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The Expanse (spoilers for books 1–4)


Happy Ent

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This thread is about James S.A. Corey’s science fiction series The Expanse. For the Stark Trek: Enterprise episode of the same name, see The Expanse.



Just finished Cibola Burn. The series is still fresh, exciting, and highly readable. I really like this stuff!



Questions: I’m not sure I quite understand the show-down with Miller and Elvi, or the whole set-up. I believe it’s purposefully underexplained, but maybe somebody else is a more careful reader:



1. Why did the crippled protomolecule construct wake up (the one that a small group drives to and shoots with a gun)? Was it in reaction to something done by our heroes?



2. What causes the nuclear explosion, and what is its purpose? Defence or accident?



3. Robot Miller tries to do exaclty what? Let’s call the alien civilisations P (for protomolecule) and E (for enemy). Apparently, E ended P. As far as I understand, there is an E-artefact in the middle of the P-hub. Miller can’t see it (because that’s how the E guys designed it). What does it do? The reactions against Earth (nuclear explosion, spider-like constructs, defence moons) are all induced by P, right? Presumably E prevents P from doing something (since E ended P). So why does Miller want to disable E in order to disable P? I don’t get it. Maybe I’m not supposed to (which is fine).


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I think that the crippled P construct was turning on all P tech that still worked in its search for what happened. Miller has enough humanity left to understand this is dangerous for humans on planet. Basically the P new terra defense network is turned on, but only kinda works because it is so ancient.

Miller takes over P construct after several false starts. Miller determines that E-artifact is set to destroy any P stuff so is attempting to save the humans by sending Elva through E artifact with whatever it was she had.

E artifact does not recognize Elva as something it needs to destroy.

Unclear to me whether Miller/cripple P is still around in some form that now has the clues of New Terra in memory banks

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unJon, yes that’s another explanation for what triggered everything: Miller did.



See, “it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out” starts from the hub in the slow zone. (Alternatively, it starts when the protomolecule is recovered from whatever moon in landed on by the Evil Technology Company.) “Reaches out” is P tech, of course. P tech uses the Miller consciousness. Once this consciousness reaches Ilus (maybe when the Rocinante makes planetfall?), P agency continues to reach out, now on the Ilus. It finds discarded P tech, which it wakes up in its quest for understanding.



Hm… I like this. I need to check the timelines and the Interlude chapters.



So, the Miller-awoken P tech on Ilus becomes a problem for our settlers. Miller’s human side is now motivated by two things: find E on this planet and help humanity, By authorial fiat, both things can be accomplished by … hm, now I’m losing it again … accomplished by putting a P toaster containing Miller into E tech? Because E is what shut down the P tech originally, before Miller woke it up again? So why doesn’t E shut it down again? Or is the purpose of the E tech not to shut down P? If so, then why does it?



I reach out I reach out I reach out. I really want to understand this. Somewhere there is a solution out there. I find an internet forum. I decide to bend its intellectual capacities to my will. Darth Richard II and unJon are first to go.


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The Roci arrives in system and the "reaching out" causes all the P tech to activate, most of which fails due to age as you said. It's not the Miller construct which does it, but the system running the Miller construct. The nuclear explosion is the one of the power plants/the only power plant on the planet failing in it's start up sequence and more than melting down, it fails for the same reason everything else is - it's too old and has been powered off for too long. Both of these points were explicitly answered I thought, but even if I'm wrong that much all fits.



As to why pushing the P artifact into the E 'miasma' shuts it down...I don't think we know that. Miller also wants to go into it though because it's an area he can't reach and part of his program is to push everywhere and figure out what happened. I'm not 100% on this part though. I think we'll be seeing more of Miller, the part they took into that system is gone now, but there is still plenty of Protomolecule in the hub and our solar system and it wasn't all linked to and killed by what happened at the end.


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See, “it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out” starts from the hub in the slow zone. (Alternatively, it starts when the protomolecule is recovered from whatever moon in landed on by the Evil Technology Company.)

I assumed that the 'it reaches out' stuff was coming from the protomolecule's colony on Venus, although maybe it doesn't really make any sense to focus on a single physical location for it.

Summon Author!?

I suspect that these are not the sort of answers they're going to provide on here, we'll have to keep reading to find out.

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I assumed that the 'it reaches out' stuff was coming from the protomolecule's colony on Venus, although maybe it doesn't really make any sense to focus on a single physical location for it.

I think it makes sense as where the searching is originating from, and I'm with you - it's the newly activated "colony" on Venus. The hub area was shut down and had very specific purposes, the colony protomolecule is trying to fulfill its programming of connecting to it's masters - reaching out. I don't think it's all connected though, the link cuts off at the gates which is why it needs the Roci to get in system before it's reaching out and activating stuff there.

And yeah, Miller linked all the P stuff to the toaster which is why that turned it all off, what I'm unsure of is why that turned off the E weapon? It did right? It's almost 6 months since I read it. Perhaps it's set to last as long as there is surviving P tech there, after its killed it all it can detect that and shuts off.

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And yeah, Miller linked all the P stuff to the toaster which is why that turned it all off, what I'm unsure of is why that turned off the E weapon?

That’s the heart of what I don’t get. My assumption is that the E weapon’s very purpose must have been to turn off the P tech, way back during the P–E Wars, billions of years ago(?). Was it just sitting there, doing nothing, being indifferent to the recently activated P tech? That doesn’t sound like a very good weapon.

But if so, maybe it makes sense. Let me try: The E weapon has been dormant for eons, no longer shutting off P tech, and is blind to P’s recent reawakening. So Miller decides to throw some P toasters in the E weapon to wake it up. E promptly wakes up, realises that there is live P tech zooming about the planet, an promptly turns the P tech off. Maybe it then goes back to sleep.

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I don't think it's all connected though, the link cuts off at the gates which is why it needs the Roci to get in system before it's reaching out and activating stuff there.

Yes. Though we do now from Interlude 1 that the protomolecule can travel through “the void” using subatomic particles, it only connects with something it knows in Interlude 2, “the spark closing the gap”… “It touches something, and for a moment, a part of it that can feel, feels hope”. This is right when the Roci makes planetfall, the next chapter (Basia) starts with “James Holden came too late.”

(Miller, pricelessly, is angry with the system enthusiastically reaching out into the new space without checking doors and corners first.)

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The E Artifact is a mystery. What is its purpose? Is it basically a landmine left behind after E wipes out P? It was not actively seeking out reawakened P tech as far as we can tell. It was just dormant and in an out of the way room. If Miller hadn't linked the P toaster to the other P tech, would the E Artifact have affected it?

I don't think we can know.

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Was it an out of the way room? I though this was the central hub?

You are kinda right I think. It is in the lithium refinery facility but in a discrete and small physical location in one room that felt out of the way. Our heros had to travel beyond the big room, walk over the tongue bridge, etc.
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(Miller, pricelessly, is angry with the system enthusiastically reaching out into the new space without checking doors and corners first.)

:lol:

I loved all that bit, and the ways Miller had rubbed off on Havelock. I'm really hoping MillerConstruct isn't gone because it's very entertaining. I could live without more descriptions of the eternal torture that some other components of the protomolecule are living though.

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It reaches out one hundred thirteen times a second. I just did some googling to see if 113 hertz is a meaningful frequency for anything but turned up empty.

How much slower is everything in the slow zone? Because 113 might be a fraction of what it's capabilities, if jot for the slow zone. Right?

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How much slower is everything in the slow zone? Because 113 might be a fraction of what it's capabilities, if jot for the slow zone. Right?

ProtoMiller was able to remove the restrictions in the slow-zone. It was a simple enough task for his programing, unlike deactivating the machinery on Ilus.

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:lol:

I loved all that bit, and the ways Miller had rubbed off on Havelock. I'm really hoping MillerConstruct isn't gone because it's very entertaining.

I've a feeling we'll probably see him again. I did like the line where Holden says something along the lines of 'You know what really irritates me about you?' and the Miller Avatar replies 'It's the hat, isn't it?'. It's always nice for the utterly inhuman artificial intelligence to have a sense of humour.

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