If they arrived now, it means their long dead ancestors had been advanced. The society onboard the ship could have collapsed before it reached its destination, losing their technology.Really Offensive Name said:
Why do we assume that aliens would be far more advanced than us?
- Thread starter Jacco
- Start date
Sectionalized technological advancement only gives a little bit of wiggle-room, it wouldn't allow for massive gaps between technology. For instance, humans wouldn't be driving modern-day cars and still consider the Long Bow to be one of the most advanced weapons of the day.
Mostly it revolves around an understanding of the use and control of energy. To our current understanding, it'd take a lot of energy to get from our humble home here to even the closest star, and it would take an obscenely long time to do it. If a theoretical alien race had an understanding of energy (and physics, for that matter) that would allow them to bridge the gap between stars in a way that wouldn't require ungodly amounts of fuel being packed on board the ship or ungodly amounts of time to pull it off, you can bet that energy technology would have been implemented into their weapons.
Think of technological progression here on earth. In most cases in history (at least in modern history) it was actually war and conflict that spurred the most technological advancements that went out to broader applications. The frickin' Internet is an example of that. To think that an alien race has absolutely mastered space travel and can move vast distances in a short time but would attack us with equal or lesser military weapons is about as silly as thinking an alien race that has mastered space travel would attack a planet covered 70% in water when water reacts like sulfuric acid if thrown on their skin.
.....wait...that sounds familiar....
Edit: Another comparison that shows how silly HUGE gaps in technology due to sectionalized advancement are would be the waitress at Medieval Times in the movie Cable Guy: "There were no utensils in medieval times, so there's no utensils AT Medieval Times, now would you like a refill on your Pepsi?"
Mostly it revolves around an understanding of the use and control of energy. To our current understanding, it'd take a lot of energy to get from our humble home here to even the closest star, and it would take an obscenely long time to do it. If a theoretical alien race had an understanding of energy (and physics, for that matter) that would allow them to bridge the gap between stars in a way that wouldn't require ungodly amounts of fuel being packed on board the ship or ungodly amounts of time to pull it off, you can bet that energy technology would have been implemented into their weapons.
Think of technological progression here on earth. In most cases in history (at least in modern history) it was actually war and conflict that spurred the most technological advancements that went out to broader applications. The frickin' Internet is an example of that. To think that an alien race has absolutely mastered space travel and can move vast distances in a short time but would attack us with equal or lesser military weapons is about as silly as thinking an alien race that has mastered space travel would attack a planet covered 70% in water when water reacts like sulfuric acid if thrown on their skin.
.....wait...that sounds familiar....
Edit: Another comparison that shows how silly HUGE gaps in technology due to sectionalized advancement are would be the waitress at Medieval Times in the movie Cable Guy: "There were no utensils in medieval times, so there's no utensils AT Medieval Times, now would you like a refill on your Pepsi?"
For those saying "Because if their Ships are advanced, then so are they!", what if they don't come on Ships? What if they come on Plant pods, or Meteors, or come themselves with wings? (Also, they don't need Oxygen)
It kind of does actually, you actually have a point but the space travel/weaponry correlation is different because a large portion of the technology we developed for space travel has roots in weaponry and conversely the technology to safely travel the stars is ludicrously easy to weaponise. Even being able to fire a simple heat resistant projectile down from orbit is a massive force multiplier, more so when you consider that our main incentive not to bathe the Earth in nuclear fire is that we're standing on it. Remember when there's no way your weapon can backfire you're free to deploy much more powerful weaponry and that even a rod of titanium dropped from orbit would be a powerful weapon. In addition having orbital superiority allows for moving assets between theaters much faster than a ground army.Jacco said:
In the background for Warhammer 40,000 most of the effectiveness of armies like the Astartes is that they can deploy from orbit, not that they're individually powerful. When your military doctrine is built around being able to secure a landing zone in thirty seconds anywhere you want you don't actually need particularly good weapons.
Possibly because it's not worth consideration. That transmitter didn't evolve on its own, and would have all sorts of requisite advancements before it got to where it needed to be. Technology rarely develops in a vacuum, if ever. And that's assuming they're just blasting out radio emissions. Everyone and their brother has covered the space travel angle.Jacco said:
The advanced alien specie trope is a lot easier to think about when it comes to karma: Here's what I mean, if aliens come here and it turns out we can absolutely decimate their invasion force, there's nothing to stop us from going back to their world and 'taking the fight to them'. That's a bit more in our favor karmatically but what about when we go there and find a civilization stuck in what we would consider to be the middle ages? Or a pre-industrial society or something perhaps even more easily destabilized? Humanity doesn't have a Prime Directive at the moment and if the first civilization we find is definitely less advanced than us...and what if they're in possession of something we really need like stores of helium, lithium or something else, similar though far superior?
It's easier to imagine one's self as the victim to a greater force than a greater force I think.
It's easier to imagine one's self as the victim to a greater force than a greater force I think.
The society on board the ship has regressed, I meant, not their original homeworld or us. The descendants of the people to leave are still alive in their space-going home, but they aren't as advanced.Really Offensive Name said:
There've been any number of sci-fi stories about civilisations that have forgotten their world is actually a generation ship en route to a new home.
I can't imagine that a species capable of space travel wouldn't be vastly more powerful than us militarily. The shield technology required to travel to our planet alone (assuming they used some sort of wormhole technology) would basically guarantee we couldn't even touch them. It's possible they would be pacifistic, but I doubt it. They'd probably have weapons, even if they were friendly, just to protect themselves, and if they did any preliminary scouting, which I imagine they would just to be safe, then they'd see that they would probably require weapons before making contact with us. I mean, we're developing anti-matter now, so if they had, say, anti-matter weapons then we'd get curb stomped in a fight. Of course, I can't imagine the resources required to actually invade a planet (unless they used some kind of toxin to wipe us out or something). If they're like us then some of their species would probably have space ships and some would probably be living in slums.Jacco said:
Well, it's likely that the technological advances required for space travel would not just be useful for space travel. I mean, you'd need a long running fuel/energy source, which would in turn effect the rest of society, you'd need good propulsion systems, which would obviously mean that other engines will be made as far smaller versions. You'd need advanced medicines to deal with any illnesses on the trip. You'd need some level of understanding of space, physics, chemistry, and biology, all of which would increase a society's generally technological level.
So yes, it is possible that an alien race saw escaping their own planet as a priority and had lesser technologies in other areas, but fact is, when working towards such a goal, it's inevitable that technologies are discovered that advance the rest of the civilisation as well.
So yes, it is possible that an alien race saw escaping their own planet as a priority and had lesser technologies in other areas, but fact is, when working towards such a goal, it's inevitable that technologies are discovered that advance the rest of the civilisation as well.
It assumed when a group advances technologically all areas of technology advance in one way or another. Given the advances it would take to be able to power any FTL drive(as we know them) it could be assumed that such a species would also have more advanced military technology as well. Is it absolutely certain? No, but its about on the same level as a modern country equipping its military with spears and hoplons.
In our solar system there are three planetary bodies that either have, is currently or will in the future be able support life, that's just one solar system in a universe made from billions of galaxies that houses millions of stars, each with planets in their orbit.Jacco said:
The odds of the galaxy being populated with just a dozen space faring alien races, extremely possible
This is basically the Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Which is a good book by the way.IceForce said:
OT people assume it because the technology is more advanced and also that they have a similar history to humans, ergo, that aliens are also very violent.
Edit: read the topic again, people would assume they are more advanced because usually the aliens find us first, through space flight. In your example, it is alright to assume they are more advanced because we do not have anything capable of that power, so we assume everything else must be as advanced.
That is actually a good point. We often assume aliens to be more advanced than us in general because they developed interstellar travel, while we are still locked on our system. Even in fictional cases when humanity has interstellar flight, they are often the last in the block to develop it, so we open the galaxy to lots of races that had been doing it for centuries.
But your point is totally valid. If a race/nation focuses its technological expertise on space flight, it might found less advanced than us in terms of agriculture, medicine, architecture or weaponry (as is often the case with conquered nations in the old world).
It reminds me of a science fiction story (the name eludes me at the moment) told from the perspective of an alien race that discovered fairly early in its history the basis of unpropelled levitation and, practically, anti-gravity, so they developed and used that technology to colonize space... Until they came to Earth and were baffled by our resilient to be conquered, mostly because its more advanced weapons were at the level of cannons and bayonets, while we had modern military.
But your point is totally valid. If a race/nation focuses its technological expertise on space flight, it might found less advanced than us in terms of agriculture, medicine, architecture or weaponry (as is often the case with conquered nations in the old world).
It reminds me of a science fiction story (the name eludes me at the moment) told from the perspective of an alien race that discovered fairly early in its history the basis of unpropelled levitation and, practically, anti-gravity, so they developed and used that technology to colonize space... Until they came to Earth and were baffled by our resilient to be conquered, mostly because its more advanced weapons were at the level of cannons and bayonets, while we had modern military.