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This writing prompt from about a year ago on the other site is relevant:
Aliens take over the Earth. They then announce that they will be forcing the humans to work a “tyrannical” 4 hours a day 4 days a week in exchange for basic rights like housing. Needless to say they are very confused when the humans celebrate their new alien overlords.
Link, if you wish
I did a similar one a few months back too.
Is there a good, active writing prompts community on Lemmy?
Start the community that you want to see! Let me know if you do, I would contribute every now and again.
I would love to. I just don’t think I have the time to devote to it to do it right.
No, none that I know of.
A civilization capable of interstellar imperialism* would be focused on long-term exploitation of less primitive societies, so they would probably manage us better than the current elites do. A more educated, healthy worker is simply more productive than the alternative, especially in the long term.
- unless it is some kind of swarm of space locusts that just devour everything in their path.
Or they would manage us to their own desires. I wouldn’t say imperialism of conquered peoples went well for people on Earth.
Hell, there are several noted cases of deindustrialization, like the British Raj in India, where the imperial power pushed a civilization back into resource extraction. Why would an alien civilization colonize us for anything other than natural resources?
And there are several examples where humans weren’t treated well in a resource extraction economy. Sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean were where slaves went to die.
Why would an alien civilization colonize us for anything other than natural resources?
Space is full of mineral resources, going to a random planet with a relatively high gravity well just for some rocks would be counter productive. And an advanced civilization would probably use a lot of automation for resource extraction.
And there are several examples where humans weren’t treated well in a resource extraction economy. Sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean were where slaves went to die.
That part is true. But the question is what could the aliens get from us that couldn’t be made for cheaper closer to their planet?
Asa
It doesn’t have to be mineral wealth. It could be biological in nature, like cash crop farming.
smaller planets tend to lose their water and hydrogen.
Not the cold ones.
Eh, natural resources are far easier to extract from asteroids and moons than to haul out the gravity well of the biggest rocky planet in the area. And they wouldn’t have to mess with the nasty apes for any of them.
The only interesting thing on earth is life itself, as well as intelligent life and its culture. Literally everything else can be found everywhere else
Resource extraction includes farming.
Why would they farm on alien soil? That sounds like a terrible idea. Just make space bases dedicated for farming
No, they’d just use earth for scientific reasons, exploring and cataloguing our life. And perhaps maybe for artistic/cultural reasons, enrichment basically
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Regardless, there are far more resources much easier to obtain in deep space than we have down here. That doesn’t change even if gravity is less of an obstacle to them.
I know aliens haven’t found this planet because Musk is still alive, and he’s a threat to their goals.
Boy, somebody hasn’t learned about colonisation history!
Targeting primitives is about right, though!
I would find it more likely that they wipe us out to make way for colonizers of their own. They probably have no use for us, save maybe a couple to keep on display in a captive breeding program. They would likely have the technology to perform any work we could, but better and faster.
A civilisation that can travel between stars will probably see us as we see bugs. If we are annoying they destroy us, if we don’t bother them, they won’t care about us. We think we have some merit and knowledge and that we are special to be interesting to higher species, how often do you wish to uplift, enslave or destroy ants?
Don’t think about how the average person acts towards insects, think about how a farmer does. Plow the field, plant crops, fertilize, spray pesticides.
An alien civilization far in advance of our own which has travelled the stars and colonized millions of planets would just scour all life from the planet (while perhaps sucking up the genetic information into a database) and then reform the biosphere to suit their own needs, siphoning up all the mineral and energy resources they need as well.
Fair point. But that’s assuming they are like us. And with how different lifeforms are on Earth we can assume that the alien species are completely different from us both physically and psychologically.
Though the farther we go the more we don’t want to kill other biological life that doesn’t bother us. Partly because we are kind, more so because we don’t need to and other life is fun.
Aliens have probably intercepted internet traffic at this point and without setting foot on the planet have decided that it isn’t worth the visit.
eating popocorn from a distance, wearing safety gogles like galactic adults
Calling their friends around the galaxy to watch this new content they found that’s hilarious
A few years ago I wrote a short story about a benevolent alien alliance coming to earth because they observe planets with intelligent life to evaluate if they’re worthy of joining the alliance.
They say they usually take 10ish years to do a complete evaluation but it took less than 3 for them to determine not only are we not worthy, but they are officially quarantining our solar system. The basis of their determination: 10 people on this planet have the resources and means of legitimately end all suffering and make this planet a utopia, but they would instead poison and burn 3/4 of the planet to hoard more of those resources for themselves.
Sounds like the hate us for our freedoms.
Time to bring back ‘freedom fries’ at mcdonalds and go to war with some aliens.
Hahaha yes; funny short story. Hopefully nobody violates the quarantine. :)
Post it, please?
It’s not on my drive, and I think I may have completely lost it, but here’s a synapsis from the last time I posted it…
The whole premise was on some rando day all screens with sound on earth (kinda live V), started broadcasting a message from the ambassador from the Concordium, and it’s all one giant monologue from him. He just says that anytime they find advanced, intelligent life in the galaxy they monitor them for roughly 11 of our years to ensure they’re advanced enough and are able to exist within their structure and harmony. But it took less than 3 for them to determine we are not, cannot, and never will never be functionally capable of it. One cited example is there at 10 individuals on the planet with enough wealth and resources to legitimately end hunger and poverty, and advance the civilization 100 years in maybe 10, but they’d rather burn the planet and let over 1/3 of the population suffer and die just to increase their already obscene wealth. Others include individuals damaging or killing themselves and others in displays of barbarism for mere entertainment, hate based on superficial features, and constant warring not towards the advancement of peace and prosperity but material goods and archaic resources that only further destroy the planet. As a result, our solar system is considered quarantined; they will not enter it, nor are we allowed to leave. If we attempt to they will eliminate us so we don’t poison the rest of the galaxy as we have our own planet. Only twice have they encountered warring species similar to us, and both times theose species’s intention was to try and build advanced warships to conquer their way out of their solar systems, but because of their nature they both ended up destroying themselves and their planets in the process.
It ends with the transmission being cut, and the ambassador being asked if he thinks this could make humans unify and work towards the goal of bettering themselves to the point of being welcomed into the Concordium. He replies it has never happened in their recorded history
Enslaves us and treat us like property? Oh how original
Kidnap me, take me to an undisclosed secret location, probe my bodily orifices, water board me, hold me for several days or weeks and them dump my naked self back in some random location?
If I can put it in as medical leave, I’m in.
OOP has clearly never played “Stellaris”.
Aliens probably watch earth like a trashy reality show. Just full cringe all the time
“we’re here to take over your planet”
“Yes please”
.
Is there a scifi story where the aliens are actually benevolent? Could be funny; they are just genuinely kind but the human mind cannot grasp that and continues to distrust them.
“IT’S A COOKBOOK”
Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke.
Does Star Trek count? I would be remiss for not bringing up Star Trek given the opportunity to insert it into a conversation. I bet the aliens will love that.
Oh that’s true! The Vulcans are pretty damn nice to humanity. I haven’t watched all the series; is there a point where humanity doesn’t trust the Vulcans?
Enterprise (the last of the 90s era of trek shows) is a prequel which is set I think about 100 years after the Vulcans make first contact with humans. You get a little of that initial meeting, but mostly the show only talks about their relationship up until that point as historical context for their current situation. Basically, the Vulcans stuck around Earth to help out and keep an eye on humanity to try to make sure they were “ready” for warp travel. Although they don’t directly share any science behind their more developed warp technology.
I don’t get the sense that there was ever really a popular backlash to them being there, but there seemed to be a little resentment at least within the space program about how they felt that the Vulcans were being too paternalistic and holding them back. When they finally make the call to go on their first interstellar mission in the first episode, it’s against the recommendations of the cautious Vulcan delegation to Earth.
The series itself is kind of a mixed bag. This is sort of the start of TV Trek turning more towards action shlock, but there were still plenty of good episodes in there and it was interesting seeing the process of the federation coming together from disparate civilizations that had to work through their differences. It’s definitely a different feeling than showing up to a planet, meeting some weird aliens, then never talking to them again.
Accidentally deleted comment, here it is again:
Enterprise (the last of the 90s era of trek shows) is a prequel which is set I think about 100 years after the Vulcans make first contact with humans. You get a little of that initial meeting, but mostly the show only talks about their relationship up until that point as historical context for their current situation. Basically, the Vulcans stuck around Earth to help out and keep an eye on humanity to try to make sure they were “ready” for warp travel. Although they don’t directly share any science behind their more developed warp technology.
I don’t get the sense that there was ever really a popular backlash to them being there, but there seemed to be a little resentment at least within the space program about how they felt that the Vulcans were being too paternalistic and holding them back. When they finally make the call to go on their first interstellar mission in the first episode, it’s against the recommendations of the cautious Vulcan delegation to Earth.
The series itself is kind of a mixed bag. This is sort of the start of TV Trek turning more towards action shlock, but there were still plenty of good episodes in there and it was interesting seeing the process of the federation coming together from disparate civilizations that had to work through their differences. It’s definitely a different feeling than showing up to a planet, meeting some weird aliens, then never talking to them again.
Not give US healthcare again.
There, I fixed it.
This is why we vote for Kang.
Posadism always proves itself correct
I think along these lines when someone talks about the dangers of agi suggesting a terminator type thing.
The rise of the robots isn’t what most ‘AI doomers’ are worried about. What a truly malicious AGI could do would be along the lines of simulating your consciousness and placing you in eternal simulated hell. However, the more realistic fear is that it might treat us the way we treat ants. We have nothing against them, but we’ll wipe out a colony without a second thought if we need to build a house there.
Yeah this is still along the lines of im not worried about it. Im worried about non general ai being programmed for the service of humans to gain advantage over others.
Wait… “The” ufo sightings? Is this person using language incorrectly, or have i been living under a rock.
There was a bunch of drama in UFO communities a couple of years back where Congress was seemingly taking the possibility seriously but it faded away.
I’m pretty bummed, honestly, we need an uplift bad.
But what if they take you to their planet and show you their advanced society that everyone works a 3-days week and have great healthcare, just to send you back to Earth afterward??
Perhaps we were invaded long ago.
It would explain a whole lot of inhuman behavior humanity has seemed to be engaging in.
Yes, we can’t possibly be the myopic architects of our own demise.
