I get it now. Spoilers to S0310 and Abaddon's Gate.

Warning: the following contains spoilers for the following works:

The Expanse, S01E01-S03E10. Abaddon's Gate (Book 3), James S.A. Corey Three-Body Problem &The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu

If you want to try it out, read 5 books and watch almost three seasons of television.

. . . .

!!The ring gates are a Dark Forest weapons system. If this was clear to others, and I'm catching up, well, I'm slow. But, I just found out about Brin (1983).!!

Then, I got it. It's such a well-structured Whatsit.

I feel pretty good about this realization. I'm glad that these works work so well together.