Wow, this would make a great Outer Limits episode. You should develop this into a script.
Nice, but being SF, it will not penetrate the consciousness of those who want us to become what you postulate in this peice, as they only read dour socially aware 'gritty' fiction written to reinforce their world view. SF is still discounted as being frivolous and the amusement of teenagers and geeks no matter its quality, depth and relevance.
The argument "We should keep Trident, or some other form of Nuclear deterrent, because if we don't we'll be a pushover for the alien invasion." is not going to convince anyone (apart from me).
Actually, it sounds great - rescued from the transnational "Planetary Regime" of the UN. Compared to what I've just been reading Czar Holdren once had planned for us, an alien invasion by beings who will give us the technology to live forever, travel to the stars, and invade multi-culti-lefty-run alien worlds with ray-gun laser blasters and blow them all up sounds lovely. Rescued from ourselves!
When's it going to happen? Come on! Where are they!?
And may I be the first to say that I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords...
I'm pretty sure I saw it engraved on the doorway into UN HQ "To Serve Man."
Good one Dale.
Sounds a bit like Childhoods End without the wacky Acid trip ending and Socialist bullshit, but yes, Wow nevertheless Dale!
You never cease to amaze me.
Rocket scientist
Rock Musician
Now Author! ;-)
So what of the motivations of the Superior tooled up ones?
You make then sound smug and hard hearted with this blank script of Conquest before us all.
Of what?
For what?
Otherwise your Startroopers are just Daleks.
When you finish the story I hope it has the same sort of "happy ending" as did Nineteen Eighty Four.
I'll buy the book.
Can't wait to see which way the story goes.
1. A small cadre of gallant Earthmen (and women), including at least one token South American, one Arab and one Jew, successfully revolt -- and gain a fresh respect & understanding for each other in the process.
2. The children of Mobutu go on a thousand year shooting spree across the Galaxy.
3. The alien's speech turns out to be cobblers, and all the aliens want is ius prima noctis for the more nubile past of Earth's female population.
Whatever. I'll still buy the book!
It's going to need a whole lot of work if you want anyone who doesn't already agree with you to like it. That said, interesting seed of a story you've got there.
Nice. I like story's with this theme.
There are many sf tales along this theme, 'to serve man' has been mentioned. I also recall a series called Janissaries by Pournelle, Another called 'with friends like these' by Allan Dean Foster, and more whose titles I have forgotten:
One where treelike beings keep taking human samples to study, but because they have the slow metabolism of plants are eventually overtaken by thier 'lab rats'.
Another our penchant for spraying insecticides actually becomes the saving grace of the human race, as we are now poisonous to the ancient farmer insects that return to round up their errant herd, us.
Another where an ancient alien race shows up to see how the life they seeded millions of years ago has fared, and is so disappointed by our pacifism they decide to reboot the earth and hope for more warlike species in the future.
All in all a favorite genre of mine.
Try expanding it into a short story or novella and see what happens. I'll give it a fair read.
sign.
smited again.
Does this make me the smote in Providence' Eye?
How about adding a twist- that the aliens are racists, and like only the colour white? Since America has a black leader, you should try some contrarian thinking.
Sounds like one of the static, insular, controlled societies that Kirk and his jolly crew used to come across, and disrupt, on a regular basis.
Mbutu's obvious response to the overlord is---"Just how big a piece of the action do you want?"
It's also somewhat reminiscent of the "Uplift" series, with certain obvious exceptions.
So how did the communists manage to create a global dictatorship without plunging the world into grinding poverty and eventually all-out war of all against all? Did they just vote to repeal the laws of economics?
Good thoughts, but this is absolutely impossible. We are more likely to exceed the speed of light in the next 200 years than we are to make communism work.
Also, I should point out that empires and patience don't mix -- since empires *always* destroy themselves, and generally destroy themselves pretty quickly. Look at the disastrous effect that a mere *one century* of imperial self-destruction has had on America!
You are wrong, Critic. Empires can last for centuries. The Roman Empire managed to hang on for 4 Centuries before Attila finally put it to 'sleep'. Empires usually collapse because of competition- but if the UN runs all of Earth, then it will last until Contact destroys it. The scenario is plausible. And some Empires are still around- The Queen is head of the Commonwealth, which is what the British Empire turned into.
That's "reined in", not "reigned in". The metaphor is equestrian, not royal. Also, "free rein".
(I don't make a habit of correcting blog posts, but literature demands a higher standard).
Alice, I'll go with no. 1, with a slight amendment: Mbotu, who is obviously(?) an African, is suddenly reminded where he (historically and collectively) came from and joins in. And then at least one token woman is played by that cute Chinese girl from Charlie's Angels. Over to you.
Shouldn't the alien chuckle while dipping into a dish of pickled male testicles?
I don't disagree with the idea of us maintaining a defence force, I just object to us getting entangled with foreign wars.
Interestingly at Club Orlov, where he is predicting economic collapse due to energy depletion, he is predicting alien invasion will solve our problems. Do you think the aliens would relax the anti-smoking regulations? Clearly we need to be ready to have some input into policy work.
I like it. Reminds me of a short story idea I had involving libertarian aliens. I never seem to be able to finish such projects, though.
Fictional blog posts on the other hand -- now there's an idea... Much easier to finish. I think Dale might have invented a new form of writing.
The Roman Empire managed to hang on for 4 Centuries before Attila finally put it to 'sleep'
The Roman Empire, as a continuous and independent political entity, lasted until 1453. Roughly a thousand years longer than you suggest.
Empires can last a long time, especially if there are no barbarians outside to knock them down.
Anyone read The Probability Broach? About an alternate libertarian timeline? The online graphic novel version is here(Link).
Anyone read The Probability Broach? About an alternate libertarian timeline? The online graphic novel version is here(Link).
I was up on a network consultancy job all night so I am just catching up. (ie, The things you have to do to stay alive and pay for your commercial space habit).
Thanks for the spelling check, on reins. that slipped right by the spelling check and was what was intended although my fingers did something different.
I will not tie myself into a lot on the story just to reserve the faint possibility I might expand on it, but this would be more a prequel that got written after a longer series set some centuries later. Earth is not going to get out of this easily or soon, and all is not necessarily what it seems.
Secondly, Mbotu is actually quite a nice guy, he just happens to have grown up in a particular set of beliefs that are now as dead at Byzantine politics the day after the fall. He is the sort who will be somewhat obedient but not an amoral SOB. He's the sort whom if you met him on a personal level you would quite like him.
The alien leader is also not a killer and mass murderer. His species simply discovered that being the biggest SOB in this corner of the milky way was the best way to live a healthy, wealthy and long life. They don't like killing a lot of people, regardless of the species, if they can find another way to accomplish what they want. They are also very aware of cost and benefit of their actions.
And of course, you should never assume your new alien overlord is telling you the full story about galactic politics or does not have his own particular brand of rose-tinted glasses. ;-)
"I don't disagree with the idea of us maintaining a defence force, I just object to us getting entangled with foreign wars."
So the defence force is going to keep in trim by fighting each other? Please.
"And then at least one token woman is played by that cute Chinese girl from Charlie's Angels."
That will certainly catch the eye of part of the target demographic.
Of course, there needs to be a place in the movie version for that cute fiddle-playing Eastern European lad who represented Norway in the last Eurovision Song Contest.
Maybe evil aliens can't stand fiddle playing -- or the Eurovision Song Contest. Remind me again why we want to get rid of the aliens?
Alice, we want to get rid of the aliens because they're grabbing planets that God put there for US to use! No, US don't mean North Americans who are not Canadians! It stands for the whole huperson race, who have a right to every star out there! Aliens are demons testing us to see if we fall for their blasphemous lies- or they could be demon-infested species who need us to teach them the TRUTH!
All Clear now?
Yes, I read 'The probability broach'. He should have called it, 'The World That Killed Washington.'
Interesting ideas, but I think that the States would have stayed on, as separate nations. They might have had roving conferences, but no real agreement otherwise. (And would that really have been a bad thing?) This means they'd have been a stronger Mormon Theocracy dominating western North America. And Russia might have hung on to Alaska.
As for Anarchy, he didn't prove the case, though the arguments are interesting.
More pertinantly, he wrote some sequels, in which anarcho-Capitalists go out to the stars, only to find they've been colonised by Hamiltonians who didn't know they'd be going backwards in time. 'The Aliens' turned out to be statist humans. Oh, woe is us!
Alice, I have always suspected that Eurovision is what has been keeping the aliens away lately.
And here I thought it was the aluminum foil hats (although I acknowledge that there is some empirical evidence that they may not be as effective as was initially thought).
The aliens seem to be good guys (your children will willingly.....) and they promise lower taxes and less controls.
However, I do not think some "New World Order" will need aliens to make it collapse.
Remember the Romans only had government welfare and other such for Rome and a few other cities - a very small percentage of the population of the Empire.
According to the "Economist" (and the rest of the mainstream media and academia) government financed health, education and welfare are rights for the whole population of Earth - the billion people in India and so on.
Such a system will not last four hundred years - it will not even last forty years.
And I have not even touched on the establishment's love of a credit bubble financial system - the Romand debased the coinage, but they never dreamed of the crazy stuff that is going on now.
Laird: no, not against aliens they are not. Unfortunately, neither would they prove very effective against Eurovision itself, seeing from the links you so helpfully (and inexplicably) found and provided that they were originally intended to protect against invasive radio signals in general, and mind-control in particular.
Dale, of course Mbotu is a good guy: I already said that I knew this the moment his name was mentioned.
But didn't Wells point out an invisible line of defence- natural biological warfare? Has anyone calculated the odds of aliens being immune? And how would we fare on alien worlds? Would we always need to wear suits?
Alice, don't worry! Since the universe exists for Humans to colonise, these 'aliens' are demons in flesh form, trying to stop us from our natural role as lords of all! Or they are demon-infested species who need us to save them!
The strange thing is, many people like the idea of the "Day The Earth Stood Still". It appeals to the idea that a benign technical class would rule the world [with an iron fist] for the benefit of mankind.
When I worked in Abu Dhabi, an Arab colleague told me of his dream that one day the UN would have the power to go into countries and overturn the wrongdoing rulers. Obviously the US wasn't a viable substitute. He had in mind the idea that the UN would eject the Israeli government but wasn't averse to them doing something about Arab despots. How will you change the UN when it gets corrupt, I asked, to no reply. It's the same thing: the abstract idea of a non partisan benign dictatorship appeals to certain people.
It's well to remember that whilst today's progressives are anti-imperialism and notionally pacifist, that wasn't always the case. Read the progressives of the past arguing for the imperial mission to civilise Africa. Interventionism is a statist impulse. I would imagine that the progressives in your fiction will just as easily switch back in imperial mode.
Aliens won't get infected by our pathogens, nor will they be eat to eat our food (or us). Their biology would be too different.
Aaron, how can you possibly know that? The alien of this story seems to be breathing Earth's atmosphere with no trouble, so it is sufficiently alike us that I think germs would be a real worry.
Above I say that we do not need space aliens to save us from the Welfare State because it will be collapsing in forty years (as opposed to four hundred years).
I think I will really stick my neck out - and say that way things are going the present system will be collapsing in four years.
Whether there will then be real reform (a roll back in the size and scope of goverment), or tyranny and chaos (not opposites as both involve the violation of property) I do not know. But the present trends can not continue without leading to total crises - and soon.