|
Post by Jeff Gerke on Jul 2, 2008 9:06:56 GMT -5
Usually we think about intrepid human explorers, oh so advanced, traversing space and making first contact with an alien species. But it's also fun to think about the reverse: advanced alien spacefarers making first contact with humans. I read an article on LiveScience that gives a great model for what that second kind would probably look like: www.livescience.com/health/080701-bad-modernization.htmlI was especially interested in this line: Interaction with outside groups inevitably brings foreign diseases, a loss of culture, depression and a decrease in the quality of life and life expectancy. That, my friends, is probably what the human population would experience after first contact with an advanced alien civilization. I think the depression is especially telling. Think of Native American cultures after the arrival and conquest of European nations. Think of the depression these cultures experience. Leading to alcoholism, lowered life expectancy, and the other out-workings of depression. Now think of the entire world plagued by that depression. "Dude, I thought we were tops, you know? Really advanced. Masters of the universe. Now look. We can't hold a candle to them. So what does that make us?" So if I'm right that "An Alien Invasion Is Next" ( wherethemapends.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=genresf&action=display&thread=184), maybe this is how it will go for us. Jeff
|
|
|
Post by torainfor on Jul 2, 2008 9:24:12 GMT -5
Sorry, I have five minutes left in a coffee shop in Topeka, KS, so I didn't read the links thoroughly. What immediately came to mind, though, was well meaning, arrogant aliens taking our children, putting them in the interstellar equivalent of starched pinafores, and sending them away to school. Banned from speaking their native languages or worshiping their native God/gods. The rest of us are moved to reservations--lands on Earth they consider expendable--while they take the best spots for themselves. Meanwhile, the one habit of theirs we do adapt to is their specific mood-neutralizer. Those of us who weren't immune to their import of diseases, that is.
See, look at that. I'm depressed just thinking about it, and they haven't even arrived yet!
|
|
|
Post by Jeff Gerke on Jul 2, 2008 12:33:50 GMT -5
Good fodder for a story, though!
|
|
|
Post by knightofhyn on Jul 2, 2008 12:51:26 GMT -5
I'd had an interesting thought this morning. I'm sure it's been thought before, but still.
"Why are aliens always so highly advanced compared to us in movies and stuff?" Someone had asked me the question and I'd never really thought about it before. I did this morning, for whatever reason.
"No Flood and no Tower of Babel."
Makes sense to me, anyway.
|
|
|
Post by Jeff Gerke on Jul 2, 2008 13:23:21 GMT -5
You might also be interested in my white paper on the subject: www.jeffersonscott.com/nonfiction/ufos.htm. In it, I give an alternate explanation of why alien technology always appear slightly more advanced than human technology. Jeff
|
|
|
Post by kouter on Jul 2, 2008 16:10:00 GMT -5
Just to prove there really is nothing new under the Sun, check out this story I found on writing.com. Its exactly what you guys are talking about and its well written too. Take a look! click on "The Wind Maiden" www.writing.com/main/view_item/user_id/damikli
|
|
|
Post by mongoose on Jul 2, 2008 20:44:08 GMT -5
In Star Trek, isn't the alien technology usually comparable to that of Earth? At least after they build their alliance with Vulcan? You even find the Kingons and maybe the Romulans trying to copy Starfleet, much as happened with the Soviet Union and . . . Japan? For a while the U.S. led everyone in technological development, and everyone tried to steal or reverse engineer our technology. They could compete with us, but we were ahead. As I recall, the relationship between the federation and the Klingon empire was portrayed in a similar fashion.
|
|
|
Post by knightofhyn on Jul 3, 2008 12:35:00 GMT -5
In many ways I agree with the paper you wrote, Jeff, but there's still a doubt in my mind. Not that the actions of the so-called 'grays' are demonic and wrong, but the doubt that they might be the only ones.
Just a thought, possibly wrong and I will admit that, but what if they are demons and their goal is to prevent evangelicals from witnessing to a real group of aliens. As you said, you believe that if there really is alien life out there, intelligent alien life, then they would have to bow to the Creator. Satan's goal is to keep people (I'll use the term 'people' in its loosest form now) out of heaven and to have them worship/fall with him. What if his minions could knock off a whole planet, forget just a few hundred million humans, but an entire world?
I'm not saying I'm right, but the thought honestly terrifies me. If these demons can make themselves appear any form and we know that bugs and owls and jackalopes and stuff are real, what if they're taking the form of a species that is real, living a few dozen lightyears away, and portraying themselves fairly accurately as them exempting the behavior...then say ten or twenty years go by here and a real emissary comes from them, they've discovered us, detected SETI, whatever and they come and we open fire on them. Start a war. Maybe we slaughter them, maybe we fight to a standstill, maybe they wipe portions of us out, whatever. Would they listen to us if we told them the love of Christ?
If nothing else, it would be an interesting story idea.
|
|
|
Post by Jeff Gerke on Jul 3, 2008 13:36:21 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by knightofhyn on Jul 3, 2008 15:51:49 GMT -5
I'll look for it.
I didn't say that we'd be wiped out because I know that Revelations is true...unless God wants to use them somehow, but I don't see how.
|
|
|
Post by knightofhyn on Jul 3, 2008 16:00:18 GMT -5
That sounds...frightening.
I hope that you're right in your white paper.
|
|
|
Post by mongoose on Jul 3, 2008 20:52:54 GMT -5
Maybe I'm missing something, but why, in this progressive age of pluralism and relativism, would we fire on extraterrestrials who were trying to make peaceful contact with us? I get the impression from one of the posts that someone is proposing that the enemy is trying to turn us against any aliens that might be out there? How so? And even if he were (I really think he has enough to do trying to distract evangelical juggernauts from raising the dead and whatnot in third world countries around the globe) why would we let him succeed? Do we really still believe that anything different than us is either inferior to us or evil? Did we learn nothing from the Civil Rights Movement other than how to appease people from other ethnicities so they don't make our lives difficult? Or am I missing a reason that we really should be afraid of an alien invasion?
In any case, I'm ready every day to flee to the hills. You won't catch me shooting anything, or struggling to survive gang attacks in an over-packed stadium or refugee camp. You might find me dead of exposure or starvation on the mountain, but that's okay by comparison.
|
|
|
Post by Divides the Waters on Jul 4, 2008 1:03:30 GMT -5
Interesting notion. I think that (obviously) the story would take different turns depending on whether you were talking about just contact, or conquest. An alien take on the captivity in Babylon could be intriguing....
|
|
|
Post by mongoose on Jul 4, 2008 2:26:04 GMT -5
OOh. I like. Have some people who submit to the civil authority (like God instructed them to do, and through Jesus and the apostles instructed us to do) while maintaining their integrity. As a result they could get promoted to places of authority themselves, thereby to better glorify God in the midst of whatever alien culture. But most of the people would be bitter, so they'd have to encourage the people to plant and harvest, do business, and bless their neighbors among the aliens.
Leastways, that's the approach I'd take to Divides' idea.
|
|
|
Post by Jeff Gerke on Jul 4, 2008 7:36:05 GMT -5
Very interesting, indeed. And it even fits thematically with my thought in "An Alien Invasion Is Next."
Jeff
|
|