@jackhallander6706

1 month ago

I wonder if the violent, and superstitious deaths of “Galileo,” “Turing,” “Newton,” and “Aristotle” are there on purpose. Like, the show is trying to illustrate that the San-Ti also experienced dark ages and scientific collapse due to superstitions, but they endured them better than humans did. Also, the eras chosen here to be depicted also seem important. Mongol China, Medieval England, and Renaissance Italy were all periods of intellectual and scientific opposition (relatively speaking to other eras in human history). It illustrates that the San-Ti weathered their superstitions similar to humans, and perhaps even better than humans. Galileo and Turing are generally regarded as martyrs of science, less so for Aristotle and Newton. However, their work did experience significant pushback from human superstition. Somehow, the San-Ti’s scientific tradition was preserved through their collective-like intelligence, so they didn’t really experience dark ages like we did. They really, and unfortunately for humanity, deserve to survive; in a sense, they’re like an apex predator, but on a civilizational scale. It also establishes, however, that the San-Ti are no better than us morally speaking, much to Evans’ and Wenjie’s horror. They still possess a strain of ignorance toward scientific progress, despite their extreme collective intelligence. And perhaps far worse, they have no literary or cultural tradition. They’re a species that could never produce something as beautiful, and *human*, as Silent Spring. The only purpose that science serves to them is survival. The San-Ti have no symbiosis between the humanities and science.

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