Humanity, hell yeah!

[littlerob]

I'd ust like to start with this quote that pretty much outlines the entire direction for this thread: 'Don't mess with humanity. They nailed their god to a stick.

Anyway... Have you ever noticed how humans in sci-fi always seem to be sidetracked into being the 'average' species? We're never the strongest, nor the smartest, not the most advanced. Humanity is usually placed as the diplomat race - we may be adaquate in other spheres, but we never seem to stand out. We win because of a heroic streak and maybe some mumbling about innovation, or spirit.

But is that close to realistic? I don't think so. Escapists, I propose to you this: look at humanity from an alien point of view, rather than designing aliens from a human POV.

Take basic physiology. We're descended from tree-dwelling primates, so that already gives us agility and balance beyond most other mammals. When we came down from those trees, we had no natural weapons, no camouflage, and no natural armour. And yet we kicked the crap out of everything else we saw until we got so good at it that now we're having survivor's guilt over all the things we killed to get where we are. We did this by determination, brains and sheer bloody-mindedness. There's a reason the first practical application of nearly every new technology from fire upwards has been to kill things faster. We're a species of veritable psychopaths. Everything else on the planet kills to feed itself. We kill because the things we kill might want to kill us.

And even without the weapons that so define us, we're not that bad in the natural world now the days of sabretooth tigers and mammoths have passed. Our physical endurance is top notch. There are tribes out there today whose hunting methods consist of simply walking after an animal until it dies of exhaustion. Provided we can eat and get a few hours sleep, we can keep walking pretty much forever. We're like the god damned terminator. We aren't too shabby at ambush, either.

And all that's just in relation to our own planet. What if alien species #1 had not evolvolved amongst a host of nasty predators like we did? They'd have none of our aggression or killing instinct. To them, we'd be insane. We breathe oxygen, for a start - that stuff kills metals, for god's sake. We drink poison for fun. We cover some of our foodstuffs in neurotoxins just for the flavour. We make less powerful versions of millitary weaponry as children's toys.

Help me Escapists. I'm sick of humanity as the baseline species. We're pretty damn scary when it comes down to it. Let's have humanity be the baddest of asses like it really is.

 

[GodsOneMistake]

It would be nice if this were true, but this arrogant idea of superiority will all come crashing down when the aliens invade with their most likely far more advance weaponry....

Sorry realist with a little bit of pessimism

 

[Internet Kraken]

It would be nice if this were true, but this arrogant idea of superiority will all come crashing down when the aliens invade with their most likely far more advance weaponry....

Sorry realist with a little bit of pessimism

Well we could always end up being the aliens with advanced weaponry that comes crashing down on some other planet.


Thinking about relationships with aliens right now seems kind of pointless. I doubt we will come across any signs of alien life in this century.

 

[Vrex360]

In sci fi the idiot humans who think they are superiour are always the ones to get slaughtered. I doubt the human race would really matter much if we discovered a lot of other alien races because odds are they would be higher on the social and technological status than us and we would have to accept we were the lessers. But humans are arrogant, of this I have no doubt. So rather than simply accept it like men, they will instead try to prove to themselves how superiour they are like children. This will most likely lead to war and humanity will gets it's arse kicked.

My view anyway.

 

[Space Spoons]

Physically, humans are one of the frailer mammals on Earth... But given the chance, they can defend themselves using the most dangerous weapon in the known universe; the highly advanced human brain, with which they can devise ways to compensate for a lack of physical fortitude. Teeth, claws, wings and stings don't seem like such huge advantages put against firearms that can kill in a single shot and vehicles that can travel faster than any living creature.

So yes, I agree with you; humanity is pretty damn tough, as a race, mostly because of it's potential for growth. Even when we get beaten, our incredible brains allow us to simply think until we can find a way around (or through) the problem. Oh, and adding to the part you mentioned about drinking poison;
It's well known that H20, or, water, is one of the strongest solvents accessible in large amounts. That stuff is really quite remarkable; it can dissolve just about anything, given enough time... And humans drink it not only to quench thirst, but to sustain themselves. That's hardcore.

 

[Pandalisk]

It would be nice if this were true, but this arrogant idea of superiority will all come crashing down when the aliens invade with their most likely far more advance weaponry....

Sorry realist with a little bit of pessimism

So its all about not whose race is better, but who has the bigger stick?..

but then again anyone who says their own race is pathetic should be shot at dawn.

i'd say we have a bloody damn great chance, look at mass effect for instance, new comers searching the galaxy setting up colonies and BANG we get invaded by aliens. what happens? We kicked their asses!

so lets put technology in the corner as its what everone is gonna say as a reason to "why we suck".

humanity is a waring race at its core, we've been at it for centuries, we perfected the bloody thing no one does it better than us

we are a diverse race, with many cultures, fielding these different cultures together would be a scary idea

were tough, a generaly high pain threshold, if we look at general warfare and its leadership good leadership can come from most people as they gain experiance, were quick to learn, hell aliens probably wont have anything on us, the galaxy is ours

or at least on an equal footing, were animalistic in nature, and were good at warfare i dont see why people always think were gonna be steamrolled by any alien race..

 

[Playbahnosh]

If an advanced, space-faring alien civilization came to our planet, they would consider us VERY low in social development. We poison our planet, not caring about the fact, that when we finally succeed in killing it, we would die. We use our smarts and our advanced technology to find new and interesting ways of killing each other for territory and colored pieces of paper. The aliens would gawk at the fact that 1% of the worlds population live in unimaginable comfort and abundance, where 70% of the population lives on the brink of death by hunger, diseases and poverty. Where 90% of the planets resources are used by 20% of the population. They will probably laugh at the fact, that the great majority of humans still believe in mythical demons and gods, and we still have churches and religions built around these fantasies. They'll feel sorry for us, that we use our technology to kill and imprison each other, rather than for the betterment of our civilization and planet.

I think that's why they never contacted us, because they feel sorry for us, and I don't blame them. Humans, as of today, are still barbaric and uncivilized. We are not ready to go to other planets and meet other species from other galaxies, when we are still cannot function as one civilization on this single planet.

 

[littlerob]

Something to think about: why are aliens always thought of as more advanced? Why? What if we find them? What if we're on equal footing?

Humanity is a very, very warlike species. Nothing else we've observed has come close to us in that respect.

Basically, the aim of this thread was to get people thinking outside the box when it comes to sci-fi. Different species are going to be, well, different. Things as basic as the size of their homeworld to their grasp of geometry are going to be factors in this.

Another thing. Humans are known for our ability to see patterns in things. What if one species of aliens didn't have that mindset?

 

[Edje]

Yeah there seems to be either pure superiority or uter inferiority in scifi, rarely equality the closest one i have seen came in Mass effect

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

This thread made me think instantly of Mass Effect.

Also, OP's post made for a bloody cheerful read. Cheers.

 

[Unstoppable Wall]

My god, you singly handedly proved my theory that no serious conversation that makes sense could happen online...my congratulations you have restored my faith in humanity. What you said actually makes sense, in reality we probably would kick the holy high hell outta anything that tried to attack us, hmmmm interesting thought, my applause

 

[Lord_Panzer]

Your OP made my day. Just thought I'd share that.

 

[TaborMallory]

This is amazing. I originally thought the thread was going to be some random false optimistic boost, but I'm actually impressed.

Lately, I've been thinking of humans as the epitome of intelligence (flame me if you will; this statement can be taken many ways), and this thread nicely reinforces my recent thoughts.

 

[Sewblon]

I think that if we ever meet aliens, both species will be of equivalent strength and intelligence. So one species destroying the other will be essentially impossible.

 

[Same River New Water]

On the physical side, at least, we're used to thinking of ourselves as not particularly strong, fast or dangerous because compared to a lot of the species on earth, we aren't. We only dominate other species because of our ingenuity. How do humans usually win out in sci-fi? Exactly.

 

[Nargleblarg]

Haha the diplomatic species that always cracked me up we (humanity) would be the brutish empire that a band of spunky teenagers in spacecrafts try to destroy.

 

[Silva]

You're right in saying that humanity is wrongly represented as an "average" race in all fields, except sometimes diplomacy.

Personally I think that we're not the "baddest of asses", though your post was quite convincing in and of itself it ignores some basic realities.

If aliens come to us first, they're going to be far better with technology than we have. That means that they too probably have wars in their history, since our own history has proven that war is the great advancer of technology. That means that if they want to annihilate us, they'll have nukes (or worse) to do it, and if they have the transport to come here, then all we can do is blow up their ship while they can blow up our planet.

Despite movie jingoistics like in Independence Day, humanity would have a very uphill battle resisting any extraterrestrial attempt to destroy the planet.

With that said, in more advanced sci-fi games in which humanity has survived into the future, obviously we'll have proved ourselves in a few of those conflicts already. That means that as a species choice we'd have a few strengths over the others and, here's where you and I differ, weaknesses.

The strengths, as you pointed out, would be our warlike nature on the battlefield, our diplomatic abilities and natural toughness. Our social nature is another one I might point out, in that we are not very unified in a collective sense, meaning that destroying the entirety of us may be a questionable thing to ethical opponents, because every human leader's decision has dissenters. Our morale often receives bonuses in these games over other species as well, for good reason, since our advances over the years have been devoted to comfort and entertainment as much as anything.

Now the weaknesses. Our non-unified governments and dissenting nature could potentially make it easy for an enemy species to cull us for raw resources. Our rich terran planet would make us a huge, red target for any greedy opponents. Being subject to internal strife which an alien species may not have to deal with at all, like rebellions, terrorism and the like, would slow us down in advancing in response to others. Intoxicating practices like alcohol and drugs, which might make us look tough, have a huge adverse effect on productivity, militarily and economically. Finally, we might lose the boon of our rich planet if we keep polluting it, which happens in plenty of sci-fi universes.

 

[Motti]

Thinking about relationships with aliens right now seems kind of pointless. I doubt we will come across any signs of alien life in this century.

My theory is that the aliens will examine our media to understand us better before they invade. The first to die will be Will Smith, Vin Diesel and Bruce Willis. Mark my words.

On the subject of the topic, there is one trait that has shown itself throughout history. It's not intelligence, courage or strength, it's pure and simple bloodymindedness (sometimes followed by success). Edison inventing the lightbulb . . . after failing 216 times; man landing on the moon . . . 11th time's the charm; building the pyramids with uncounted men. We are a stubborn race, not to mention damn aggressive. I truly think that in a galactic society, we'd be the bad guys.

 

[NewGeekPhilosopher]

Somebody get Marlon Brando in his role in Superman II or something!

Humanity isn't so bad when you accept you can't change yourself to not being a Human. I mean I considered joining the Faeries Union once but they were Nasty Buggers. They snatch babies from cradles for crying out loud.

 

[Kogarian]

Why do most people here assume that aliens will magically be more 'advanced' both in technology and development?

They might just be a parasite species that's born in the bowels of a grazing animal on their planet and, for some odd reason, became self-aware through a mutation in their brain. Their ecosystem might not have any real predators and the only reason they made it that far as a civilization is because of luck. Sound unlikely? Well, the universe is pretty large.

Once we lose more of our religion and resources, we'll be shooting off ships in large quantities. We have ideas now that'll move the space around our starcraft faster than the speed of light (so it doesn't break known laws) and artificially built, closed ecosystems that can be sustained in domes or space-traveling cylinders. Just wait, once Russia, the U.S., and the PRC go to war for moon-mining rights, the start of the colonization will began.

I just want those damn aliens to leave our sex-robots alone.