So after watching one too many alien invasion flicks, I started wondering what would actually happen should aliens invade? Like in a realistic scenario? Let's say we have aliens who have traversed space in fairly fast, but not FTL, starships, powered by fusion reactors, that have a sort of limited mobile industrial base on board (to sustain a war effort on a distant planet) while the inhabitants are put into cryo-sleep. They plan on using Earth's moon as a staging ground for their invasion. Their starships are equipped with orbital recon and weapons. They use shuttles to land their forces from orbit on Earth. A race that has achieved the ability to build starships that are large enough to have mobile manufacturing onboard must be pretty advanced. So in terms of weaponry, we are talking smart munitions, smart drones, rail guns, lasers, strong armor, shielding, etc. So how do you think that would play out? I haven't really detailed alien tech either, so if anyone wants to add on, that'd be great.
Alien Invasion
Earth's "diseases" could wipe them out.
War Of The Worlds ( the book ) presents a likely situation that could happen.
Earth's "diseases" could wipe them out.
It's a very big could however. Most diseases on Earth are only dangerous to a very limited number of species, and all Earth species share most of the same DNA. The chances of a lifeform that originated elsewhere in the universe being susceptible to Earth diseases is probably pretty slim.
So after watching one too many alien invasion flicks, I started wondering what would actually happen should aliens invade? Like in a realistic scenario? Let's say we have aliens who have traversed space in fairly fast, but not FTL, starships, powered by fusion reactors, that have a sort of limited mobile industrial base on board (to sustain a war effort on a distant planet) while the inhabitants are put into cryo-sleep. They plan on using Earth's moon as a staging ground for their invasion. Their starships are equipped with orbital recon and weapons. They use shuttles to land their forces from orbit on Earth. A race that has achieved the ability to build starships that are large enough to have mobile manufacturing onboard must be pretty advanced. So in terms of weaponry, we are talking smart munitions, smart drones, rail guns, lasers, strong armor, shielding, etc. So how do you think that would play out? I haven't really detailed alien tech either, so if anyone wants to add on, that'd be great.
we die. if an alien race is advanced enough to get to our planet at sub-FTL speeds(which honestly is unlikely, however if it did, the distances involved probably means their entire race makes these trips/invasions, as it'd be relatively impractical to send any materials back to their home planet), so with this in mind their tech is most likely light years ahead of ours in terms of computing, and material sciences. sure we have nukes, and that might help us, but overall if they are sitting pretty on the moon, are able to make trips back and forth from our moon to earth with ease. then truthfully we're simply no match for them at any possible level.
Earth's "diseases" could wipe them out.It's a very big could however. Most diseases on Earth are only dangerous to a very limited number of species, and all Earth species share most of the same DNA. The chances of a lifeform that originated elsewhere in the universe being susceptible to Earth diseases is probably pretty slim.
If anything, they would have the technology to engineer a disease targeted specifically at us (bioagent released into the atmosphere? if they have cloaking technology, we could be dead without even seeing them once - depressing, isn't it?).
Earth's "diseases" could wipe them out.It's a very big could however. Most diseases on Earth are only dangerous to a very limited number of species, and all Earth species share most of the same DNA. The chances of a lifeform that originated elsewhere in the universe being susceptible to Earth diseases is probably pretty slim.
If anything, they would have the technology to engineer a disease targeted specifically at us (bioagent released into the atmosphere? if they have cloaking technology, we could be dead without even seeing them once - depressing, isn't it?).
Well, in order to engineer such a technology, you'd need humans to test it on. So I'd imagine that post invasion they'd try to create a virus to kill off humans.
So after watching one too many alien invasion flicks, I started wondering what would actually happen should aliens invade? Like in a realistic scenario? Let's say we have aliens who have traversed space in fairly fast, but not FTL, starships, powered by fusion reactors, that have a sort of limited mobile industrial base on board (to sustain a war effort on a distant planet) while the inhabitants are put into cryo-sleep. They plan on using Earth's moon as a staging ground for their invasion. Their starships are equipped with orbital recon and weapons. They use shuttles to land their forces from orbit on Earth. A race that has achieved the ability to build starships that are large enough to have mobile manufacturing onboard must be pretty advanced. So in terms of weaponry, we are talking smart munitions, smart drones, rail guns, lasers, strong armor, shielding, etc. So how do you think that would play out? I haven't really detailed alien tech either, so if anyone wants to add on, that'd be great.
we die. if an alien race is advanced enough to get to our planet at sub-FTL speeds(which honestly is unlikely, however if it did, the distances involved probably means their entire race makes these trips/invasions, as it'd be relatively impractical to send any materials back to their home planet), so with this in mind their tech is most likely light years ahead of ours in terms of computing, and material sciences. sure we have nukes, and that might help us, but overall if they are sitting pretty on the moon, are able to make trips back and forth from our moon to earth with ease. then truthfully we're simply no match for them at any possible level.
Maybe it's a nomadic race? Like a race that just preys on natural resources of planets and then moves on when finished? Or just looking to take a new home?
Maybe it's a nomadic race? Like a race that just preys on natural resources of planets and then moves on when finished? Or just looking to take a new home?
if they intend to wipe us out, regardless of what they want. i think any species that can travel across the galaxy(with the intent of invading/destroying for w/e reason they have) is going to be able to easily wipe us out at this time.
Maybe it's a nomadic race? Like a race that just preys on natural resources of planets and then moves on when finished? Or just looking to take a new home?
if they intend to wipe us out, regardless of what they want. i think any species that can travel across the galaxy(with the intent of invading/destroying for w/e reason they have) is going to be able to easily wipe us out at this time.
I meant to explain the lack of FTL capability. Sorry about that.
It's surprising what people choose to believe in.
Alien colonization is far more likely than alien invasion. And humans may be setting out on such missions in the not excessively distant future (talking about cosmic time scales here.)
Human nature is to create groups of like minded individuals, and expand. Eventually humans will attempt to colonize other parts of our solar system, and create new societies. The expectation is that eventually, probably within the next 1000 years, humans will set out to begin colonizing/seeding other solar systems, but more than likely we'll be setting out not planning to be an invasion force and wipe out life on other planets.
So aliens showing up on our door step may be just as surprised to find us here as we are to find them arriving in our solar system. Weapons mean mass, and mass means more energy needed to move, so can we really expect an alien 'force' arriving here with plans of settling a planet in the Goldilock's zone to have 'weapons' suited to anything more than deflecting small space debris that is easier to target with a long range laser than divert the whole craft? If something shows up to another solar system, whether someone arrives here, or we arrive else where, they will be doing so with the lowest amount of mass needed to safely transport a group of settlers on a one way journey, and in all odds will take the form of a generational ship. It is unlikely that they would be expecting more than primitive life to be here before they arrive.
As for risk of disease and such, I find it rather unlikely to be an issue. One of the prerequisites of travel that advanced would be the medical and environmental engineering sciences to deal with such risks. You don't travel that far to land, get out of your craft, and pop your helmet off to take a good long deep breath of the local air without running some basic tests.
But what actually happens if alien settlers arrive and are surprised? That really depends on the culture and how they developed technology and communications. It could be that they view us as vermin infesting their new home, and they'll sit back and devise some means to wipe us out. Or they could be rather enlightened and attempt to communicate with us, possibly sharing technology and working to improve lives for both species.
or they could say "Our bad, sorry" and just refuel and take off to the next potential world.
True, it's more likely that aliens are looking to colonize Earth rather than just straight up invade. Let's say they were more inclined to try to kill of humans before they inhabited the Earth. How would humans respond? What sort of strategies would be employed? I feel that robotic technologies would certainly become a forefront in combating such a threat.
@krytech
" Johnny 5 Alive ! "
Humans do not have any "real life" AI that is reliable - how exactly will we send in robots to fight for us ?
@krytech
" Johnny 5 Alive ! "
Humans do not have any "real life" AI that is reliable - how exactly will we send in robots to fight for us ?
They'd make for good cannon fodder, recon. Mainly, remotely piloted systems is what I was thinking.
Imagine a modern carrier group were transported back in time 1000 years. That carrier group would be able to operate however they pleased, wherever they pleased, with virtually zero risk to a single individual in that group. The tech from that time period would be utterly useless against that carrier group.
Best case scenario, an alien invasion would be very similar to that.
Interesting topic. I'd say it really depends on the alien. If they aren't outright violent, then I'm pretty sure we'd do something stupid like, you know, shoot them.Also, I'm surprised no one mentioned the diseases that the aliens could bring to us. What if they carry some weird nasty diseases that wipe us out or make us zombies or something.
If they were to invade robots fighting them are soooo highly unlikely. Like if they came tomorrow we don't have the resources to fight them with robots (well we have 100 drones or something I think -- speaking strictly of the us military -- so we'd just send those which would run out pretty quickly).
But apparently there is a department for this (aliens invading I mean). called SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestial Intelligence) group did make a deceleration: http://www.seti.org/post-detection.html
Vsauce talks about this, it's pretty interesting if you guys want to check it out < vsauce video on youtube >
Imagine a modern carrier group were transported back in time 1000 years. That carrier group would be able to operate however they pleased, wherever they pleased, with virtually zero risk to a single individual in that group. The tech from that time period would be utterly useless against that carrier group.
Best case scenario, an alien invasion would be very similar to that.
Till the carrier group ran out of food, water, jet fuel, ammunition, etc. Then they are in an awkward position. It assumes they can carve out enough of a foot hold in the new location that they can provide for their needs and industry.
Relocating an entire world's population isn't really a viable or logical idea. Despite what Sci-Fi tells us, it is VERY hard to 'use up' all of the resources in a planet. There is this little known thing called recycling... A planet's population could reach a limit of resource utility, but that doesn't magically render the planet uninhabitable and it just makes it nearly impossible to continue expanding on that planet. So before you get anywhere near that you start seeding other parts of the system, and then other stars.
And if you are going to send people off on a generational ship you aren't going to waste fuel and energy sending more than they need. Anyone arriving at earth who isn't expecting Humans is going to be in for a bit of a surprise. They would need to establish some form of a base, be vastly out numbered, and probably wouldn't want to obliterate everything on the surface, nor would they likely be carrying the weapons to do so as soon as they arrived.
Plus we would probably have a rather long warning of their approach due to how far out they would most likely begin adjusting their orbit, which would make an ever growing signal for us to detect. As we add more and more to our telescope capacity the odds of detecting them earlier go up, meaning we probably have a year, if not more, before they come within contact range. Assuming we can figure out WHAT it is, that gives us a lot of time to get defensive tools in place.
If they show up and are hostile it isn't a given that the fight will be completely and totally one sided. In all odds the most probable technological gap and the logistics involved in it would make for a blood and devastating war on both sides.
And if you are going to send people off on a generational ship you aren't going to waste fuel and energy sending more than they need. Anyone arriving at earth who isn't expecting Humans is going to be in for a bit of a surprise. They would need to establish some form of a base, be vastly out numbered, and probably wouldn't want to obliterate everything on the surface, nor would they likely be carrying the weapons to do so as soon as they arrived.
Plus we would probably have a rather long warning of their approach due to how far out they would most likely begin adjusting their orbit, which would make an ever growing signal for us to detect. As we add more and more to our telescope capacity the odds of detecting them earlier go up, meaning we probably have a year, if not more, before they come within contact range. Assuming we can figure out WHAT it is, that gives us a lot of time to get defensive tools in place.
If they show up and are hostile it isn't a given that the fight will be completely and totally one sided. In all odds the most probable technological gap and the logistics involved in it would make for a blood and devastating war on both sides.
I agree with this. The logistics of interstellar space travel make smaller and lighter more practical. These hypothetical invaders may have quite the arsenal back home, but bringing it with them would prove to be quite difficult. Even advanced technology needs to obey the laws of physics.
Also, an interesting point is different species will have different bar of entry to interstellar space travel. Imagine a small cold blooded race. Being cold blooded they would not need as much food to survive. Being smaller would make it easier to build a starship to transport them. Just to make things easier for this hypothetical species lets say the planet they live on is tiny with a minimal amount of surface gravity that can still sustain an ecosystem. These species would have a lower bar to space travel.
Compare that to the giant elephant sized warm blooded species that have huge gravity wells to overcome to leave their planet. These species would have to advance their technology further before attempting interstellar travel. So the ability to travel travel to other star systems doesn't tell the whole story about how advanced the species is.
I agree with this. The logistics of interstellar space travel make smaller and lighter more practical. These hypothetical invaders may have quite the arsenal back home, but bringing it with them would prove to be quite difficult. Even advanced technology needs to obey the laws of physics.
I agree with this, as OP states this would be a pre-FTL race, so it's very likely that alot of these rules still apply to them. the exception might be if they've figured out how to effectively create anti-gravity devices(but if this is the case, they would likely be an post-FTL race).
Also, an interesting point is different species will have different bar of entry to interstellar space travel. Imagine a small cold blooded race. Being cold blooded they would not need as much food to survive. Being smaller would make it easier to build a starship to transport them. Just to make things easier for this hypothetical species lets say the planet they live on is tiny with a minimal amount of surface gravity that can still sustain an ecosystem. These species would have a lower bar to space travel.
Compare that to the giant elephant sized warm blooded species that have huge gravity wells to overcome to leave their planet. These species would have to advance their technology further before attempting interstellar travel. So the ability to travel travel to other star systems doesn't tell the whole story about how advanced the species is.
I have to disagree here. yes different environments means different entry level's/tolerency's to their local space. but i believe any race capable of doing an out of their solar system trip would all have to be at some minimum level of infrastructure/technology to perform them that far exceeds our own level.
Till the carrier group ran out of food, water, jet fuel, ammunition, etc. Then they are in an awkward position. It assumes they can carve out enough of a foot hold in the new location that they can provide for their needs and industry.
Which would be trivially easy for a carrier group. Rock up to the middle east, bomb the shit out of the locals, and start producing oil.
If they show up and are hostile it isn't a given that the fight will be completely and totally one sided. In all odds the most probable technological gap and the logistics involved in it would make for a blood and devastating war on both sides.
No, if they show up and are hostile, we're toast. If they have the means to cross interstellar space, destroying us would be trivial. A planet is a big target. Hell, right now, we could destroy earth if we felt like it. Find a decent sized rock (plenty of them between Mars and Jupiter), stick a few rockets on it and alter it's orbit to hit earth. No advanced super weaponry needed, just mass and physics.
Also, an interesting point is different species will have different bar of entry to interstellar space travel. Imagine a small cold blooded race. Being cold blooded they would not need as much food to survive. Being smaller would make it easier to build a starship to transport them. Just to make things easier for this hypothetical species lets say the planet they live on is tiny with a minimal amount of surface gravity that can still sustain an ecosystem. These species would have a lower bar to space travel.
Compare that to the giant elephant sized warm blooded species that have huge gravity wells to overcome to leave their planet. These species would have to advance their technology further before attempting interstellar travel. So the ability to travel travel to other star systems doesn't tell the whole story about how advanced the species is.
Sorry, but there are a number of problems with that.
Leaving aside the possible biological issues with brain size (i.e. do you need a minimum brain size to develop advanced technology), the size of the astronaut is the least of your worries when going into space. Look at our current rockets. Most of the weight is in the fuel itself. It is the so-called tyranny of the rocket equation.
The level of technology required to cross interstellar space is an order of magnitude greater than just getting into orbit, so the size of the gravity well doesn't really matter. It just means more resources are required.
Then there's the issue of how much bigger a planet can get. Assuming life evolves on earth like terrestrial planets, the largest one we've found is only 5 earth masses (1.5 earth radii) and it's theorised that they wouldn't get much bigger than 2 earth radii.
But really the main question to ask would be why they'd be hostile in the first place? Crossing interstellar space is such a massive undertaking that there's really no reason to do it for anything other than exploration. There's almost zero economic gain. Even more likely, if a species did venture out into space, you'd do it as an AI (read Greg Egans Diaspora).
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