Comments on: Blastr: Invasion Earth!

By: Tom tude

Tom tude — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:12:09 +0000

I don’t think theres any plausible reason for an invasion of earth from aliens, the only thing seemingly plausible would be non hostile scientific research. For one any reason for resources or environment is squashed. If the aliens have the technology to send a large invasion force to earth it seems more then reasonable that they have the ability to build settlements or anything on planets that seem uninhabitable to us. For example they build giant self controlling domes or cities underground that resist the certain threats the planet has. Not only that but there’s a multitude of goldilock planets already suitable for an advanced race. Resources they’re so advanced they can get resources from asteroids planets etc. Slave work would also seem very unplausible because if the aliens are so advanced it would be figured that they’re economy and view on life would seem advanced also unless they’re devoid of any “humanity” and are a hostile race 7 billion workers would seem like a good workforce but then thered be the issue of maintaining us food water etc and also conquering us without killing many of us and by then it would seem the cons outweigh the pros for them but again it would seem implausible that an advanced race would seem that cruel as to do that, I mean if we suddenly had technology that could wipe out another race somewhere in the universe we wouldn’t use it to eradicate or enslave them we would use it as defense research and building and transforming uninhabited planets. Lastly a frontlines type of thing could seem a little bit plausible but still far fetched. Seeming as how big just a solar system is not to mention galaxies etc it would be unlikely they stop here for strategic value and having developed light travel they could get extremely close to one another without using the tiny space of our galaxy and also to think that if we were “in the way” would be implausible to as there’s thousands of lightyears around us that weve seen and most of those places would be suitable for alien anything they would want to do with so really any hostile action towards us would seem very unlikely almost impossible and the only thing that would make sense to even contact us would be to study a complex organism

By: Tom tude

Tom tude — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:09:16 +0000

Oh yea and the idea of the earth stood still would be a stupid motive because aliens could technologically transform a planet to make it hospitable whether that being making an artificial ozone type of layer or what, I mean they got light speed travel down who knows what they could do to a planet making it suitable for life

Ps i loved the movie battle for la and earth stood still and all those very entertaining

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:55:31 +0000

@ ^ Joseph G. : Because the Borg are right?

@81. Lone Wolf : Yep. Seems a probable scenario there – although it may be a *lot* more than just one hick town that goes if the aliens decide to get seriously nasty with us.

@74. Gary Ansorge :

51. Messier Tidy Upper Says:
“survival – a nearby alien race finds their planet is dying and they desperately need to find a similarly habitable world where they can survive – but wait that planet is occupied – by us – still makes sense as a motivation.”
No, it doesn’t!!! That is the worst reason ever to travel light years.

No, the worst reason to travel light years is to find a distant post office to mail yourself a letter! Or to get yourself a light beer. Or to catch an episode of Fox news you missed by flying out there and waiting for the TV wave for that channel to catch up to you. Those are worse reasons for ya!

Invest a fraction of that money into building 20km X 20km X 20km cubes and each can easily feed,cloth and house roughly 8 million sentients.

Can it? I’m not sure that’s true in any sense beyond the strictly mathematical. The resources have to come from somewhere and maybe there are good pyschological, politico-cultural or other reasons why this cannot be done. Such as long term physical effects of micro-gravity and lack of natural sunlight and lack of environmental connection for want of a better term. I’m not saying this cannot be done – but I am saying we just don’t know that it can be for a fact. Maybe, maybe not.

Each cube has over 8000 cubic kms of space, with the ceilings of tunnels being 10 times as tall as the roof on your average Galleria(Super Mall). City dwellers have been living in constrained space for centuries and doing quite well at it, with population densities far exceeding the level I propose here.

Cities that are supplied to their rural hinterland and from which people can come and go. Berlin in the East German era would be one slight exception I guess but even there they had air travel.

Long before a species is capable of traveling to another star, they must first master the resources of their entire solar system ..

Well, we’re already capable of interstellar travel via the Pioneer, NewHorizons and Voyager spaceprobes – its just on a ve-ery sloooooow timescale! But I take it that’s NOT the sort of interstellar travel you mean.

All the same your statement there is a supposition without supporting evidence. Perhaps its true, perhaps it isn’t. There are certainly alternative scenarios. What if Humans today invented an FTL drive? Or found an ancient device say underneath Tycho crater enabling us to travel to another star system? Or helpful /mischievous aliens radioed us instrcutions on such a device a la Sagan’s Contact novel but a little more workable from our end?

..and when THAT is accomplished, the species will have all the resources they need to support trillions. Plus it will likely take several million years and who could guess what would motivate such an ancient species?

Yes, who could guess? Well the BA it seems and me and a whole lot of others on this thread and elsewhere. Of course these are only guesses.

I have absolutely no use for planets. They suck,,,

Oh well, off you go then! Try living without one and let me know how you get on!

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 02:09:50 +0000

@74 Gary Ansorge: I’m confuzled: Why cubes? And why the high ceilings? Also, what about gravity? I’d think very large cylinders (ala Clarke’s Rama) would be the best use of resources?

By: Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:15:34 +0000

@80. Gary Ansorgee that would only cover resources which no aliens would invade us for but that leaves imperialism, colonization and refugees.
Though if an alien empire invades it probably wouldn’t be much of an invasion, it would be more a threat of orbital bombardment and us surrendering. Well maybe some might try to fight back, “dem alien won’t get my gn unless they pry it from my cold dead-” “Daddy whats that light in the sk-” BOOM! A hick town is reduced to a crater and the human species is better off with out them. All hail the Igho’gugaduga’tata’b'u’yag’uopop’inf’on!

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 21:25:41 +0000

79. Lone Wolf

” it can’t happen because of some technical or physical limitation”

,,,which is more or less what Dr. Phil was saying, except in reverse,,,a sufficiently advanced species(one capable of traversing interstellar space) would have no need for a planet earth. Asteroids and comets, on the other hand,,,

Gary 7

By: Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:32:30 +0000

There are actually multiple possible motivations for aliens to invade the earth most of which wouldn’t make a good story because it involves us loosing fast. The only scenarios where we would have a chance is an invasion of refuges with very limited resources.

All the people saying it can’t happen because of some technical or physical limitation remember this: history has shown us that we can not predict what technologie and society will be like in 30 years from now, trying to predict what technology, society and our understanding of physics will be hundreds or thousands of years is beyond moronic, all we have is speculation and science fiction. A hundred years from now we could have technology that can literally alter the laws of physics at which point; we’re gods and anything’s possible.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:15:21 +0000

I think we may be a bit biased against seeing the best of reasons get rid of us. Complex life forms are probably quite rare out there, and if they’ve followed anything like our evolutionary path, our would-be conquerors have probably wiped out most it on their own world. Like us, they might have come to a belated appreciation of Life for its own sake, and would philanthropically endeavor to rescue Earth from the cause of its current mass extinction.

By: doug

doug — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:39:17 +0000

This thought just occurred to me;
Unless they are interested in coming here, motivation is irrelevant.

First, they would have to see if our star has planets.
Then, the aliens would have to see if there are any planets in the star’s habital zone.
And if there is, what kind of planet is it and is life friendly, i.e. liquid water, oxygen, etc.
And maybe, is there sentient life there?

Next, the aliens would need to send a probe because let’s face, would you travel to a destination that you have never been to before and have little information about?

Now, unless the probe has FTL capabilities, its going to take a long time to get there, to study the system and then report back its findings.

The biggest caveat is by the time information reaches the alien homeworld, what is that society like? Are they still in the Space age or have they knocked themselves back into the stone age? If its the former then are they still interested in going to this new world and do they have the means (time, finances, and resources) to get there.

If they are still interested, then we can get into motivations. Starting with the basics (needs and wants) and go from there.

By: Hugo Schmidt

Hugo Schmidt — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:38:06 +0000

Three reasons for why they would that make sense and, coincidentally, prove that 40K is awesome:

1. Religious reasons. Who cares about distance and cost if God(s) want it?

2. Food. Google “tyranid”.

3. Fear. They found out what happens to all the other ones that ran into humanity…

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 18:15:43 +0000

They come here for vacation and disguise themselves in dogsuits so they can watch us up close. They live a long long time and have a big time problem with bordom, those sneaky aliens. They only come at all because we are mildly entertaining. They don’t call us humans but something along the lines of WTF, because we are one of the very few phenomena left that they find unpredictable.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 17:58:03 +0000

51. Messier Tidy Upper Says:

“survival – a nearby alien race finds their planet is dying and they desperately need to find a similarly habitable where they can suruive -but wait that planet is coccupied – by us still makes sense as a motivation.”

No, it doesn’t!!!

That is the worst reason ever to travel light years. Invest a fraction of that money into building 20km X 20km X 20km cubes and each can easily feed,cloth and house roughly 8 million sentients. Each cube has over 8000 cubic kms of space, with the ceilings of tunnels being 10 times as tall as the roof on your average Galleria(Super Mall). City dwellers have been living in constrained space for centuries and doing quite well at it, with population densities far exceeding the level I propose here.

Long before a species is capable of traveling to another star, they must first master the resources of their entire solar system and when THAT is accomplished, the species will have all the resources they need to support trillions. Plus it will likely take several million years and who could guess what would motivate such an ancient species?

I have absolutely no use for planets. They suck,,,

Gary 7

By: KDSmith

KDSmith — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:07:13 +0000

One might consider that water could be used as /reaction mass/ for a nuclear engine apparatus (a la Heinlein, et al.) but, unless aliens were planning to set up earth as a ‘re-fueling depot’ for a massive amount of interstellar traffic, I would hardly think they could pump enough water into their tanks to make much of a dent in the world’s supply.

By: Blakut

Blakut — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:47:27 +0000

Roadside picnic. Aliens just throw some garbage on our planet. And the side effect is that we all die.

By: amphiox

amphiox — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:16:18 +0000

On any blog thread in this class of topic, the likelihood that a post like @61 will appear asymptotes to certainty as the thread lengthens.

It’s actually kind of impressive that it took 61 posts this time around.

By: amphiox

amphiox — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:07:38 +0000

Hairy Buddah, you know, the scenario you describe regarding The Matrix was actually what the original script had planned. Some movie executive apparently demanded it be changed because he thought it would be “too complicated” for the audiences to understand…

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:18:48 +0000

@63 Bruce of Canuckistan: How about an invasion of webcams? A Bracewell Probe arrived long ago, and quietly dusted the planet with effectively invisible cameras. Not for any legit scientific reason. Pure voyeurism, ala discovery network nature shows, or like a reality-tv show that had real mass-casualty 3d sword battles.

The “Primitive Earth!” channel. They only interfere in subtle ways, to keep the storyline interesting, or prevent discovery.

See, that’s what really worries me. Rule number one of reality shows is that “conflict is interesting”. Look at shows like American Chopper – half the people tune in just to watch the guys yelling at each other. In many cases, producers will purposely arrange for crap to go wrong just to start a screaming match. What the aliens consider “subtle interference, to keep the storyline interesting,” we might call “World War I.”
And if ratings have been flagging, they might feel the need to spice things up for next season…

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:14:13 +0000

@61 MichaelL: Someone needs a hug. Sans tentacles.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:41:52 +0000

Expert in Field Says Movie Plot Unlikely!

News at 11.

By: Svlad Cjelli

Svlad Cjelli — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:31:06 +0000

Er, the Predator isn’t an invader.

By: Gergely Kovacs

Gergely Kovacs — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:31:09 +0000

The only real motive I see for an alien invasion is life itself!

Life, in general, wants to spread and multiply. It is in all of our genes, from microbial life to humans. If a virus, a fungi, a bird species, and virtually anything else, if left unchecked (by nature usually) will spreads uncontrollably. We humans are currently unchecked and are spreading like a virus.

So, why would it be strange to assume the same underlying natural mechanism in a space-fearing species? They want to spread and dominate. That’s what we do. It’s natural…

By: Hairy Buddah

Hairy Buddah — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:05:06 +0000

Sorry Phil, pretty poor job on this one. While there are a lot of dumb movies out there, there are plenty of reasons aliens might want to invade, some of them including those you so cavalierly dismissed. You begin with an assumption that the aliens must have a higher technology than we have. That is not necessarily so. As another commenter noted, it cold be a primitive race invading us using a technology stolen from others. They might need stuff they can understand. You also assume that it takes a high level of tech to move interplanetary distances. Our science may have missed something. We wouldn’t know what we had missed until the doorway to another world opened and an invading army poured through. Or aliens could arrive in wooden ships with gunpowder canon being towed by star whale life forms, or sails that catch the ether between the stars. Your speculations show little imagination.

You also discount the possibility of von neuman machines/Saberhagen berserkers.
Self replicating machines launched to fight war according to the rules of that civilzation, now breeding out of control and attacking all life forms.

The Matrix series made a big mistake wanting human beings for power generation. Truly cringeworthy. But with a few different words it would have made prefect sense. The machines want the organic computers that are our brains. The most concentrated processing power on the planet. Humans living in the machine designed matrix reality created and maintained by separate processes in those very brains. With leftover processing cycles used to advance their own civilization and needs. Just because we can’t make organic computers work efficiently doesn’t mean this is beyond the reach of the future.

Mining our resources? Sure, if all you want is iron or carbon you can get it anywhere. As others have mentioned, unique biochemicals may result in an in person invasion being most cost effective. But it is certainly just as possible that earth has an unusual combination of chemical, gravitational, and tectonic properties that creates one or more minerals that are very rare and valuable. What exactly are dilithium crystals anyway, and what form of Beryllium do you put in a sphere?

Come on, you are writing for nerds and geeks. Get your game on or go home.

Hairy

By: Bruce of Canuckistan

Bruce of Canuckistan — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 07:21:52 +0000

How about an invasion of webcams? A Bracewell Probe arrived long ago, and quietly dusted the planet with effectively invisible cameras. Not for any legit scientific reason. Pure voyeurism, ala discovery network nature shows, or like a reality-tv show that had real mass-casualty 3d sword battles.

The “Primitive Earth!” channel. They only interfere in subtle ways, to keep the storyline interesting, or prevent discovery.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:44:46 +0000

When I write an alien invasion movie it will be about how the Earth is planned as a field training exercise for new recruits to learn how to kill lesser lifeforms with their advanced technology but these recruits seriously underestimate the ability of the Humans.

By: MichaelL

MichaelL — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:31:41 +0000

Loved Battle LA. Some of you people need to get over yourselves and just enjoy a f*****g movie for what it is. A movie – escapism. Jesus, why do you have to critique everything based on actual science? Your lives must be so boring that you cannot enjoy something that is just a good shoot em up kill em story without criticizing it for getting real science wrong, or ignoring real science. “OMG! People are going to believe aliens will invade us for our water if we don’t debunk the nonsense of this!”

Seriously. Get a life. Sometimes I think you lot are worse than the Evangelical nutjobs I left behind.