An alien fundamentalist culture. That's the point. Just because religious fundamentalist societies in human history are generally anti-technology, that doesn't mean an alien one would follow suit.
Is there a GOOD reason for an alien invasion
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An alien fundamentalist culture. That's the point. Just because religious fundamentalist societies in human history are generally anti-technology, that doesn't mean an alien one would follow suit.
Re: religion and technology
What about a religion developing that nurtures technology? Maybe the tenents of the religion have developed along the lines where it has come to be believed that "god" created them and the universe as a riddle and only through learning/exploring the universe can they hope to attain ultimate enlightenment/nirvana for their entire race. Those that die before ultimate knowledge has arrived sit in a purgatory rooting on the rest of the species to attain that goal and release them all. Throw in a little "chosen race" aspect and any aliens that get in the way become mince meat.
What about a religion developing that nurtures technology? Maybe the tenents of the religion have developed along the lines where it has come to be believed that "god" created them and the universe as a riddle and only through learning/exploring the universe can they hope to attain ultimate enlightenment/nirvana for their entire race. Those that die before ultimate knowledge has arrived sit in a purgatory rooting on the rest of the species to attain that goal and release them all. Throw in a little "chosen race" aspect and any aliens that get in the way become mince meat.
Huh? Battle: LA was set a day after the aliens were spotted braking for an assualt landing on earth. Maybe War Of The Worlds, the TV series made the Orson Wells radio show a real landing of a scoutship and somehow humanity forgot about the 1950s invasion as seen in the movie
That's what you think if you watched the movie.
However the advertising, posters and such you saw plastered about, while buying popcorn, showed old pictures of America in the 60s and 70s along with a caption like "they've been watching".
Methinks that the movie was cut at the last minute to make all that advertising unrelative.
However the advertising, posters and such you saw plastered about, while buying popcorn, showed old pictures of America in the 60s and 70s along with a caption like "they've been watching".
Methinks that the movie was cut at the last minute to make all that advertising unrelative.
I hope the alien head of research was fired for that little mix-up.
I think we need to be careful projecting things like religion onto non-human intelligences. AFAWK, religion is one of the most uniquely human practices/rituals that we exhibit. There is literally no analogue for it in the natural world. If, as I'm sure most of you will except, we as a species are the sum of a sequence of extremely unique, nigh unrepeatable events and circumstances, the notion that something like religion would somehow inevitably develop in an alien intelligence is probably way too far of an intuitive leap. Indeed, being religious fanatics would hardly make them seem 'less' human in their motives.
I do agree that it would be an intriguing reason/excuse/justification for an invasion (certainly among the more plausible of those thus far presented), but it would still seem like allegory rather than something truly alien. The problem, then, is that we as humans just can't think "alien" enough to make something truly original as far as invasions go. In other words, "we" only invade for these reasons. Ergo, aliens must invade for the same reasons.
I suggest a thought experiment that may truly yield alien results. Come up with a reason why a race like, say, the Vulcans or the Asgard, rather than Klingons or Goa'uld, would invade (destructively) our Earth (c.2011).
I do agree that it would be an intriguing reason/excuse/justification for an invasion (certainly among the more plausible of those thus far presented), but it would still seem like allegory rather than something truly alien. The problem, then, is that we as humans just can't think "alien" enough to make something truly original as far as invasions go. In other words, "we" only invade for these reasons. Ergo, aliens must invade for the same reasons.
I suggest a thought experiment that may truly yield alien results. Come up with a reason why a race like, say, the Vulcans or the Asgard, rather than Klingons or Goa'uld, would invade (destructively) our Earth (c.2011).
Ah, so you have to wonder why the Andorians didn't attack Earth because of Man's close friendship with Vulcan, not that that wasn't seemingly %99 of why the Romulans attacked earth or how Russian and America used Southeast Asia like Lady and the Tramp eating that noodel towards the middle from each end to attack the other for the latter half of the 20th century.
^If the situation at the Monastery didn't turn out like it did, they may have well invaded/attacked us.
I thought that was The Road Not Taken, not Footfall?
Yeah, Footfall took places in the 1990s. No Nazis there.
A single alien individual who studied the planet could wipe us out pretty easily. Just claim to be our Messiah - provoke a holy war and let us wipe each other other out.
Just think what you could do to cause problems if you went back in time 100 years, with basic modern day knowledge.
Ah, but some observations here:
1. I first raised the idea of religion and I explicitly framed it as a case of aliens either adopting a human religion or having a religion which is based on a human religion - in the same way there are many religions in our history which have grown out of previous religious traditions.
2. Neanderthals actually practiced some kind of ritual burial, take that for what you will. Even ignoring this we're basically the only sapient species we know, so whether or not other sapient species construct these kind of stories and rationals may be unclear - but 'religion' does not have a uniform source. Religious traditions which do not resemble each other except in the vaguest senses have grown completely indpendently of each other at different corners of the world.
So yes, some kind of religious tradition for a sapient alien species seems plausible, but it's unlikely an indigenous faith would put a special importance on Earth in a way an imported or modified human faith would.
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