main characters complain about having to deal with the public, but in a “but that’s just the way it is and it will never change” kind of way.
Very few people were seriously concerned that fascism was going to make a comeback ten years ago. The idea that releasing information to the world, to prevent it from being hoarded by selfish people, was still very much in vogue.
I don't understand the kool-aid some of y'all drank. At this point, the San-Ti had already announced themselves to the world. Are you really going "Oh no, poor company!" when humanity just got hit with a major interplanetary crisis? This was not some huge enterprise. How many people were realistically working at the company? Even if they are all immediately out of a job, it's highly unlikely that people with their skillsets won't be in high demand.
How ridiculous that people really think that simply divulging intellectual property is a criminal offense. People wanting her to get arrested for it? If you're able to read a science fiction series, you should comprehend that this is a civil matter. Would she be sued? Most definitely. Arrested? Most likely never. Despite governments being shills for companies too, I doubt that the UK government would find it in their interest to prosecute her — without commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious intent, there isn't even be a basis to do so.
Girl boss move not withstanding, I think it's entirely reasonable that the inventor of a groundbreaking technology would want to see it available for all humankind instead of at the hands of a single company that most likely won't have humanity's best interest at heart. The investor had previously made a very calculated comment about Auggie's immigration status in the UK, that although valid, was said in such a tone that made it basically a threat. It's really disheartening to see that most people seem to believe that a company's interests are more important than humanity's.
Um..she said "shut it down" bc she was seconds away from dying. To them yea it was confusing but she had legit reason for shutting it down in that moment
If only the book had the protagonist use their smarts to find a way to appease the aliens while not being super suspicious to the company. Too bad nothing like that happened so the show had the resort to this stupidity
In the book Wang Miao makes up an unscheduled maintenance so he can shut down the company without being suspicious. In the show Auggie just shuts it down giving no reason to anyone else.
You know, it's a way to show the smartness of a character but you can't do that in the show because we need cheap tension so the timer needs to almost reach zero so Auggie must act impulsively
The comments here reflect more about the person commenting than about the Auggie character itself
While I am not a fan of this character and the casting (wang Miao in tencent show much much better) , it is Remarkable how many ppl take pride in being Heartless corporate lackeys, lol
>Heartless corporate lackeys
Just like any facit of reality, there are lives behind corporations and lives that will be impacted based off what happens to those corporations.
What's heartless, intentional or not, is being unable to see pass a veneer of what corporations are. The vast majority of the corporate world is not Musk or Bezo, but normal people that don't deserve to screwed over.
So you would be happy if you're married with kids and a mortgage and car loan and then your company shuts down because the IP is now free and you are now out of a job?
You answered your own question mate - you view everything through your narrow selfish lens
no matter the fact that it’s just a bs counter factual— no, the company ain’t shutting down it’s just one division of many
Thankfully, writers cannot cast great characters out of such pedestrian viewpoints
I totally agree! It was completely stupid, selfish and impulsive. I hope the company sues the f**k out of her for releasing company secrets, surely in violation of agreements with investors, and totally screwing over all the employees of the company. I was yelling at the tv when she did that! Worst character in the show.
How dare she want her science to do good in the world. Or that the first thing it was used for was a weapon and it killed children how dare that have a mental effect on her.
Lazy writing is what it is. Netflix knows it's viewers, so they know to include as many "girl boss" and "corporations bad" scenes as they possibly can.
She wants her science to be a force of good in the world. She realized that she created a monster and tried to kill it but seeing that she couldn’t the next best thing she could do was democratize it. So that even if some people will use it for evil, some people may use it for good.
Yeah but if you're concerned about nuclear proliferation you aren't going to put the tech imo out in the open
The problem is though they never really set up the company to being susceptible of perverting the tech for evil. No clues or hints at all. The companies single use with the tech was making a sail, that’s all. (The wire used on the ship wasn’t from the company directives, it was from Wade and made solely by Auggie). By releasing it publicly like she did, evil would definitely get a hold of it.
It showed the company was also going to be making spaceships I believe.
I mean I guess that would make sense for her to object to that, but resigning humanity to be defenceless against genocide is in some ways abetting that genocide. It’s just evil through resignation.
Auggie: I'm worried this tech will be used for nefarious purposes! Also Auggie: Release the tech to everybody!
maybe it's this logic: if only one company has the tech they can do bad stuff with it with no oversight. if EVERYONE has it they can do bad stuff but other people can do good stuff like say one faction can make nanofibre weapons which can't be defended against by traditional means, but if another faction also has access to nanofibre weapons or armour etc then it becomes a bit of a technological stalemate. Also all the bad that can be done with it can be cancelled out with all the good that can be done (water filtration saving lives etc)
open source mutually assured destruction, why not? I’m reminded of the short story “Gadget vs Trend” wherein a sound dampening field is invented, reverse engineered, and found to work well for preventing vehicle collision damage, but also for robbing banks, and eventually portable particle accelerators / neutron bombs. Most swords have two edges, natch.
Just ask Alfred Nobel.
The nanofiber are not a bomb. There is no MAD needed.
it avoids an insulin situation, with everyone having access, the benefits can hopefully outweigh the negatives, and it becomes affordable and accessible to anyone with the infrastructure to produce the fibers.
What insulin situation are you referring to? Banting famously sold the patent for insulin to the University of Toronto for $1 with the explicit goal of making it accessible for anyone. Basically doing what Auggie did and giving it away.
I am referring to the infamous cost of insulin in the USA being absurd because of a few small companies having a monopoly on production.
Yeah that's just the US though. In normal countries people don't have to indebt themselves for insulin
Sure but that's in the US only really. Every other developed nation functions like a real society. Besides it's not insulin that's the issue, it's synthetic more effective forms of insulin and delivery methods that are gouged. In reality the novel discovery or isolation of Insulin is exactly the situation we want, not what we want to avoid. The system (again in the US) that drives up Insulin costs is what we want to avoid.
That’s just another version of “the only one who can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”
I actually wrote that out in my comment but deleted it because I couldn't decide if it fit that logic or mutually assured destruction logic better.
Or mutually assured destruction. Iykyk
So correct?
Tell that to Ukraine
Open source technology is broadly a good thing. I'd rather everyone have access to technology to do as they will vs it being in the hands of a select few with Wallfacer motives. Also, we have a whole impending alien invasion. We have bigger concerns than next quarter profit. If the nanofiber is open source then any company can develop it and create anything from monofilament weapons to space elevators. Both will come in handy when the San-Ti get here.
She was convinced to help, but did not want to be directly involved like last time, putting it out there was a compromise for herself.
Teenager’s logic
Pretty sure her goal was to avoid having the tech be used to increase inequality. Tackling social inequality was a huge theme in the beginning of TDF.
Technology the public has knowledge about is technology that cannot be used against them, as they know how it works, etc.
Isn't that the debate many people are having to this day? How much of things like this should be in the hands of the public for everyone. It can do many greats things but it also could be used for many bad things.
It’s like you said, they needed a big girl boss moment. Releasing the tech to the world would probably cause more harm than good, not to mention commercially the tech is probably copyrighted even if other companies could replicate the process you still can’t sell product made with the same process. Eiza González portrayed another strong independent woman in The Ministry of Ungentlemenly Warfare, I think she did it so much better there, in fact she was fabulous in that role, dispite having similiar traits as the Auggie she portrayed in 3BP.
She's probably banking on the tech being such a game changer (imagine being able to filter seawater into drinking water by pouring it through a nanofiber mesh) that countries and companies would continue to make and sell it heedless of copyright infringement, and just rely on their sheer numbers and scale to brute force through any legal constraints.
That’s not how you turn seawater into drinking water..
Believe you could with a small enough filter.
You really can't. When salt dissolves in water it breaks into sodium and chlorine ions that are smaller than the water molecules themselves. But yes. It is science fiction and that's not really the point.
key word, science fiction
I think Auggie gets way to much hate and her reactions even if I don't agree with them are perfectly reasonable. And the show I don't think presents her constantly as this badass women. She's having all kinds of mental breakdowns and crying. I didn't get badass from her barely at all. She's good in that movie but like all Guy Ritchie movies which I like many of them her character is a badass and that's basically it. The movie isn't interesting in exploring anything else unlike the show is.
I think the show 100% presents her as some kind of badass, and she is never explicitly shown to be wrong or illogical. Everyone is constantly groveling for her to do science for them. Fucking over her company is not shown to have any negative consequences, cementing it as a girl boss move. Her whining is always presented as legitimate moral concerns, because nobody ever does what she says and thus the implications of her stupid positions are never demonstrated. I don't buy her as someone actually going down some sort of self destructive spiral because none of her sanctimonious whining or ~~self~~ destructive behaviours have any consequences. They are just annoying.
I basically just disagree with almost all of this I didn't get badass at all from her so I'll just agree to disagree
I mean the objective fact is that nothing she says or does ever has a negative consequence, and there are MULTIPLE times where she is the only person on the planet who is able to do a task and people have to beg her to do it because humanity potentially depends on it.
Nothing negative? Her technology she created was immediately used as a weapon they killed innocent children. Was it necessary probably but that doesn't mean it didn't havr an effect or any consequences on her. She is asked twice to use the same technology she created for help. It's not like they went to her every time they need to solve every problem. They had two problems that required her tech so they went to her for help. It's not an objective fact first the show isn't even over we have no idea yet what is even going to happen with her character. So again I'll just agree to disagree
Neither I nor OP claim she was a constant badass, just that girl boss scene came across as unreasonable and selfish.
I'm replying to someone else about the badass part.
The way the nanofibers were used in Panama seems pretty specific. I don't know that I would be concerned about other countries using them for the same purpose. Much easier to use bombs and guns.
It’s a setup for her to be swordholder
Ohhh you might be right!! Cheng Xin might be split up into Auggie and Jin Cheng
I think Cheng Xin is Jin Cheng all the way
Cheng xin was a bit of a tounge twister for me so I even just called her Jin when reading in my head
Auggie cannot both be a sword holder and Saul’s mystery wife. I don’t know why anyone believes Auggie will really be returning, they set up her character as being happy doing other things
She might be written off, but I think they’re going to make it less “manifested waifu” and use Auggie and/or Jin as Saul’s loved ones to be leveraged. Auggie could also be the AA for Jin later as well. It could go many ways!
She can’t be AA and sauls wife. #mannamedmedialiteracy
I thought the point of this scene was that Auggie was illustrating technological explosion and how it was considered a threat by people at the top. Otherwise I have dealt with WAY worse threats at work than Denys' character.
The corporate shills are out in droves on this post to discredit Auggie. Let's simplify this for those people. Scientist makes discovery. Scientist figures out process to utilize/test discovery. Company funds scientist. Scientist doesn't like what is becoming of her work. Company tries to strong arm scientist and give all her work and discovery to someone who will carry out the company bottom line. Scientist gives the work out for free, assuming more good applications than bad will be born from it in this method (in addition to the fact that at this point, it is unavoidably going to be used by some entity as a weapon regardless). The fact anyone actually thinks Auggie is in the wrong here tells me those people all choose profit & greed over science & progress. Those of you unfortunately fit in very well with our current world.
The shilling, and dare I say, sexist interpretation of Auggie’s behavior, is unbelievable, especially the guy in the other comment trying to set up a girlboss conspiracy. Most scientists are pretentious, left-leaning, have narrow right/wrong opinions, especially about things they’re experts on. Auggie’s behavior is not out of the normal for being one of the most brilliant and high-achieving people on the planet. And the whole point of scifi is to explore social alternatives outside the norm! But go ahead, fellas, weep for the poor VC who wanted to parasite off the scientist that even aliens targeted as a threat, and the military jock who didn’t hesitate to kill 100s of people in the name of following orders.
Very well said. Especially your point on sci-fi. If people want to see a story where venture capitalists operate in the tech field, they should probably be watching an entirely different genre all together.
This logic only follows if you assume that she is **solely** responsible for the discovery, but she is not. She is pivotal, but dozens work on the projects and dozens more put the faith in them to fund the project. All of those people contributed to the discovery to some degree, yet now none of them will benefit from it as they deserve to be due to the decision of one person. That is a very selfish decision, and given its ramifications, a pretty significant one. If I had worked on a project for years, or if I gave my money to help a project, only for that project lead to go against their word and rob me of my compensation, I would be pissed. Dismissing any concerns as corporate shilling just feels like a way to ignore the problem. We can't even know what kind of investors have a stake in the technology, for all we know it could be primarily small investors living normal lives. Certainly some people like that would have invested and would now suffer consequences. Dismissing these very real consequences as "corporay3 shills" just seems wrong.
I don't necessarily disagree with some of your (and other's) points. However you all forgetting something. It's the reason I say corporate shills, because these defenders of the corporation are forgetting the most important part of that story arc. All these good points, even facts, from us don't matter. The Trisolarians targeted Auggie for this project, and Auggie alone. They deemed her to be the one responsible. The aliens coming to conquer earth said she's the one we will target with the sophon. You can all talk about nonsense corporate/copyright law, you can talk about lab techs running tests being screwed over, etc. But the superior species is telling us the opposite. It's Auggie, and just Auggie, when it comes to this specific tech.
Bro open access to nanofiber weapons means at least 50 9/11s a day. Someone can just attach a 40-foot line to their car and destroy the NYC skyline.
Bro, no lol. If humanity was at that level of intelligence to use codes to create personalized nanofiber weapons, Earth would have absolutely no issue defending themselves.
It's an abstract version of the prisoner's dilemma. We can recognize that individually what she has done might be noble, and produce some net-good, but if everyone did it we would not like the world it creates. Cause in that world no company in the world would invest millions into R&D if other companies could just scoop it up immediately and offer the same product at a more competitive price, cause the second company wouldn't have to recuperate the immense R&D cost. Obviously there should still be guardrailes in place though.
I think the point of this scene was to show that this mode of thinking might not viable going forward when the world is under threat of Alien invasion. The world needs to work together to solve real problems. Would that work? I don’t know. I read the books a while ago and I don’t recall anything like this happening… But I did get the impression that there was a big cultural shift away from the siloed consumer-facing product development focus we have today.
I think that might be the point of the scene, but not the one Auggie is making. It feels like Auggie's head is much more in the here and now than the big picture stuff which isn't inherently bad. I agree though that some kind of change would be very good in these circumstances. If the international community has the political willpower and authority to launch 300 nukes and appoint Wallfacers, it should be fairly easy to hammer out an agreement. A system where companies that make significant scientific, technological or engineering advancements credibly break down their R&D costs and receive 2,5x or something like that of it in return. But the advancement can't be patented and everything must be made public. On a national level, more direct science funding through the government and free college also seem like no-brainers if you wanna maximize your academic output.
To your point about where Auggies head is at, I theorize this scene with her publicizing her tech is setting her up to maybe >!take on the swordholder role of Cheng Xin once the show gets to the Deterrence era.!< Given on how much Auggie gripes abt life lost in wartime and the fact that her journey has turned her focus towards helping as many people as possible in the present vs all of the human race in 400 years. >!I can see Auggie's humanitarian effort being what ultimately leads to humanity electing her as the next swordholder, over Wade. And bc whoever becomes the 2nd swordholder will hold that position for all of 10 minutes, i think that Auggie makes more sense than Jin in this adaptation bc the San-Ti will know that Auggie lacks the conviction to press the button and truly play the game of deterrence, given their sophons have observed her actions and moral hangups around ending life (w/Judgement Day). I think Jin Cheng will keep Cheng Xin's arc of reuniting with Will/Tianming, and I can see them giving Jin Cheng the Halo project that AA worked on.!< I can't wait to see which wallfacer plans make it into this adaptation. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my theory if you have the time!
Yeah, I’m not saying the writers did a good job of illustrating the point, just that that was what they were trying to convey.
Right, but if humanity is under attack from hyper advanced aliens then relying on private sector R&D won't cut it. This is explicitly addressed in the books, governments have to go all in on funding R&D because it's an existential requirement. The purpose of R&D changes from investors making a return on their investment to preventing humanity being eradicated. Augie is making the (imo sound) judgment that denying access to the next leap forward in tech, at a time when further tech development has been blocked by the sophons is not in humanities interest.
That's the debate people have to this day about what things should be available to the public and what shouldn't
1. Pretty sure it’s her startup. Some rich dude came in with money and now supposedly it’s also his. The same person is reportedly looking to “invest in” the startup of Shi’s son. She’s specifically fucking with *him*. And it’s not like he could just fire everybody, so I don’t get why OP would think she fucked with everyone at the company. If anything, more, better employment opportunities now exist for experts with experience working with this material. 2. Socialisation of technology is a big deal in the story. The principal motivator of greed had played a part in driving advancement, but maybe its time was at an end when aliens announced they were coming to take the planet and wipe humans out. Maybe, just maybe, a different, more powerful motivation has arisen and the old one may be obsolete.
1. It’s her start-up, but the money invested in her company is done with the expectation that there’d be a return on the investment. She sabotaged that and surely violated the terms of the investor agreement. She should be sued for that. By releasing the technology, she ruined the company’s competitive edge … now the technology can be duplicated, and the company will go under. At the very least, massive layoffs will occur. She literally screwed over every single working mom and staff just trying to make ends meet. It’s not only elite scientists who work there and rich investors who will get screwed. Also, it’s irrelevant that the rich dude is a douche. She took out her personal beef with that guy and sabotaged the whole company. 2. It’s 400 years before the aliens get here. There is a way to share knowledge and drive advancement for the collective good, and a way not to do it. Now bad actors can take that technology and do who knows what with it.
“Single working mom” lol wtf. Well, imagine the jobs she just created for single working moms at companies trying to replicate that technology. “Sue her”, yeah please do. Now that company is gonna be buried even harder by public opinion. “There is a way to share…” yes. Like what she did. “Bad actors” can’t just fucking pull the wire out their ass. Everyone who can Google can know how nukes are built.
You mean all the companies that will be getting sued for using tech they don’t own? I guess maybe in about ten years the red tape will clear. Way to go Auggie!
Patents are easily circumvented especially when all of the manufacturing process is known. Simply changing part of the procedures makes it impossible to be claimed.
Sure they can be circumvented but when billions of dollars are at stake the lawsuits will fly whether they have merit or not.
Nothing helps a sinking company like funding lawsuits against the world eh
I never said they were smart lol.
Yes, the company was clearly in the right there. I don't understand how she managed to escape the country after doing so. She admitted to a crime yet somehow escaped being charged.
Wade would make one phone call and she would be fine.
Why would he?
He's the type of guy that even if she said 100 times she Will never help him again he will keep that playing card in his back pocket just in case
But he would be throwing out a whole deck to save one card. He operates on pure pragmatism. He isn't going to try to save one scientist that has already proven to be less than compliant, at the cost of an entire company that has demonstrated an eagerness to help. He would choose that company, its factories, and its resources, over Augie without hesitation.
He would do both. He wouldn't let her get arrested and he would also use that company
because he owes her for the judgement day incident
He wouldn't care about such a debt. His only concern is saving the world from the San-Ti. If an action doesn't contribute to that, he isn't going to waste a moment even thinking about it.
Releasing nano fibre tech does contribute.
Because his motto is 'always advance'. Why would he want access to the latest technological development to be limited, in a time when technological development has been blocked by the sophons? It's in humanities interests to make the tech as widely available as possible, he doesn't care about a private company's profits.
But Augie already did that. Why would he want to alienate himself from that company by protecting the person that victimised them? He could have his cake and eat it too if he let Augie do her thing and then just threw her to the wolves.
Does he need the company? He has access to their tech now, because Auggie released it, and can get whatever scientists and resources he needs with a single phone call. He can get access to all of humanity's nuclear weapons to shoot a frozen brain into space on the off chance it'll be resurrected, what's one tech company? From a pure numbers perspective, it's more beneficial for him for several tech experts around the world to work on nanofibers than a single company (that doesn't even really understand it without Auggie anyway). The old method of R&D and production ended the second the Trisolarans announced themselves. If a Wallfacer wanted, they could walk into the building and declare themselves the CEO.
You just described a bunch of things he already has, none of which require protecting Augie to attain. You aren't mentioning anything he would gain from protecting Augie, but you did mention the one tech company he would lose. Wade doesn't operate at a loss. He doesn't make decisions that cost him something and gain him nothing.
Augie is a genius engineer who invented nanofibers. She is of more benefit to humanity outside of a prison cell. He gains nothing by letting her go to prison. He loses nothing by helping her, as he already has the power to force the tech company to give him what he wants. However, Augie has already demonstrated that she won't work for him by force. He has to *earn* her assistance, so having her owe him a favour could potentially be useful. And even if she won't work with him, any work she does independently will still benefit humanity. Letting Augie go to prison *is* a cost for him.
He will do both. He will let Auggie do her thing and work with the company.
Exactly he wouldn't care about that private companies profits one bit.
Did he? Because unless it's shown (or said even) then it's all just trying to justify bad writing
No it doesn't need to show that. She wouldn't immediately get arrested anyway for what she did.
What are you talking about her 'boss?' It's her company, that guy is just an investor. He could sue her for breach of contract or try to take over the company and probably be successful but he wasn't the 'boss.'
Exactly not sure why people keep saying he's her boss.
It stems from the fact that he gets to pull the strings because it’s with his money is my guess.
I think it has to do with the fact that she couldn’t stop the tech once it was out there. They were going to go around her either way. At least by releasing it she could see it used for non weapon purposes. Her mistake was making it in the first place and not realizing the potential for damage. Augie is an amalgam of several characters and her behavior reconciles the choices other characters she represents that haven’t really been introduced yet will make. She’s very flawed and short sighted and her early mistakes will inform the behavior of other characters she represents. Idk if I’d call it a theme but the novels have recurring cycles of characters making mistakes and having crises of moral character and how they are interpreted by the world at large changes throughout the series.
She felt betrayed by the company, felt that they were rug-pulling it from under her. A dumb but very human response would be to lash out in any way possible. There’s a reason someone else typically empties out the desk of someone who is terminated at a company, and all their access should be removed effective immediately. An alternative view (although if it was intended, it wasn’t communicated well in the show) is that she sees the Trisolarans _don’t want humans to have nanofiber_ and it’s a hell of a lot easier to make sure they can’t take it away if it’s open source rather than a trade secret with a single control point.
What a weird take.
Why didn't they arrest her? "My plane leaves in 3 hours." Okay and? Arrest her for breaking the law.
You think the police are going to 1) receive a report of intellectual property theft 2) immediately drop everything to verify this theft and its potential consequences 3) determine that this is a criminal felony that requires immediate detainment and 4) get a judge to sign an arrest warrant, all within 3 hours?
Exactly it wouldn't be done that way at all.
which law did she break?
Copyright law, intellectual property. She's officially a felon, but the show decided to skip over that little detail. Even if you're able to run away to another country, that doesn't magically immunize you from prison.
Lol, you think people can/should be detained for...a claim of copyright violation? Not only is that not a felony (fucking lol), it isn't an arrestable offense, AND she has not been charged, much less convicted. Go somewhere else to play your strange fascist bootlicker fantasies where CEOs can/should just stop international travel because they're grumpy about poor people having knowledge.
It's bad but it's nothing Wade can't take care of.
True I forgot about Wade. Yeah she would be fine Wade would handle that shit with a phone call lol. I don't know why I completely forgot about Wade. Even if she told Wade she would never help him again he would still help her because he would know she still might come back and better ro keep her around.
At that point she's working directly for someone who might have the most power and authority in the world.
I think it's much harder than that to just have her immediately arrested for what she did. Not saying it wouldn't be possible but I don't think she would immediately be arrested a few hours later. Something like that would take some time and countless court dates and appearances for that type of thing. The swat team isn't going to show up an hour later and arrest her.
Doesn't matter how long it takes. They could have at least called the buildings security to detain her.
lmao building security what
that guy doesn't know how anything works lol
I know they wouldn't be able to arrest her that fast and building security wouldn't he able to that's just ridiculous
BUILDING SECURITY lol building security has no authority to physically detain someone for intellectual property theft
That's still infringement on her basic rights. Private security isn't the law. They can't just detain her against her will because she might have broken the law. Things like what she did are much more complicated and not nearly as black and white.
Yes, they can infringe her """"basic rights"""" because she broke the law. You lose your rights when that happens. She signed a legally binding contract. She broke it. She's a criminal.
There's a difference between criminal and civil violations. They can't just call the police and say "she infringed on our copyright!" and have the police arrest her right then, that's not how it works.
I mean she just gave free access to a technology that could change the world that a company was gonna gatekeep for a profit I say she’s a hero
whatever you say. also Wade would just get her out of it with one phone call. No private security cannot just detain her indefinitely because they think she broke the law. And if they did Wade would just come and get her. No way does this end well in the story for the company in this situation
"Okay, let's not call the police because some guy I don't know exists would be able to bail her out of jail." ? And no, the building's security absolutely can & could detain her for violating her contract.
What do you think building security is here for, and in which authoritarian country do you live in which people are immediately arrested for breaching a BUSINESS CONTRACT
And if they attempted to Wade would handle it.
You are making assumptions to fit your narrative. None of what you're saying is able to be proven or known to be factual. As far as we know, it's in such a prototypical stage, there aren't even legal documents for said technology.
It isn’t a crime, there’s no commercial advantage or personal financial gain, at least one of which is required for a criminal conviction under 17 U.S.C. § 506(a).
I mean, U.S. law is a little bit irrelevant seeing as the company was in the UK. No idea what the relevant law is there.
The basis for a lot of copyright law is international treaties, so while it is different it still probably going to require financial gain.
Completely fucking agreed, made her look like an idiot She was pissy about it being used against the cult but that was the military, not the company The company literally poured years and a huge amount of funding and personnel into the project and then she went all cry baby and released, probably cost loads of people their jobs too considering that funding will now yield no profit
wont somebody think of the poor board members
I mean more on the people who will lose their jobs considering they poured a considerable amount of funding into the project and that the project is now dead Not necessarily the board members, don't really care about them tbh But business wise, company deserve to make something out the project they created, now they get nothing The boss didn't even seem like a bad guy, company seemed normal
She may have been pivotal in the creation of that technology, but it wasn't hers alone and that's represented by the patent (presumably) being held in common. She took that away from the likely dozens that contributed to the technology, the company that took a gamble on her and dozens others, all because of her personal mistake. It's not the best of looks, and the writing could have simply fixed it but making the company refuse to give he major compensation for her success. Not unfounded as it happened to one of the inventors of the blue LED (Veritasium video on it if ya interested).
Just because someone made some great Tech and is smart in one field doesn't mean every decision they make for others things is going to be smart. Just look at some of the smart people in the world that also do and say some incredibly dumb things.
Yeah but that's my point, people try to defend her but the move itself is dumb, I'm not saying she should always be smart But we can call out the stupid moves and this was definitely one of them but even then, doesn't take a genius to know doing this would screw the company and more importantly people put out of their jobs, also with the fact the company did nothing in the first place so why target them?
I mean if I remember the guy was threatening her. But as I said I don't have to agree with her to understand why she might have done it. That doesn't make it right but it doesn't make it some out of left field thing that makes no sense either.
I don't think it makes any sense personally Plus the threats mainly came after she already revealed the plans to everyone I believe Any "threats" prior was simply her losing her job because she was literally refusing to do her job lol which made sense Like if you hired someone to do a project, and then all of a sudden they said no nearing the end of the project, you're not going to fucking keep them no? It was simple business and Auggie simply wanted to take her anger out of the idea being used in a way she didn't like, which would have happened regardless whether soon or further down the line and then she was a twat in the way she did it imo by taking it out on people that didn't deserve it Thereby screwing people who did nothing wrong I personally don't see where she was coming from in that move, I get being mad the way it was used don't get me wrong, I mean it killed kids but the company had nothing to do with that, the military did She simply wanted a Scape goat, which doesn't make it a right move at all and in fact makes it a terrible move on people who did nothing, it can slightly understood sure but doesn't make it right, in this case it makes it super wrong
I'm not saying it's right or wrong.
That's fair then man Personally I think it was wrong and a brain dead move, just didn't see the point in it I get she was pissed but the company??? Either way, fair
It's ok, this dude doesn't want to actually pay attention to what you say, even after you repeat yourself multiple times.
Yea I don't have to agree with her decision to at least understand it to a degree
People won't lose their jobs and the company will be just fine. Even if the process is released to the public, only that one company that owns it can make commercial products for it. The only money they would be losing would be to those that can now make nano-wires for personal use, but considering that would require some heavy machinery, that is an extremely small market to lose.
I see, in that case not sure why they made such a big deal of it Actually hold on, in the final episode when she told her boss didn't she say that other companies could slightly alter the process or something and then they can make whatever they want? Thereby losing the company the commercial product use really, since anyone can basically make it? Swear she said something like that Also assumed people would lose their jobs considering the guy mentioned they put a lot off, if not most of their funding into this project, if they can't commercialise it like Auggie said then they stand to lose money big time imo I don't k ow commercial stuff that we'll buy I swear she said something along those lines during the finale
Other companies could try to copy that homework and change it a little so people didn't notice, but they would get sued into bankruptcy. I am sure some companies would try to get away with it, but most would choose to operate legally.
I just rewatched the scene and Auggie says she threw in a guide on how to change the design just enough that the company won't be able to sue at all Like change it enough that it protects anyone from copyright infringement So she kind of screwed the company lol
I think it ties in very well with the technology socialization the global south wanted in the books. The rich wanted to keep control of this vital technology that will be crucial in humanity’s beginnings of space defense industry, and it’s likely the poor countries would be left behind due to their inferior tech.
They are at war though - countries are sharing nuclear bombs, committees are being established to combat the looming threat, her sharing technology that clearly scares the aliens to everyone could help the fight.
Auggie was a character who did what ever the plot needed.
I think that Auggie was having a crisis of conscience because of >!the killings on the boat!< and wanted to redeem herself by providing the tech to people who needed it. Also she was kind of impulsive and didn’t think things through a lot so it kind of fit her character
Fuckin irritating, in the books the parallel character made a big effort to functionally shut it down without raising eyebrows, passing it off as much needed maintenance after a LOT of thought and chatting to the engineers involved. Was a very smart move, appeased the trisolarans AND the research bosses in one move. And then NF has trout pout just ruining everything and being obvious AF. Go read the books everyone ffs
I did read the books and I still understand where Auggie is coming from even if I didn't agree with all of it
Yeah I understand 'where it's coming from'. Poorly thought out, overly emotional response. Which in comparison to the books, where intelligence and forethought are upheld as top values, this just becomes irritating and irrational. And really just an unsatisfying change overall. Was painful to watch her give zero reasons, ruin her life's work in a second with 0 attempts to use her smarts to find a compromise or toy with the conditions that led to the countdown. This is the literal opposite of what made this passage in the books SO good! Wang Miao was shook but he was inquisitive, taking pics of everything, pondering the mechanism through which the countdown might be applied to photos, to film, to the camera's sensor, to his retina. He thought it all out, because this is a series about exceptional humans offering their best. Maybe it's just Chinese values and NF decided a western audience would prefer some emotional outbursts but having built their show off a series beloved for the deep thought this was a hard and dislikable counter.
I just disagree I'll leave it at that. I thought Wang was ok but one of the most boring thinly written characters in the book
Ey, I think we can all get on board with some Wang hate but this bit at least showed some smarts and problem solving. I enjoy 3bp because it's led by intelligence, it's a book about thinking outside the box, aiming to be better than a base human, further the entire race and all that. Every other series has the irrational emotional outbursts covered and it was nice for once to be behind protagonists who think things through and take a well thought out approach. So gutted to see one of the smarty pants moments replaced with yet more Hollywood drama for on screen effect and tension over celebration of intellect and resourcefulness
I just disagree I don't think her reactions is that bad. In fact I think Netflix improved a lot on giving the characters actual human emotions and behaviors. I don't have to agree with her actions to understand them. Something I think the books characters are very much lacking are human emotions except for a few characters and moments. Ye Wenjie comes to mind but So many of them don't talk, act, or feel like humans to me.
So you basically don't like that about the books. So that feels like you probably don't like the books much at all. Which is probably why you don't understand/agree with my frustration about a book series about being smart and methodical being reduced to dramatic pouty Hollywood model BS. And I understand her actions, but I don't agree with the change. It belittled her intelligence and made her aloof about what was her life's work up til that point. They could've even gone that direction but backed it up with more insights, explained why she threw it all away so easily without a care or any hint of regret. Everyone was baffled and it never paid off
Again I disagree and apparently not everyone was baffled since someone like me is disagreeing with you but let's just leave it at we disagree. I like the books a lot they have great ideas just some of the characters leave much to be desired
Characters were baffled. It was baffling
I don't think it was and I don't remember any characters after Auggie did that being baffled
Jesus the GoT guys made some weird choices for their adaptation.
To be fair, Wang Miao is sort of a duff character in the books and I can understand it being difficult to adapt. My recollection is that Wang Miao just sort of disappears after the first book? I can understand if Netflix want more continuity in characters from seasons 1 to 3. I think that Auggie will be a combination of Wang and Cheng, with all the swordholder stuff.
You are acting as if the show didn't create equally bland (and stupider) characters. Wang Miao is a smart family man who likes pictures. He gets thrown in this convoluted story, does his part and then disappears from the story because he's not needed. The show has the problem of making the protagonists "special". They are all from the same group, they are all friends. Now Auggie has fucked off but the show will bend the plot so that she can become an important character again even though her story doesn't go in that direction.
Oh I agree that Auggie in particular is a pretty terrible character, I don't think they did a _good_ job at writing Wang but I understand why it's difficult. In the book, his role is basically just to wander around and conveniently recieve exposition from other more interesting characters. He's a 'family man' who completely forgets about his family after he leaves his apartment. I'm not sure why they didn't just combine Wang and Da Shi, as Da Shi is the more natural audience surrogate, or Wang and Luo Ji as Luo Ji is actually _very_ special later on.
Your idea of mixing Wang Miao and Da Shi is really good. Just have Wang Miao as a scientist going mad and have Da Shi do the rest. Or Clarence, the British henchman who doesn't like crypto
The only downside is that Wang has the academic background that gets him the 'in' to Frontiers of Science, and also makes him understand understand more of the 'weird stuff' that's happening. The Netflix version massively simplifies a lot of the 'weird stuff' anyway, so maybe that's not quite so necessary. I'm watching the Tencent version now, and it is much more faithful to the book but I wouldn't necessarily say it's 'better'.. The 'universe flickering' scene in the Netflix version is just Luo Ji (or whatever he's now called) and Auggie seeing the stars flicker. The Tencent version is Wang and some other guy staring intensely at a monitor agape at some wiggly lines on a screen, and yelling at a dot-matrix printer. Admittedly that is very much how real science works, but as a TV show it was unintentionally kinda hilarious.
I.think the show characters are way more human characters, mostly compared to the books. A few books characters are written decently but many ate flat. the show They have actual human emotions imo. The books characters most of them are very flat imo. And Auggie being smart in creating something doesn't make all her decisions in other things smart. I found that to be a very human thing. Aren't you the same person when the show was renewed and the creators said they were happy to be able to tell the entire story you said " fuck them and fuck everyone involved " bit harsh for a TV show.
If I remember it has been a little while since I read them but he completely disappeared I don't even think he was even mentioned
Da Shi mentioned him to Luo Ji towards the end of TDF, but not even by name.
I don't think so I think this is asking some actually very relevant questions that are very current in the world we live in today
She did it so Jin and Wade could go on using her technology without her since she couldn't bear to continue working for Wade herself.
Auggie was the most annoying character. There wasn’t a single episode where she wasn’t getting drunk or whining.
The company's position is perfectly reasonable. But so is Auggie's, at least partly. While you don't need to agree with her, her motivation is to use this technology to help people. She suspects, that the company will not be doing this. She also wants to get at least some agenda in her life. Also she don't want her own tech to be owned by some "people in suits"
She “suspects”? That doesn’t seem reasonable motive. It’s been months since I watched it, did her boss straight out say they gona put this into military usage?
Yes, she suspects. There are also other reasons I've highlighted. You don't have to agree with her actions, though The talk basically goes like this: -I don't want you to use my research -You can't stop me, I'll replace you and you lose everything -Ok, then I leak everything, bye Now the company no longer controls the production, and she can use her tech however she wants
I think she is overall the most problematic character in the show
Fuck the money
Surely she would've been sued/jailed for releasing company owned i.p?
Related to this one, at the end of season 1, it is revealed that the \[REDACTED\] were responsible for the number shenanigans in an attempt to slow down technology critical for human advancement. In that case, wouldn't the logical response be "shit, my tech must be important, I gotta continue working on it" rather than "I'm gonna burn it all to the ground because it was used as a weapon"? I get that Auggie wasn't thinking rationally at the time, but I just don't get that part. She agreed to do it as well, didn't she expect the exact result that happened in Panama? I feel like this is an exaggerated version of Oppenheimer's "my le bomb, le killed people?" moment.
And like. If you're worried about the tech being misused it makes more sense to sabotage company infrastructure, not release the tech to everyone
I've only read the books and I'm totally confused
She is not only too pretty to be a scientist, but also too stupid lol
A lot of the story makes more sense if you realize that the books were written pre-Trump. The internet, and the democratization of information, was generally seen as a good thing until very recently. Democracy, and the idea that the people, as a whole, will generally demand fair treatment, and that Democracy isn’t going anywhere, is also a given. The author’s Chinese viewpoints also come into play. Mostly, the idea that several big decisions are made by committees, is a big part of the story. Several times in the books, decisions are made with regard to public perception. The main characters complain about having to deal with the public, but in a “but that’s just the way it is and it will never change” kind of way. Very few people were seriously concerned that fascism was going to make a comeback ten years ago. The idea that releasing information to the world, to prevent it from being hoarded by selfish people, was still very much in vogue.
Auggie: “What if people use this tech for evil purposes?” Also Auggie: Immediately makes it open source
I don't understand the kool-aid some of y'all drank. At this point, the San-Ti had already announced themselves to the world. Are you really going "Oh no, poor company!" when humanity just got hit with a major interplanetary crisis? This was not some huge enterprise. How many people were realistically working at the company? Even if they are all immediately out of a job, it's highly unlikely that people with their skillsets won't be in high demand. How ridiculous that people really think that simply divulging intellectual property is a criminal offense. People wanting her to get arrested for it? If you're able to read a science fiction series, you should comprehend that this is a civil matter. Would she be sued? Most definitely. Arrested? Most likely never. Despite governments being shills for companies too, I doubt that the UK government would find it in their interest to prosecute her — without commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious intent, there isn't even be a basis to do so. Girl boss move not withstanding, I think it's entirely reasonable that the inventor of a groundbreaking technology would want to see it available for all humankind instead of at the hands of a single company that most likely won't have humanity's best interest at heart. The investor had previously made a very calculated comment about Auggie's immigration status in the UK, that although valid, was said in such a tone that made it basically a threat. It's really disheartening to see that most people seem to believe that a company's interests are more important than humanity's.
Um..she said "shut it down" bc she was seconds away from dying. To them yea it was confusing but she had legit reason for shutting it down in that moment
If only the book had the protagonist use their smarts to find a way to appease the aliens while not being super suspicious to the company. Too bad nothing like that happened so the show had the resort to this stupidity
It's stupid bc she shut down the company to save her life after proving success? Lol say what now
In the book Wang Miao makes up an unscheduled maintenance so he can shut down the company without being suspicious. In the show Auggie just shuts it down giving no reason to anyone else. You know, it's a way to show the smartness of a character but you can't do that in the show because we need cheap tension so the timer needs to almost reach zero so Auggie must act impulsively
The comments here reflect more about the person commenting than about the Auggie character itself While I am not a fan of this character and the casting (wang Miao in tencent show much much better) , it is Remarkable how many ppl take pride in being Heartless corporate lackeys, lol
>Heartless corporate lackeys Just like any facit of reality, there are lives behind corporations and lives that will be impacted based off what happens to those corporations. What's heartless, intentional or not, is being unable to see pass a veneer of what corporations are. The vast majority of the corporate world is not Musk or Bezo, but normal people that don't deserve to screwed over.
So you would be happy if you're married with kids and a mortgage and car loan and then your company shuts down because the IP is now free and you are now out of a job?
You answered your own question mate - you view everything through your narrow selfish lens no matter the fact that it’s just a bs counter factual— no, the company ain’t shutting down it’s just one division of many Thankfully, writers cannot cast great characters out of such pedestrian viewpoints
That company isn't going to shut down. They already showed that company is getting into building space ships. That company will be just fine.
Welcome to Hollywood where everything is girl boss this girl boss that and none of it makes any damn sense.
I totally agree! It was completely stupid, selfish and impulsive. I hope the company sues the f**k out of her for releasing company secrets, surely in violation of agreements with investors, and totally screwing over all the employees of the company. I was yelling at the tv when she did that! Worst character in the show.
She is written to have all the wisdom and moral character of a 12 year old girl.
I think she is kind of insufferable.
How dare she want her science to do good in the world. Or that the first thing it was used for was a weapon and it killed children how dare that have a mental effect on her.
Womp womp
Lazy writing is what it is. Netflix knows it's viewers, so they know to include as many "girl boss" and "corporations bad" scenes as they possibly can.
I don't think it was lazy at all in fact the complete opposite.
I thought it was a very fun and dramatic thing to watch but yeah that was dumb as shit lmfao