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Sci-fi, Aversion to Alien invasion stories?

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DeaconBlues
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05 Sep 2010, 3:10 am

Quatermass wrote:
MrXxx wrote:
Holy crap! Did this thread ever go rogue!

Cool! 8) :lol:


Sorry. Turned into a Blake's 7/Firefly pissing contest without warning.

Careful - I've got a big library, and I'm not afraid to use it! :)

For that matter, I've been playing Mass Effect 1 & 2 a lot lately...

Garrus: "The Reapers managed to kill you once already, Shepard. All it did was piss you off. I can't imagine they've got much worse in store."


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tomhead
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05 Sep 2010, 3:44 am

Fun fact: If aliens capable of traveling to Earth in interstellar vehicles really wanted to destroy us, they'd be able to do it. Quickly and easily. Fighting a viable alien invasion would be like trying to take down an F-15 with spitballs.

If they show up, we'd better hope they're friendly.


Cheers,

TH



Titangeek
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05 Sep 2010, 11:01 am

tomhead wrote:
Fun fact: If aliens capable of traveling to Earth in interstellar vehicles really wanted to destroy us, they'd be able to do it. Quickly and easily. Fighting a viable alien invasion would be like trying to take down an F-15 with spitballs.

If they show up, we'd better hope they're friendly.


Cheers,

TH


If they where able to come here why would they attack? if it's resources they wont there are plenty on uninhabited planets. If it's a new home it stands to reason that there would be more than just earth.


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MrXxx
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05 Sep 2010, 1:01 pm

Quatermass wrote:
MrXxx wrote:
Holy crap! Did this thread ever go rogue!

Cool! 8) :lol:


Sorry. Turned into a Blake's 7/Firefly pissing contest without warning.


Apology? 8O Not necessary. It really is cool! :D


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DeaconBlues
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05 Sep 2010, 1:32 pm

Titangeek wrote:
tomhead wrote:
Fun fact: If aliens capable of traveling to Earth in interstellar vehicles really wanted to destroy us, they'd be able to do it. Quickly and easily. Fighting a viable alien invasion would be like trying to take down an F-15 with spitballs.

If they show up, we'd better hope they're friendly.


Cheers,

TH


If they where able to come here why would they attack? if it's resources they wont there are plenty on uninhabited planets.

For that matter, there's plenty on smaller moons, in asteroids, or sometimes just floating freely through space, without the need to drag it back up out of a planet's gravity well.

One of the things that irked many of us SF fans when the original NBC series "V" aired was the aliens' "secret reason" for coming to Earth (besides liking themselves a little human tartare) - they needed water. So they came to steal Earth's water, and haul it all the way up out of a 1g field. Meanwhile, did you know that Saturn's rings are composed largely of water ice? Floating freely in a microgravity environment, just waiting to be scooped up by a passing starship in need of liquid refreshment...

A number of asteroids have been remotely assayed, using sensor packages aboard probes on their way to the outer system. There are quite a few nodes of metals out there, ready to be mined by any civilization capable of deep-space travel and operations in vacuum - both kind of prerequisites for building starships anyway.

Let's face it, once you've got FTL travel, planets are primarily useful as tourist destinations - maybe colonies, if there isn't already a sentient species in residence who might take your colonization amiss. Mining them for resources is just silly.


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Titangeek
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05 Sep 2010, 1:41 pm

DeaconBlues wrote:
Titangeek wrote:
tomhead wrote:
Fun fact: If aliens capable of traveling to Earth in interstellar vehicles really wanted to destroy us, they'd be able to do it. Quickly and easily. Fighting a viable alien invasion would be like trying to take down an F-15 with spitballs.

If they show up, we'd better hope they're friendly.


Cheers,

TH


If they where able to come here why would they attack? if it's resources they wont there are plenty on uninhabited planets.

For that matter, there's plenty on smaller moons, in asteroids, or sometimes just floating freely through space, without the need to drag it back up out of a planet's gravity well.

One of the things that irked many of us SF fans when the original NBC series "V" aired was the aliens' "secret reason" for coming to Earth (besides liking themselves a little human tartare) - they needed water. So they came to steal Earth's water, and haul it all the way up out of a 1g field. Meanwhile, did you know that Saturn's rings are composed largely of water ice? Floating freely in a microgravity environment, just waiting to be scooped up by a passing starship in need of liquid refreshment...

A number of asteroids have been remotely assayed, using sensor packages aboard probes on their way to the outer system. There are quite a few nodes of metals out there, ready to be mined by any civilization capable of deep-space travel and operations in vacuum - both kind of prerequisites for building starships anyway.

Let's face it, once you've got FTL travel, planets are primarily useful as tourist destinations - maybe colonies, if there isn't already a sentient species in residence who might take your colonization amiss. Mining them for resources is just silly.


Exactly! the only resource i can imagine being at all rare in this galaxy is antimatter. And to the best of my knowledge there's none of that here.


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05 Sep 2010, 3:34 pm

Independence Day pretty much killed the concept of alien invasion in science fiction.


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Titangeek
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05 Sep 2010, 3:47 pm

Giftorcurse wrote:
Independence Day pretty much killed the concept of alien invasion in science fiction.
.

All they would have needed too defeat us was a good antivirus, lol.


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Last edited by Titangeek on 05 Sep 2010, 5:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.

DeaconBlues
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05 Sep 2010, 5:28 pm

Giftorcurse wrote:
Independence Day pretty much killed the concept of alien invasion in science fiction.

I always wanted to see a sequel in which humanity reverse-engineered the alien tech, went out looking for the Space Locusts - and ran across the species the Locusts had stolen their tech from, because the silly buggers were obviously not nearly intelligent enough to invent it themselves...


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Titangeek
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05 Sep 2010, 5:35 pm

DeaconBlues wrote:
Giftorcurse wrote:
Independence Day pretty much killed the concept of alien invasion in science fiction.

I always wanted to see a sequel in which humanity reverse-engineered the alien tech, went out looking for the Space Locusts - and ran across the species the Locusts had stolen their tech from, because the silly buggers were obviously not nearly intelligent enough to invent it themselves...



Now THAT would be a movie.


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rossc
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07 Sep 2010, 7:08 am

Firefly best sci-fi western ever



Ambivalence
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07 Sep 2010, 9:06 am

tomhead wrote:
Fun fact: If aliens capable of traveling to Earth in interstellar vehicles really wanted to destroy us, they'd be able to do it. Quickly and easily. Fighting a viable alien invasion would be like trying to take down an F-15 with spitballs.

If they show up, we'd better hope they're friendly.


Not so far as we know. We could launch a fast, unmanned interstellar probe without requiring any advance in technology, and a fast manned interstellar ship requires only a working pusher plate. A human Orion arriving at Alpha C. would have the option to drop a few bombs and other junk from orbit, and could possibly threaten an alien civilisation there with the possibility of having a large rock accelerated in their general direction or suddenly finding their atmosphere full of cobalt isotopes, but wouldn't be able to invade in the usual sense of the word. That's why alien Fighting Machines tend to be kitted out with conveniently impenetrable defensive shields - they'd need 'em. But that ain't a prerequisite for interstellar travel. :)


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Titangeek
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07 Sep 2010, 11:55 am

Ambivalence wrote:
tomhead wrote:
Fun fact: If aliens capable of traveling to Earth in interstellar vehicles really wanted to destroy us, they'd be able to do it. Quickly and easily. Fighting a viable alien invasion would be like trying to take down an F-15 with spitballs.

If they show up, we'd better hope they're friendly.


Not so far as we know. We could launch a fast, unmanned interstellar probe without requiring any advance in technology, and a fast manned interstellar ship requires only a working pusher plate. A human Orion arriving at Alpha C. would have the option to drop a few bombs and other junk from orbit, and could possibly threaten an alien civilisation there with the possibility of having a large rock accelerated in their general direction or suddenly finding their atmosphere full of cobalt isotopes, but wouldn't be able to invade in the usual sense of the word. That's why alien Fighting Machines tend to be kitted out with conveniently impenetrable defensive shields - they'd need 'em. But that ain't a prerequisite for interstellar travel. :)



Not necessarily. Firing a large rock at them, could they not simply use one of there ships to divert it's course? and if they where in the business of attacking planets full of psychotic apes (earth/humans) would they not have some form of orbital defenses.


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KissOfMarmaladeSky
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08 Sep 2010, 2:23 pm

I hate alien invasion stories. They're just not original enough! I mean, shouldn't you expect the best in a foreigner, and all they seem to be doing is fighting back...



Titangeek
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08 Sep 2010, 2:30 pm

tomhead wrote:
Fun fact: If aliens capable of traveling to Earth in interstellar vehicles really wanted to destroy us, they'd be able to do it. Quickly and easily. Fighting a viable alien invasion would be like trying to take down an F-15 with spitballs.

If they show up, we'd better hope they're friendly.


Cheers,

TH



On than note, if they wonted too completely destroy us (not invade just destroy) if they could travel at say... half the speed of light could they not just exhilarate and asteroid (or other large heavy thing) to that speed? If you have something going that fast the kinetic energy alone would be enough too wipe out all life on earth.


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Titangeek
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11 Sep 2010, 3:58 pm

just had a thought, why is it that most science fiction movies that aren't about alien invasion are horror movies (Pandorum being the most resent)?


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