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Kind of a worldbuilding stackexchange response, yet other reasons aliens might not interact (from a "they exist" perspective). Hitchhiker's Guide - We're just
by araes 3y ago
Kind of a worldbuilding stackexchange response, yet other reasons aliens might not interact (from a "they exist" perspective).
Hitchhiker's Guide - We're just not very interesting. The aliens exist, have noticed the Earth, yet don't care, because we don't really do much from a galactic perspective. Mostly Harmless.
Star Trek - The aliens exist, yet have some external reason to not interact, like a diplomatic treaty.
Star Wars - The aliens exist, there's just too many other aliens to deal with already (Republic). The situation external to Earth is some kind of massive bureaucracy that makes doing much other than dealing with the bureaucracy nearly unmanageable.
Culture Novels - The aliens exist, yet don't interact because we're the equivalent of barbarous housepets from their perspective.
Forever War - The aliens exist, may have noticed, they're just too busy fighting some really long term war with each other to care.
Stargate - The aliens exist, just view the Earth as a non-threatening farm to be harvested eventually.
The Algebraist - Aliens exist, yet the most common form is just really weird from a human perspective (like gaseous objects in cloud giants). Flesh bipeds are not all that interesting, or perhaps discounted because "intelligence only exists in these forms."
Dragon Ball Z or Warhammer 40k - Aliens exist, yet the Earth is boring. It's mostly calm bickering a lot of the time. Where are the enormous battles and massive weapons? No titanic fights that lay waste to the surface?
- millerhooks 3y agoI never understood the aliens as harvesters as a threat movie plot / Hawking logic. There is SO much stuff in space. All of the stuff. Why care about our stuff? Intergalactic highway imminent domain? Just chart a different course. There’s no reason other than to mess with us for fun like dolphins jacking with a pufferfish. I guess maybe I’ve stumbled onto a sci-fi short story idea.
- volemo 3y ago> Just chart a different course. Do we reroute highways to avoid anthills?
- southernplaces7 3y agoSometimes we do, or to avoid all kinds of specially designated species. There are reams of complaints throughout construction history about being unlucky enough for your bright new infrastructure project to be heading right for some politically or socially de jour habitat that activists decide they want to protect. Who's to say that there doesn't exist a cosmic version of Greenpeace that has been actively pamphleteering some galactic government into not star-lasering(1) our little green and blue anthill to a husk for its latest celestial mega-infrastructure project? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybKnGZRwcU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybKnGZRwcU
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- recursivecaveat 3y agoI think the biological information on earth would likely be extremely valuable. Our DNA took an absurdly long time to evolve, and would probably be almost impossible to acquire with simulations given it spans from microscopic to macroscopic factors. Works of artistic or cultural significance probably have a decent chance as well, given the value we place on those even from ancient or foreign cultures. Whether our biosphere/temperate planet has value probably depends a lot on your assumptions about how hard terraforming is for super-civilizations and how compatible life is. On the other hand I agree our natural resources are likely worthless. I always laugh at that scientology movie, Battlefield Earth, where the aliens invade, then inslave humans to dig in Earth's gold mines with pickaxes. Maybe the most troublesome possible way you could acquire gold as a spacefairing race. As a hobby project I'm making a video game about aliens looting museums and zoos for items of cultural and biological value. Mostly because I find the idea of little green men busting up the Louvre then blasting off to be very funny. The zoo angle is a little nonsensical if you consider how much DNA is shared, but obviously scooping up pondscum is a less interesting scenario.
- ZachS 3y agoIt could be an Ent situation, they live too long to interact with something that only lives 100 years.
- araes 3y agoThanks. Forgot this version. There's also a "slightly" different version of "we exist in a different timeframe / timespeed / dimension." Star Trek TNG "Time's Array Part 1/2" had the alternative overlaid dimension variation. TNG "Timescape" had the alternate timeframe / timespeed with the Warbird / Enterprise existing in a different time than the runabout, as well as fruit that rapid aged / decomposed relative to the crew members (and the fun issue of accidentally walking into a bubble of AGE+50yrs).
- plasma_beam 3y agoContact - Aliens exist, they just don’t think we are ready yet.