I’m just starting book 6 in the series from James S. A. Corey, which have been made into the tv show The Expanse

I’m just starting book 6 in the series from James S.A. Corey, which have been made into the TV show The Expanse. It’s the first time I’ve seen a story where humankind stumbles onto the playing field of an alien culture so much more advanced, we can’t even begin to understand it. Their reach and scope, their technology, their “rules” are so much bigger than ours. We are baffled time and again. We try to interact with their artifacts and relics in our normal human way, and find ourselves completely fucked. It’s because we aren’t thinking big enough.


It was something like this that put the monoliths on earth and the moon in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but in that case, the decision was deliberate. Our solar system was chosen for this. In The Expanse, we’re incidental. Our solar system is just one among hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, that fell within the scope of this culture. In other words, we aren’t special. We’re just another solar system with life forms. We can either figure out their rules and live within them, or not.