Why do we assume UFO/Aliens are always hostile?
- Thread starter SinisterGehe
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Because we get bored if shit doesn't blow up.SinisterGehe said:
There is also the whole thing were we're assholes to each other so Aliens probably are too. But who knows...
Because we assume the alien have some sort of superiority complex since we haven't perfected space travel yet, they think they can walk on us? Also it could because it to do with human history? E.g. didn't some explorers are met with hostile native when stepping into a new island?
Lastly if we were talking about film, they they make the perfect enemy in a action film just like zombies are great being the enemy in fps.
I do agreed that it's unfair to potray them as hostile most of the time. Imagine if we actually did meet a friendly alien and it seen how we potray them (that scene in Race to Witch mountain).
Lastly if we were talking about film, they they make the perfect enemy in a action film just like zombies are great being the enemy in fps.
I do agreed that it's unfair to potray them as hostile most of the time. Imagine if we actually did meet a friendly alien and it seen how we potray them (that scene in Race to Witch mountain).
Although I don't grant the assumption that aliens are portrayed as hostile by default, they are certainly portrayed that way in a substantial percentage of pop culture instances, so I think the basic question of "why? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM]" is still valid.
At a superficial level, the point that dumb action movies make lots of hay with hostile, morally unambiguous antagonists who can be slaughtered wholesale cannot be ignored. Nazi, terrorists, mercenaries, and insect-like aliens- what would we do without them?
On a deeper level, I think the enduring human characteristics contribute to this. I'm talking about xenophobia and inferiority/superiority complexes. Sometimes these were products of their times, such as the monster movies of the 50s and even Well's War of the Worlds. The Man Who Fell To Earth dealt with this in a meta fashion.
You can also look at it from a historical perspective. I recognize the futility of applying human behaviors and motivations to creatures who probably have less in common with us than we do with a termite mound, but there might be some value in looking at the model for contact between human cultures who are not on very similar levels of development. It usually ends badly for the "primitive" ones. See: Gauls & Romans, Celts & Romans, Indians & Europeans, Africans & Europeans, Native Americans & Europeans, Chinese & Europeans, Mainland Asians & Japanese, and Local Businesses & Wal-Mart. Conflict seems to be inevitable unless the more advanced society is going through a guilt-ridden phase.
Really, though- there's no story without conflict. And conflict with aliens is easy to write.
At a superficial level, the point that dumb action movies make lots of hay with hostile, morally unambiguous antagonists who can be slaughtered wholesale cannot be ignored. Nazi, terrorists, mercenaries, and insect-like aliens- what would we do without them?
On a deeper level, I think the enduring human characteristics contribute to this. I'm talking about xenophobia and inferiority/superiority complexes. Sometimes these were products of their times, such as the monster movies of the 50s and even Well's War of the Worlds. The Man Who Fell To Earth dealt with this in a meta fashion.
You can also look at it from a historical perspective. I recognize the futility of applying human behaviors and motivations to creatures who probably have less in common with us than we do with a termite mound, but there might be some value in looking at the model for contact between human cultures who are not on very similar levels of development. It usually ends badly for the "primitive" ones. See: Gauls & Romans, Celts & Romans, Indians & Europeans, Africans & Europeans, Native Americans & Europeans, Chinese & Europeans, Mainland Asians & Japanese, and Local Businesses & Wal-Mart. Conflict seems to be inevitable unless the more advanced society is going through a guilt-ridden phase.
Really, though- there's no story without conflict. And conflict with aliens is easy to write.
Do we always assume that? Aren't a lot of media, be they scifi movies, TV series, books or games, predicated on the notion of an alliance or peaceful interactions with alien beings? Even in the media where there is conflict or outright war, there are often more than one faction of aliens, some friendly, some hostile.
Anyway, one of the reasons for the assumption may be the idea that, if an advanced culture meets a less advanced one, the less advanced one tends to get screwed over, even if the more advanced people may start out with good intentions, sometimes even just accidentally. It's happened a lot on this planet with different human cultures interacting and I suppose some folks extrapolate from that to a situation where humanity as a whole would play the role of the less advanced culture (which makes sense considering we are nowhere near interstellar travel yet).
Hm, guess I'm not the first to mention the less/more advanced cultures clashing here.
Anyway, one of the reasons for the assumption may be the idea that, if an advanced culture meets a less advanced one, the less advanced one tends to get screwed over, even if the more advanced people may start out with good intentions, sometimes even just accidentally. It's happened a lot on this planet with different human cultures interacting and I suppose some folks extrapolate from that to a situation where humanity as a whole would play the role of the less advanced culture (which makes sense considering we are nowhere near interstellar travel yet).
Hm, guess I'm not the first to mention the less/more advanced cultures clashing here.
We assume it because it's what brings in the cash (With the most notable exception being E.T). It's guaranteed to rake in a profit. Hostile Aliens are just there to provide a means for characters to get over there inner weaknesses and grow as people. It's just the way Hollywood works, and it's ingrained that belief onto us as a society.
1. The list of science fiction in which aliens are friendly, neutral, or a combination of differing attitudes is massive and hugely influential. ET, Mass Effect, Close Encounters, Fifth Element, Star Wars, etc.
2. But as far as the "aliens come to Earth to conquer it" thing goes, a lot of it comes down to European colonialism. Aliens ruthlessly conquer their technological inferiors because that's what we did to our technological inferiors. To quote the first chapter of War of the Worlds:
"And before we judge them too harshly, we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished Bison and the Dodo, but upon its own inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?"
2. But as far as the "aliens come to Earth to conquer it" thing goes, a lot of it comes down to European colonialism. Aliens ruthlessly conquer their technological inferiors because that's what we did to our technological inferiors. To quote the first chapter of War of the Worlds:
"And before we judge them too harshly, we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished Bison and the Dodo, but upon its own inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?"
If they aren't hostile, we wouldn't ever see them. What'd be the point of expending the resources required to travel huge distances just to visit the interstellar equivalent of a stone-age tribe in the heart of the amazon. Hostile aliens make sense because we have something they want, be it resources or prey or whatever.
For the same reason were usually hostile to other animals when their habitat is on top of something we want. If their technology is so advanced they can fast travel through space they'll probably look at us like annoying insects.
We remember what happened when Christopher Columbus discovered the new world right?
Yah I think we can take that as a good example.
Have we ever met something new in human history that we got along with right away?
Yah I think we can take that as a good example.
Have we ever met something new in human history that we got along with right away?
Well, the thing is even the "aliens" where friendly to us when one day visit us, we still we were afraid of them no matter what.
It is in the human nature to afraid something unknown without knowing what the aliens are able to do to us if they wanted war and take the Earth.
So with that in mind, no matter what kind of alien we see, we always will see them as hostile. This fear of course will decrease withn the years we live with them [if], but even then there will be human that will hate them and want to see them dying to our hands.
It is in the human nature to afraid something unknown without knowing what the aliens are able to do to us if they wanted war and take the Earth.
So with that in mind, no matter what kind of alien we see, we always will see them as hostile. This fear of course will decrease withn the years we live with them [if], but even then there will be human that will hate them and want to see them dying to our hands.
Just great, I was thinking up a good speech about the fact that they would most likely be like us but it seems everyone has come to the same conclusion, well screw it I don't care I'm telling it anyway.
Just like everyone is saying, if they found us they would probably have better technology than us, and be smarter than us which will lead to the same scenario that the American civilizations had gone through. Also if we had found them first then it would the same scenario except we would Columbus/the Spanish rather than the Americans.
To summarize it would be the same as the exploration of the Americas except in the 21st century rather than the 15th.
Just like everyone is saying, if they found us they would probably have better technology than us, and be smarter than us which will lead to the same scenario that the American civilizations had gone through. Also if we had found them first then it would the same scenario except we would Columbus/the Spanish rather than the Americans.
To summarize it would be the same as the exploration of the Americas except in the 21st century rather than the 15th.
Well look at colonization of the new world (North America) and Africa.
Native attempted a peaceful stance that only ended in them being mowed over. The Europeans needed more resources and it is more beneficial to just wipe them all out, so there would be no one left to stop them from taking all the resources. The only case they wouldn't destroy life for the resources would be the event humanity just gave up and entered a life of slavery.
Really they wouldn't have anything to gain by living side-by-side with the local life. See how the colonization of Africa went and how the Africans rose against them. It left several dead and because we left them with a weapons from an age ahead of them Africa just fell apart. Nobody, not even us, would win if they came with honest open arms.
Native attempted a peaceful stance that only ended in them being mowed over. The Europeans needed more resources and it is more beneficial to just wipe them all out, so there would be no one left to stop them from taking all the resources. The only case they wouldn't destroy life for the resources would be the event humanity just gave up and entered a life of slavery.
Really they wouldn't have anything to gain by living side-by-side with the local life. See how the colonization of Africa went and how the Africans rose against them. It left several dead and because we left them with a weapons from an age ahead of them Africa just fell apart. Nobody, not even us, would win if they came with honest open arms.
From Iain Banks Culture novel Excession:
?The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbours were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests.?
The Aliens aren't there to explore the idea of aliens, but rather as an outside context problem and how people might respond to that since they can't really say anything useful about aliens.
?The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbours were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests.?
The Aliens aren't there to explore the idea of aliens, but rather as an outside context problem and how people might respond to that since they can't really say anything useful about aliens.
We like to assume everything handles things the same way we do, as is our narrow-minded wont. The only way we're capable of introducing ourselves is apparently through hostility, takeover, and obliteration of whatever was there before us, so gosh darn it, everything else must think the same way!
You don't bring a fleet of starships over the lightyears you've traveled just to have tea.
That'll be one of my many reasons I'll mention.
That'll be one of my many reasons I'll mention.