Humans defeating other lifeforms?

[AbsintheMinded]

I mean, come on! There are so many movies out there and coming out that have the human race win against a species that tries to destroy/salvage our world. Does anyone realize that if a species out there have so great of technology to travel to Earth, that maybe their weapons/strategy/intelligence surpasses everything on Earth?

I'd sign up for alien slavery right away...

 

[painkiller64]

the sad thing about movies of the past or even recent past i.e. indepedence day are that it is made for that reason. imagine a movie where we were completely defeated, omg, that would be unheard of in our existence.

the shocker of the deal is that we really do need a movie like that to show to the world that it is a strong possibility of that happening.

look at it. we have the world being decimated by a ice age (guess the movie) but not by a alien race.

i dont think alien slavery is the answer though. our world now and even in tv shows and movies show that we can overcome this and learn to co-exist with another race. i am not saying there will never be any conflicts with a race but hey within our own world when do we not have one.

anyway, i am sure there is a hot, sexy alien babe out there ready to be the next ex-mrs. painkiller. LOL

 

[screenersam]

in 'Hitchhikers Guide' we were invaded and ruled (?) by highly intelligent mice, as well as dolphins (so long, and thanks for all the fish) who experimented on us. I think the backstory of 'Battlefield Earth' is that earth had been conquered (I wasn't one of the 203 people to watch it).
I think the story of earth-under-alien-dominance is potentially intriguing, but not made for two hours of action and explosions, which is what our media, esp our movies, specialize in. ('Earth Rebels from Evil Alien Control' is a viable concept.)
concepts worth considering; would our governments cooperate with Alien Overlords? would there be an organized resistance (after the posession)? What would the AOs want? slave labor? food? resources? build a base for ongoing war with other aliens? Purge the galaxy of rap, metal and reality shows?
one more thought; history shows that outside invaders are frequently helped by disgruntled insiders, most notably the Meso-Americans who cooperated with Cortez and other conquistadors to overthrow the hated Inca/Aztec overlords. would disgruntled Terrans aide and assist alien invaders on idealogical grounds, not to mention pure hatred?
imagine the potential of an intelligent alien race using their technology to convince Muslims that the Mahdi is coming and 'encouraging' the faithful to 'pave the way'.

 

[audiothor]

I hate to sound pessimistic but, if you look at every encounter between civilisations on this world (Cortez destroying the Aztec empire springs to mind) then the slightly less advanced race always comes off worse.

Now imagine taking on a race a thousand years more advanced than us... It wouldn't be a contest at all (How long would the battlefield technology of William the Conqueror stand up against contemporary weaponry?).

What if they were ten thousand years more advanced?

I'm afraid that we would be like ants in a field trying to defend ourselves against a farmer who turns up in a tractor and intends to plow the soil and plant crops.

Our only hope is that once a civilisation becomes advanced enough to travel between the stars then they also become civilised enough not to totally disrespect the indiginous species.....

In other words... I hope they don't behave like Humans !!!!!

 

[screenersam]

I hate to sound pessimistic but, if you look at every encounter between civilisations on this world (Cortez destroying the Aztec empire springs to mind) then the slightly less advanced race always comes off worse.
Our only hope is that once a civilisation becomes advanced enough to travel between the stars then they also become civilised enough not to totally disrespect the indiginous species.....

In other words... I hope they don't behave like Humans !!!!!

the Federation's 'Prime Directive' dictated that 'primitive', less-advanced cultures be left alone. I think Western Civ has advanced to the point that the few remaining untouched cultures are treated much better than in the past.
imagine the dread of, for instance, a nazi-type planet with superior tech; would they view as a fit only for slavery/extinction?
depressing...

 

[AbsintheMinded]

one more thought; history shows that outside invaders are frequently helped by disgruntled insiders, most notably the Meso-Americans who cooperated with Cortez and other conquistadors to overthrow the hated Inca/Aztec overlords. would disgruntled Terrans aide and assist alien invaders on idealogical grounds, not to mention pure hatred?

I hate to sound pessimistic but, if you look at every encounter between civilisations on this world (Cortez destroying the Aztec empire springs to mind)

You guys have to remember though, that even though Cortez had inside information, he still made a huge attempt by himself. He made sure that all of his ships but 2 were burned down. This caused for the Spanish Military to have nothing to do BUT fight. If it wasnt for him doing that, the lack of morale would have perished the Conquistadors. That being said, the Spanish would have got their *** kicked by the Aztecs if this didnt happen. And also with that, this pertains to an alien species that could possibly "burn" (or have an attitude that its all or nothing) their ships in an attempt to conquer our world.

However, this is all rubbish, because like I said anything with superior technology that has traveled to level this world WILL and CAN do so (forget the felgercarb about the defenders having a 3-1 odds against attackers; this is a whole new strategy). That being said, I will immediately turn myself in for slavery, AND see how these beings come about.

 

[Kevin]

So who says an alien takeover of Earth has to be by devastation? Like the dolphins in HGTTG, or the aliens in They Live, aliens may already be amongst us controlling our fate. Or like the aliens in V or the classic "To Serve Man" episode of the original Twilight Zone, aliens may openly come to Earth with promises of peace so that we offer no resistance to their takeover.

Hey, we come in peace! Sure, go ahead and destroy all of your nuclear weapons... disband your armies, you don't need them any more. We offer cures for every disease that affects humanity. We will introduce science years ahead of where you are now.

What?

That?

Oh, it's nothing. Just ignore what is behind the curtain, it's not important right now.

Hey, look, here's an anti-gravity device. Oooohhh..... it's magic!

That's right, keep looking over there at the magic shiny toy... nothing to see over here.

 

[AbsintheMinded]

Haha, touche!


However, I'm a conflict theorists, so everything must fight!

 

[painkiller64]

i am passive/aggressive. i agree with kevin. why does it have to be by brute force. anyway, just because a alien race may be technologicly advanced to us doesnt mean that we cant win.

"wow you have a big spaceship and big guns". "yes, but we have a small virus that will dessimate your inards into green gooey slime". HAHA who is the bigger lifeform now.

i guess it doesnt really matter. i wont go down without a fight anyway. either with weapons or with brainpower (my wife thinks i better stick with the weapons).

 

[Akhalor]

Most cases of conquest involve someone either wanting or needing something from those they conquer. So the first thing we must ask is what we have that aliens with the technology to cross interstellar distances would want from us.

Resources? Most things like that would be easily available elsewhere (unless you count the "Mars needs women" sorts of scenarios).

The Earth itself (presuming that there aren't thousands like it out there that haven't been spoiled by pollution and all that)?

This is why alien invasion stories are so hard to write, in my opinion. They're just too hard to make the motivations of the aliens believeable.

 

[painkiller64]

i agree. surely not every alien wants to breed with us or eat us or drain our planet of all its resources.

who knows if we will have a scenario as in star trek first contact where our actions after nearly destroying ourselves created a chance meeting with a alien race or anything else that would bring another race here. we have been searching and trying for decades.

i think the naysayers who believe that we are the only life forms out there in the vast expanse of the universe will be the hardest to convince otherwise.

conquest or friendship, it will happen someday.

 

[AbsintheMinded]

I mean, I agree as well. I think it would be amazing to explore another species, let alone just know it was out there.

But how about we look at it this way: There are people in this world that would like to see it burn. What if the aliens that visit here are those types? Or the types that are like Nazi Germany, and have taken over their own world to make huge decisions like destroying other life forms?

Kinda scary...

 

[linrobinson]

Not a bad concept here at all. How about the aliens are so evolved and developed that it's impossible to get anybody to do the physical work anymore. So run around looking for a peon race and find us. Enslave the whole planet, drag us off to Honkulon to bend wrenches and clean grease traps.

So this whole underground human slave culture develops. Including infecting the children of the effete invaders with blues and breakdancing and drugs... and end up having a descendant elected president?

I realize that's far-fetched, but we ARE talking SF here.

 

[audiothor]

I still think that, if they are advanced enough to travel between the stars, then they will laugh at any puny technology we try to use against them. They don't need to waste any time trying to sneakily trick us into slavery.

But I once had a conversation similar to this with a software guy who reckoned that if we could capture some alien devices then we could reverse engineer them and use it to fight back er... I had to disagree. I thought of Isambard Kingdom Brunel trying to reverse engineer a Pentium processor. No way could he do it, the frames of reference are too far apart. Also any Scientists working on the project would be desperately short of time as our civilisation is in the process of being attacked.

 

[audiothor]

Oops! If it was an alien conquering army with a determined attack I don’t think we’d stand much of a chance

However, it could be a scenario that rather than a whole alien race attacking, it could be a small group who have maybe been banished from their own culture for being too warlike and have decided to subjugate us as their own little empire.

They would maybe contact our leaders and bribe them to shaft the rest of us. We would gradually be enslaved as our standard of living plummeted maybe through some engineered financial crisis. Our military forces would be wasted in fighting each other. The ordinary people would be watched and controlled using CCTV and ID card systems until we are enslaved without firing a shot at the aliens.

Nah…what am I thinking of.... couldn’t happen….!

 

[Elton]

Don't watch Battlefield Earth read it, anyway, in the book the combined armies of humanity are defeated in something like 12 minutes. The story itself takes place a thousand years later when the only humans left are living in radioactive areas the aliens can't come into.
The book gets a bit absurd at times, but the only reason that the humans are able to win is 1) the main alien that they are fighting is a security chief on a planet that is hardly worth their time and 2) its been a thousand years and they don't have any military force on earth at all.
Anyway, thats the only book I can think of where the humans lose to the aliens. I'm sure there are others though.

 

[worldmaker]

The key theme in one of the greatest stories "War of the World" is that mankind is doomed to slavery, or extinction.

Only by the effects of viruses are the Martians defeated, nothing to do with man, just little bugs.

If mankind were to survive then it would have to be through such devices as that, or something even greater.

Or mankind's ability to overcome our current circumstances and change or evolve with a greater capacity for survival.

I'm currently researching one such invasion horror idea for a new story I've had in mind for a few years, in which mankind is driven to the edge, except for.....

Ah, but you'll have to wait and see.

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[linrobinson]

Sex.

 

[worldmaker]

Sex.

Hmmm, no, I'll save that for another time.... want to try again, or do you need to catch your breath first?

​

 

[linrobinson]

There are so many possible scenarios here and everybody fastens in on the War of Worlds thing.

How about a highly advanced people who have been whupping up on other almost as advanced peoples because their energy weapons are better.
But are feeble and helpless when physically attacked with swords? Or when naked fighters race in (no metals or chemicals to give a high tech signature) and just beat them to death with kung fu or wedgies or something?

I remember one movie where the aliens were killed by ****-kicking music.