The First Aliens | A Brief History of Aliens in Science Fiction
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- Опубликовано: 23 июн 2021
- Once, mankind looked up at the night sky, at the stars shining in the black abyss and they called them gods. Eventually, we realized that in actuality our own sun was just like each of those billions of stars out there in the darkness. It only took one leap of thought for someone to ask the question, If each of those stars is suns just like ours, do they have planets just like ours as well? And if they have planets, then could there be life, like us on other worlds?
In my last video, A Brief History of Space Travel in Science Fiction, we discussed Lucians, second-century work, True History, which depicts Lucian's journey through outer space where he encounters alien lifeforms. We also mention Voltaire's 1752 story, MicroMegas, which centers around a giant alien who goes on a journey throughout the universe. The fact that we have a work dating back to the year 300 AD depicting aliens shows that the idea that humans are not alone in the universe is just as ancient as the idea of traveling through space. Cosmic Pluralism is the specific term for what I’m describing here, it is the idea that there are many inhabited worlds beyond ours. Galileo didn’t develop the Heliocentric model of our solar system until the early 17th century, which means humans had been thinking about life in other worlds even before it became clear that the earth revolved around the sun.
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Развлечения
Guys, I'm sorry that I said in this video that Galileo created the heliocentric model... he only proved it, Copernicus created it. I'll just delete my channel now…
Suspended until further notice, Please hand in your library card and nurf gun
Being human is acknowledging mistakes. We're literally brains in a skeleton mech trying to navigate a world which has a neuron delay of .8s. Give yourself a break.
@Quinn's Ideas It's the internet, you own it. Don't worry about it or apologize for it, fix it and move on.
There is probably even more people who should be credited with it’s creation/discovery. But we will never know :)
...
Please don’t delete your channel 🙈😂
It's not allowed to delete your channel buddy :p . I like the ominous music at the beginning, ads to your storytelling.
Alexander the Great crying at the idea of the multiverse theory because he hadn’t even been able to conquer one entire world is really so on-brand lmao, I love it.
I sometimes wonder of Arthur C Clarke did not get it right in 2001 A Space Odyssey. Natural evolution takes us so far then aliens come along a kick it into high gear. 2010 and 2061 both kind of lead to this. But could 2001 be a prequel to Childhood’s End?
Alexander the Great is Kang the Conqueror!
@@IkeOkerekeNews ruler of all worlds
@@IkeOkerekeNews Fr he would be kang the conqueror if he had the ability to travel between planets
Dude was like “that sounds like so much freaking work”
In one Trek episode, though, Quark says something like: "say what you like about the Ferengi, but at least there are no death camps in my planet's history. Where's the profit in killing your customers?"
Ah, I found the exact quote: "Humans used to be a lot worse than the Ferengi: slavery, concentration camps, interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism."
@@zarquondam Ferengis dont having death camps have sense.
But that they dont practice slavery or wars doesnt have sense.
Slavery is done for profit, and many wars were done for commerce.
I remember that. Quark basically told Sisko that he hated the Ferengi because they reminded him of what humanity once was. But he points out that the Ferengi were never as screwed up as humans were.
Ferengi keep their women naked. Another reason why they are superior.
@@zarquondam But they basically have slavery (especially since they don't have any legal protections against wage theft), and in the one episode where they had to negotiate a prisoner exchange with the Dominion didn't Quark mention some conflict with another species?
Bit of an odd one, but Bionicle's unique yet familiar depiction of aliens, biomechanical life and technology so advanced it could be confused with magic is one of my favourites.
The Bionicle setting has to be one of the most unique in any popular media in recent years. I’d love to see more works centring on mechanical and biomechanical life-forms that are treated as just a natural part of their world.
I believe the "Andromeda Strain" is one example you were looking for, of non-carbon based life form, and their interaction with humans.
That book is super "hard sci-fi", felt like reading a real-life detailed step-by-step pandemic protocol. Which I really liked!
@@askani21 That book is based on a real event from the project setup to collect non-carbon based lifeforms
@@paulwratt Wow really? Huh, I didn't know that! So it's more like speculative fiction?
There are bacteria here on earth in extremophile conditions like poisonous lakes that are considered "arsenic based life" - I shit you not :)
Ohhh that killed the dinosaurs
'"Parallel evolution of the same species is impossible."
The crabs are trying really hard though.
Well, the defination of a species is that the individuals are able to produce fertile offspring with each other.
@@Langkowski Considering they just found a bee that bypassed its ability to breed sexually in order to clone itself, I'm not really too skeptical about Parallel evolution still having a (very ridiculously low) chance of allowing fertile offspring.
Fundamentally genes are just mechanical pieces.
@@jasondeutschbein8102 There is a big difference between sexual and non-sexual reproduction.
@@Langkowski Yes, I agree. I'm not sure what you're implying by stating this.
The difference between Carcinisation and parallel evolution is that DNA isn't necessarily fundamental to life. Aliens would likely have a completely different molecular structure to encode itself
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us".
- Calvin and Hobbes
Great profile pic!
LOL!
I love that strip
I thought this meant John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes
@@bigman9854 I think the boy and the tiger was named after them actually :)
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” - Arthur C. Clarke
We could be the smartest lifeforms which I think is scarier.
@@nadagainagain4987 thank God for alcohol 🧐🤣
I have always pondered something similar with the "edge" of the Universe. Either it just stops .. like a wall .. or it continues infinitely. Both are mind boggling to ponder. Same thing with Time.
@@thememoryhole9355 I know what you mean. I have read that if it goes on to infinite that should you trave far and long enough you eventually find another Earth which just might have another you. Only slightly different.
In both, the Universe is *ours.* In one it is simply given to us and in the other we *take it.*
"The Gods Themselves" by Asimov is my recommendation for an alien novel. It's a must-read!! When I was 13 years old I read it, pretty sure it's the reason why I became a scientist, and later on, an Astrobiologist.
Anyhow, great video!
Ad Astra
*subtly flexes*
@@Slimchimrichalds Justifiably so.
Man, imagine if the dark forest hypothesis is the correct one and our first communication with aliens is a message saying "Quiet, or they will find you".
That frightens me. 😅
However, it seems like that our planet was already an is still visited by beings not originated on earth.
Thus maybe turns the story into another direction.
More into something like „we are the planet in prometheus“.
First, we are the center of the universe, then we are the center of the universe, then we are just one planet to surround pur star - in the end, maybe we are just a forgotten or unimportant outpost, maybe a garden world in a calm region of our galaxy, where they can let their genetic long time experiments run free.
😑😑
I've been really touched, on an emotional level, by the pessimistic yet believable depiction of the dark forest in Liu cixin's trilogy.
@@thomasfevre9515 Same here. I just hope it wont turn out as an actual precise description of our reality. 😐
i would have no idea whether the "Dark Forest" or "Jungle" hypothesis is correct but after reading Greg Bear's "The Forge of God" it might be a good idea to suppose it is. we are still, to all intents and purposes, nestlings.
@@thomasfevre9515 Is this what that trilogy involves? That sounds great
Good one! Reminds me of my student's years, when I was busy writing my master's dissertation about aliens in popular culture. And so I found one big book is missing in the video. The most important one - as it depicts the situation, when aliens show no interest towards the humanity. Because usually aliens are simply the mirror for us - or they are interested in our affairs, resources, yadda, yadda... or we are interested in their resources, knowledge, advancements, and so on. It's an old mythological game - sometimes we take, sometimes we give, sometimes we are at war with them, sometimes not. But usually - there are interests. And "Roadside picnic" by Strugatsky brothers shows quite a different situation - where aliens have no intention to interact with humans. They don't care. Or, we cannot tell if they do care, which is the same. Strugatsky brothers dare to say: "what if there is no post-colonial discourse? What if aliens are not exaggerrated "us"? I encourage you all to check it - one of the greatest books about aliens, where aliens do not appear at all.
One of my favorites is Rendez-vous With Rama. The idea of an alien race sending out a probe to collect samples of alien lifeforms to bring back is intriguing. The descriptions of some of the truly bizarre intelligences are great.
Galileo did not develop heliocentric model, Copernicus did. Galileo provided empirical proofs for this theory
Seriously, it's literally called Copernican Revolution. How can you make a mistake here.
@@mixererunio1757 Oh no. Time to delete the video!
How can you react so harsh... or am I missing som friendly sarcasm? Mistakes were made, let’s not worry too much about it :)
@@Freikinator Never underestimate the power of pedantry.
@@mixererunio1757 if only you started to make some content, we could truly have a channel of perfection, I await that glorious time with bated breath.
Quinn, I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for these videos. You go beyond the tired RUclips troupe of just summarizing media and actually delve into the real world influences and themes of the books you talk about. Sci-fi has always been about allegories of the human condition and you do an excellent job explaining them. Thank you for your insights!
Agreed.
Not even five minutes in and I am thoroughly enjoying your fascinating presentation. It is well researched and you have a strong narrator's voice and a strong delivery style. If you haven't already, you should consider a career in broadcasting.
I see someone mentioned "The Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand." The first is excellent (Heinlein praised it highly) and the second is good. Another decent effort by the same authors is "Footfall."
The film "Enemy Mine" with Louis Gossett Jr. and Dennis Quaid is excellent. It has a unique approach to alien war. And I can't miss recommending "Babylon 5" for its very non-human aliens.
Pournelle's daughter wrote a sequel to the stories which I thought was very good. Of trying to co-exist with the Moties. I thought she was quite a good writer and it was a worthwhile addition to the series.
The idea of advanced aliens seeding humanoid populations throughout the galaxy actually appeared in the original Star Trek series, in the 1968 episode "Paradise Syndrome," with the Preservers. Ron Moore says that he'd considered making it explicit that the aliens in the TNG episode "The Chase" were the same as 1968's Preservers, but decided to leave it ambiguous.
The problem with connecting them is that the Preservers were supposed to have been extinct for a very long time.
That idea is central to George Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s book ‘Beelzebub’s Tales To His Grandson’
Published 1950.
Did Gary Seven work for the Preservers? Just a thought.
When I was a small boy I found a copy of Hammer of God by Arthur C. Clarke that I found incredibly compelling. What a fantastic author, whose work motivated my young imagination to think critically and examine the nature of reality.
I've been a devoted fan of Arthur C Clarke since I took up reading serious science fiction, but I found that his later work didn't seem to have the same spark. The 'Fountains of Paradise' is the latest work that I can relate to. His Rama sequels and 'Imperial Earth' seemed to be missing something, as well as a few novels that are clearly just expansions of earlier short stories. Still, his earlier work has not lost its lustre and I still treasure it.
Outside of the Rama series, my favorite is "The City and the Stars". Highly underrated story.
@@johnliller3032 That story to me is almost 'Classic Clarke'. It embodies his optimism and his willingness to tackle space and time on a massive scale. I read, a while back, that a lot of Clarke's work was written as a rebuttal again H.G. Wells' ideas about man reaching the end of the line, or petering out, or just dissipating into nothingness. "The City and the Stars" is a perfect example of that.
Clarke was one of the best
If you did that longer video, or a short series, on this subject, I would savor every second of it. Pretty sure I'm not alone in this.
Cool to watch, Quinn. Thanks! A couple of my favorite aliens in novels are 1) the scramblers, from Peter Watts' "Blindsight," which are as intensely alien as anything I've ever read, and 2) the Qax, from Stephen Baxter's Xeelee series, of which "Vaccuum Diagrams," a five-million-year-long future history of humanity, is given rapid-fire life. A truly mind-bending novel. The Qax are integral to it.
Here's a recommendation for you: "Children of Time" and "Children of Ruin" by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Yes, an amazing read I recently finished
Absolutely! Good call.
Great book(s), Ruin was sort of creepy.
"we're going on an Adventure!"
Loved children of time! Adrian is a hell of a writer
Great books
Asimov didn't write much about aliens, but when he did the result was "The Gods Themselves" which is a fascinating examination of just how alien an alien civilisation could be, while still having the strong allegorical power that many sci fi works excell at!
I highly recommend Larry Niven's Known Space work. The most famous novel in it is Ringworld, but he wrote many good and wonderful novels and short stories. Protector is a favorite of mine.
What I love about the internet is that I can find people who are interested in the same topics as I do. I love this channel, I found it because I am reading the Three Body Problem trilogy.
Xeno biology is fascinating, though watch out for the Imperium when it comes to saying that. Great as always Quinn. 👍
+Silver Templar
The magos xenobiologos welcomes you with open arms brother. Bring your own toaster.
The Black Templars would like to have a...word...with you.
Mmm sounds slightly heretical to me. Perhaps an Inquisitor should stop by for a little chat. THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!
@@sinisterminister6478 Yeah..For the Greater Good!
Oh, wait....
I’m going to need two bolters for this heresy.
Niven/Pournelle - "The Mote in Gods Eye". Straight up space opera, but with great attention to detail. I like their take on a first contact story.
Thank you! I'd forgotten I read that many years ago! As soon as I read "The Mote...", it all came rushing back.
How does it go?
Just don't read the follow up. It ruins the ending. One could say the second novel goes full Hollywood.
@@orbismworldbuilding8428 As long as you don't read the sequel it would be a shame to spoil the book for you.
An excellent story: the aliens are actually alien. I agree with the others, avoid the sequel.
I read Childhood's End as a teenager and was completely taken by surprise. I still consider it one of my favorite sci-fi books. Years ago, I read a sci-fi book about a planet where some animals had evolved with "wheels" instead of feet. Does anyone know this book and recall its title or author?
the book is The Amber spyglass by Phillip Pullman, I think
Childhood's End is Arthur C Clarke!
In Amber Spyglass it is the people who have wheels, though the animals might too - memory glitchy!
@@eric2500 I knew Childhood's End was Clarke. I was asking about the book about the planet where animals had evolved "wheels" instead of feet. I can't remember the name or the author. I don't think it was Philip Pullman as suggested by someone else.
There were wheels on alien creatures in one of Greg Bears Eon Books, the last one I think, which was actually a prequel.
I watch RUclips constantly and watch everything like this I can find so I don’t understand how RUclips didn’t recommend this to me before now. But they finally did and Im so glad they did. Awesome presentation of content delivered in smoothly professional manner. Great stuff.
I love the ideia of "implied/implicit aliens", universes and stories where you know it has something to do with aliens, but they never appear or are talked about explicitly, like the First Ancestral Race in NGE
You know all Angels had a core that could be a soul of them, so Lord Boros is the weirdest Angel, he's goes thousand of lightyears to find Saitama
I like how the Penumbra podcast does that. Not a movie or book but in my opinion a very interesting take on aliens.
The "Juno Steel" stories in the podcast take place on a human inhabited mars in the distant future. No aliens appear or are even explicitly confirmed so far, but there is a concept of "Ancient Martians", a probably alien Race that inhabited the planet before humans. Nobody knows how or why they aren't there anymore, and barely anyone knows they exist. But they left a few pieces of ancient technology that end up central to the story of the podcast.
It's one of my favourite Sci-Fi works.
@@karaqakkzl First of all; we are told explicitly that Angels have no souls, that's Biblical Canon
Secondly; you know there's a Monster God in One Punch Man, right?
@Poop Doop Neon Genesis Evangelion
I kind of like that in The Expanse although thats coming to an end :( u never see or meet the original creators of the alien tech that is used in the show
Childhoods End sounds an awful lot like a peaceful version of how the tyranids from Warhammer 40k take over worlds
Which is why all xeno scum must die. All praise the Man Emperor of Mankind!
to me it's horrible, the overlords and the overmind are evil and commit genocide. it's like the reapers in mass effect.
@@pelgervampireduck All becoming one is not genocide. It's inevitable.
@@averagejoe455 the overmind is like the borg, it must be stopped, the cycle of destruction and genocide must end.
@@pelgervampireduck In the books it's more that humanity's transformation is something that is going to happen whether the overlords get involved or not. They are midwives, making sure the the 'rebirth' of humanity is something that happens smoothly and with as little trauma as possible.
I loved Childhoods End. It reminds us not to rely solely on learned prejudices and to make judgements based on behavior, not appearance.
To answer your question about what my favorite stories about aliens are, I have two. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the My Teacher Fried My Brains series. When I’m reading stories about aliens, I feel I don’t normally think of them as different than us except for those two series. Bruce and Douglas were both brilliant in doing that with their characters. (Then again, I haven’t read a MTFMB book since 1995, so I may have changed my mind. Ha ha.) Anyways, keep making these awesome videos bro, I love them!
I think Solaris is an interesting concept, where humans are incapable of communicating with an alien species. When "communication" does finally occur, it's like a mirror, which in some ways is typically how we encounter the unfamiliar or unknown.
yes gid mivié
The novel is fantastic... way ahead of it's time.
Lem's books in general have very interesting ideas about communication with aliens, sure hoped he was mentioned in the video.
@@matthewweng8483 I think the Tarkovsky film captures the feeling of the novel (while not the plot exactly). At one point one of the characters asks "we are looking for ourselves, not aliens."
My favorite would be David Brin’s Uplift series - it’s an interesting look at humans entering a multi-galactic society. The practice of Uplift is a clever plot device & has fascinating implications.
Love that trilogy. Time to reread it.
Ok....you stirred my interest...gonna put this on the short list...
I started reading that book and never finished it. I'm going to find it again
Hi Quinn, I don't imagine I am the only one but I watched your video till the end and I have to say you are the first person who readily said they love Stephen King's Dreamcatcher book. I also always liked this story and never got why some people intensely disliked it. I thought it was great.
SSDD
Love these discussions and all the questions they raise - awesome video!
That book, "childhoods end" is fascinating. I'm astonished Hollywood never used it as a framework for a movie
All ready done. I believe it was a Sci Fi production. A made for tv movie.
@@kevinfundy3756 Yes they did and it was quite enjoyable. Charles Dance who played Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones played the alien.
Space Satan really made me think.
Well, the beginning of the TV series of the eighties V it's pretty similar.
This channel got me into reading Dune, now I can’t shut up about it! Truly, thank you. Sci-fi philosophy feeds my soul
Your voice, narration, research and time invested creating your videos has fueled a forest fire of curiosity in science fiction in me. Thank you so much!
Just wanna say it on using RUclips for 10 years almost every day and you’re the only one I get alerts for the way you explained this universe just fascinating and intriguing and I really appreciate it thank you
I like the idea of us becoming the aliens as humans speciate across other worlds. Anyways given the scope of aliens in fiction it would be neat if you did a whole series on the topic.
Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" series is an intellectually fascinating, if somewhat depressing, exploration of the idea of alien invasion, including a game-theoretic solution to the Fermi Paradox.
The short stories of Ted Chiang, one of which was the basis for the first-contact movie "Arrival," are deeply philosophical. So far he's published just two volumes of them, _Stories of Your Life and Others_ and _Exhalations._
Humanoid aliens tend to dominate tv shows for obvious budgetary reasons; it's easier to slap some makeup on a human actor than to create something truly alien. Among humanoid-alien shows that aren't Star Trek, one of my favourites is _Babylon 5,_ which combines several of the themes you discuss in this video. There are friendly aliens and hostile ones; aliens similar to us and aliens utterly different; races that are headed toward some sort of "Childhood's End" transcendence of the physical, races that have already achieved it, and races that are incapable of such transformation and are doomed to die out.
Nice commentary. I’ll look into the authors you mentioned.
I have an ignorant question though.... How did you change the type face for “Babylon Five”
(Which I was also a big fan of)...?
i sound like a crackpot talking about(i dont believe in psychics and ufo's n things) but i had a dream once that was very similar to the quantum memory weirdness in the arrival movie.
and i had a issue with a de javu few weeks before, it didnt work the way its supposed to. makes me think theres some quantum weirdness or maybe spacetime has some kinda weather patterns er soemthing
most likely was a crazy coincidence but chances would have to be like a miner finding a hope diamond inside a 20 poun gold nugget surrounded with rich platinum ore er something crazy
@@waynesaban2607 put asterisks (these things *) on both sides of the word like * *
Yes, the Three-Body Problem books are so amazing! The Dark Forest theory gives me shivers every time I think about it.
I'm continually troubled by the conclusion and perhaps continually convinced. A brilliant view on the universe hard to relate to others without all the words the author used.
As for original Alien tropes, some of my favorites come from the Lensmen Series. If you haven't read it, you really should. It's packed with many of the original tropes that later became staples of Sci-Fi.
Your channel is a gift to the internet. Keep rocking.
Childhood's End usually depressed the hell out of me. Sure, mankind evolved into something much greater than what it was, but it felt like a very tragic tale throughout.
What makes a humans human was erased, through brainwashing, stifling the mind, force and Stockholm Syndrome on a global level by demonic aliens. Then at the end of it all his home is ripped away and made a barren rock to feed and grow a God Like force. It’s framed to be hopeful but it anything but that to me. It’s a tragedy
When i used to be obsessed with entropy, i would have agreed with you. At least with this tale, some of us makes it out alive and transcends into something better.
I read it in high school. The demons were a premonition. It's explained that our psychic powers foretold the eventual end by the overlords and the overmind. That's why the the overlords looked like demons.
And yeah. whenever anyone callously mentions UFOs or UAPs or what-not, I'll just breeze over the synopsis of Childhood's End. Makes you wonder what and why aliens would ever visit us
That was an interesting telling of Childhood’s End. I hadn’t read it, so the story seemed really creative.
I found it quite scary, personally and I'd have been in my twenties. I think it's the whole Group Mind trope...
Such a sad story.
Childhoods ends is one of our favorite Clark stories…🖖🏽
it's a nightmare!
It was a damn depressing story, and the main reason why I dislike the novel. It was Clarke's take on Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker. And like so many back then, Clarke was really interested in the "next step of human evolution" and the theories of Joseph Banks Rhine. The book is also typical for the anthropocentric worldview that was common in those days. We see this not just in how the whole earth will all its millions of species is being consumed, but also when the parents on the island that no longer have their children decides to perform a mass suicide. Instead of just swallowing some pills, they make the whole island explode, taking all its plant and animal life with them.
Have you ever read *The Engines of God* ? It’s one of my favourite science fiction stories. It’s about cosmic archaeology and ancient alien’s and their monuments. It’s a MUST READ in my opinion.
I love this book! The sequel 'Deep Six' is also very good. But then I think the series begins to fall apart.
Great. Well thought out and amazingly delivered.
The quote at 10:18 should actually read: "To vote is to wield authority; it is the supreme authority from which all other authority derives-such as mine to make your lives miserable once a day. Force, if you will!-the franchise is force, naked and raw, the Power of the Rods and the Ax. Whether it is exerted by ten men or by ten billion, political authority is force." Sorry for the mixup!
That narration though..
Easy on the ear, a delight to listen to.
Ahh yes the karasian. How unfortunate
??
Ikr
One of your best videos! Loved it! :)
In the ocean of the night by Gregory Benford is utterly fascinating, yet it is mentioned very rarely
On the topics of contact with aliens and alien invasions, I’d love to hear your take on Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past, better known as The Three Body Problem. There are nods to Asimov and Clarke, yet the story is original and fascinating.
Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
Yeah, at least cite your source.
Looks at all the little lights in the night sky,
some are stars,
most of those stars will have a system of planets,
some are constellation,
most made up of millions if not billions of stars, (how many planets is that?)
and if you are very lucky, maybe just maybe one of those lights is a UFO, it just looks like a star because its standing still....
That, or you could just check out the Drake Equation
Why is it terrifying that there might be other life out there?
@@Langkowski because they could be watching us intimately right now. It’s ways could be grotesque and cruel. It could be hostile and overwhelming. It could be that we are the strange and ugly ones. Or it could be friendly, benevolent, and beautiful, but too distant for us to ever meet. And so much more…
@@fifthofascalante7311 I don't think so. Right now there could be microbes on a planet in another galaxy, which means we would not be alone. But we wouldn't be able to meet them.
Aliens would be aliens, not gods.
love your channel, so well put together every one of your lore videos
So comprehensive. I have only dabbled as far as reading Sci fi novels goes. This video gives me plenty of ideas for books to read. Thanks.
The level of thoroughness is impressive. You must've put in a lot of work. I really appreciate it.
I think C.S. Lewis' with out of the silent planet (1938) might have been interesting to talk about. Lewis' worldview is so far removed from most other science fiction writers in the way he uses aliens to explore his religious views that it is an interesting case study.
I agree - and the books are marvellous whether you share his religious views or not. They work really well in the "what if...?" way discussed towards the end of the video. "What if Christianity was true? What would it mean on the cosmic scale?" They are some of my favourite books.
Good suggestion. And you are exactly right, it's an outlier, which is valuable because we REALLY don't know what's "out there" and most science fiction (for all the variety) is pretty similar...ignoring or shunning mysticism and paranormal to a advanced degree
There's this great moment in the first book where he's been around aliens so long that when he sees a human again, he's apalled. Some of the worldbuilding is magnificent.
Quinn, as a sci-fi reader since I was a kid, I want to thank you for your inmense work. I would really enjoy to hear your thoughts about both "The gods themselves" and the Ender series. Keep the great work keeping in touch the new generations with this great literary genere. My sincere admiration and thanks.
Great video, I cannot believe that I didn’t get the metaphor in War of the Worlds before you started talking about it, I’ve never read it but thats such a clear allegory that I really should have got it just from knowing the basic plot and when it was written. Love the insight
Why am I just now finding your channel? Wonderful work, a nice calming voice along with excellent video quality. You got another subscriber! :)
I haven't heard anyone discuss Childhood's End in way too long. I love the story.
I love this, but there was actually no mention of god in The War of the Worlds book ending. Wells instead said:
_“For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen had not terror and disaster blinded our minds. These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things--taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle, and to many-those that cause putrefaction in dead matter, for instance--our living frames are altogether immune. But there are no bacteria in Mars, and directly these invaders arrived, directly they drank and fed, our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow. Already when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro. It was inevitable. By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his against all comers; it would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are. For neither do men live nor die in vain.”_
I assume it's a melding of the various retellings that take the gist of much of Wells opening and ending narration and alter it. Both the 1953 movie and the 2005 version that draws heavily on that retelling insert the idea of the Martian's being defeated "by the tiniest creatures that God
, in his wisdom, put upon this Earth". In the original literature, it is indeed not present. Nor is it in Jeff Wayne's musical rendition which is easily the better and more original/inventive of the adaptations.
@@rabid_si 1953 movie, height if the Red Scare. Throw some god in this to keep the gov't off our back?
Nice, never knew that. Bugged me hearing Morgan Freeman giving god credit.
Excellent video. I keep coming back to it. Top tier research and presentation. Thank you.
After extra scifi ended, I felt like they weren't able to archive what they wanted at the beginning of the series. I knew your channel thanks to the videos about asoif. But then I came to this videos, and, they're extremely good. You make a really good job at talking about all these sci-fi material, by far my favorite channel about science fiction media :)
My favorite alien book would probably be Wayne Barlowe's Expedition for two reasons: first, just by simple probability the majority of planets with life (if not nearly all depending on how long sapient species actually last, I have no high hopes there) would have at best mere fauna and flora so an entire book dedicated to a weird alien biosphere is rad. Second, the Aliens themselves are clearly unearthly and there is something about "humanoid" aliens that just take me out of a story, its why I also love a lot of Lovecraft's creatures.
I 100% agree.
That book is such a huge inspiration for the spec evo community
Looking it up now. Sounds amazing, thanks!
A Fire Upon the Deep and Beowulf's Children are good ones for creatively designed aliens. Also Boundary by Eric Flint - but in that one they only ever find fossilized aliens.
This, just something about otherworldly not being a specie but a mere organism or a matter is much more interesting to me when it comes to the concept of aliens in literature, like in color out of space by love craft, the "alien" is a supernatural color that is out of the visible spectrum. it's something extraterrestrial existing through natural science that makes it terrifying.
Edit: correction.
Also Sanislaw Lem's Solaris it probably the best and most alien first contact story there is.
Eden and Invincible are great too ...and Fiasco is maybe even better than Solaris...
Personally I don't care much about the impossibilities in communicating with the ocean, the philosophical conversations or the effect of the simulacras. What I like is the alienness of the ocean, all its phenomena and the feeling of isolation.
Great video. Seriously this one is probably my favorite
to Quinn: running across your channel while browsing I saw this video. I am a 66 year old white male born and raised n the deep south. In 1970 many white families banded together and created all WASP private schools. My parents offered to send me to the local private school and were financially able to do so if I wanted to go; I refused. I was a Trekky from the first episode when it first aired. I read Roddenberry"s The Making of Star Trek in 1970. I lived in a rural area and road the school bus each day. For some reason on that first day of school I took the book to school with me and found the last vacant seat that was with an African American guy named Walter. I sat down and he glanced at my book and said "Star Trek" COOL!". I knew then the real world wasn't as scary. I look forward to watching your videos; I think you "Get it".
I'm really enjoying The Expanse series.
It starts with folks discovering alien technology in the solar system and I'm really curious about the last book when we may finally get some answers.
The first five (soon six) books have been turned into a TV series available on Amazon Prime.
The authors have announced that after of the end of the saga, they are going to write something of their own but inspired on the works of Frank Herbert
Is the show good?
@@pesii1452 The show is fantastic. Acting is good, humour is present in just the right doses, graphics and cgi are gorgeous and the way space travel as a whole is depicted is very different from most if not all space tv series currently on the market.
The absence of artificial gravity alone makes for a LOT of cool moments.
@@Alexander_Kale That was honestly one of my favorite aspects of Leviathan Wakes, the lack of instantaneous fast travel and artificial gravity. Ships are built as giant city stacks to orient correctly for acceleration, and smaller ship pilots gotta get juiced up to even exist through such high g maneuvers. Such a good choice for worldbuilding.
@@pesii1452 the first three seasons are splendid. the fourth is boring and the fifth is plain dumb. when amazon took the project the quality of the story dropped horrifically, just like the last seasons of game of thrones to give you a parameter.
Whilst cosmic pluralism is a fascinating genre, one must not become too wrapped up in the notion that ancient and historical authors meant the theory of other inhabited worlds and planets literally. Many used the idea of other inhabited worlds as a landscape to populate with figures and beings that weren't examined as alien creatures, but instead as props the author could use to make a point.
'Gulliver's Travels' is an excellent example of this. Swift was not literally suggesting that beyond the seas there are other worlds populated by giants, homunculii, and hyper-intelligent horses. These different, 'alien' beings are used to exaggerate some facet of humanity for hyperbolic effect, such as war-mongering, or pedantry, or dogmatic thought, etc.
That’s exactly what Star Trek did, too. That’s exactly what great Sci-Fi is rooted in. The distant and technological future as metaphor for our current condition.
That's true of fiction writers like Lucian. But the Atomist philosophers meant the theory quite literally.
@@509Gman Science fiction doesn't have to be about metaphors and allegories to be great.
Arrival is my favorite alien film. It is also imho one of the best general sci fi films out there.
Childhoods end...... An excellent book/Film with a unique message.
From the Wiki on heliocentrism, ''The notion that the Earth revolves around the Sun had been proposed as early as the third century BC by Aristarchus of Samos,[1] who had been influenced by a concept presented by Philolaus of Croton (c. 470 - 385 BC).''
Copernicus was just the first to propose a mathematical model to represent the idea.
And also, though not directly related to this, contrary to popular belief, the fact that the Earth was round was also well-known in the Middle Ages, among scientists from esp. outside Europe, among Arabs, Persians, Indians and probably the Chinese also. It was probably only the Papal Authority that rejected both heliocentrism and round-earth.
@@AshrafAnam It was well accepted in Europe in the Middle Ages that the Earth was round. That they believed it was flat was a myth invented in the nineteenth century.
The sun is not at the centre of the Copernican model. The sun and planets revolve around a point _near_ the sun.
The problem with attribution to ancient philosopher naturalists, is there are 100 wrong postulates to 1 that happened to be correct. The Atomists were partially correct, but it was really non empirical, just an educated hunch....and it was also wishful thinking as the end goal was to transmute the atomic trait into something more desirable through alchemy.
Aristarcus is popular with the astrophysics set, because he just happened to guess correctly about their profession. Pythagoras is popular with pure mathematicians and engineers....but his concepts of cosmology was exactly opposite of Aristarcus
@@STho205 But Aristarchus wasn't just a random philosopher saying something about astronomy that gets lost in multiple other sayings. He was an astronomer who made a strong case for a heliocentric model in the then astronomical community, leading to a long-lasting debate, with other astronomers picking sides. Ultimately, the geocentrists won out because heliocentrism could not be proven. It was, correctly, postulated that in a heliocentric system we should see a parallax in stars, as the Earth moves around the Sun - and that was not verified by observations. Heliocentrists retorted, correctly, that stars could be too far away for the human eye to be able to discern their parallax but, in the absence of telescopes, geocentrism was the model that required the fewest new assumptions and thus became standard.
aliens are one of the things that makes scifi interesting to me, futuristic tech is cool but learning about alien life is much more exciting
This has to be one of the most thought prevolking vids
Quinn, great channel. Ender’s Game remains one of my favorite “Alien” novels, but you most of all, are surely aware of Ender and his universe…keep up the good work!
Humanity: *Gets harvested for computational components by the Overmind*
Quinn: "A hopeful story"
Me: " *FUCK* *THAT* !"
I like and "hate" childhood's end at the same time. I hate the olverlords and the overmind, what they do is horrible, and is it supposed to be "good" or "evolution of life" or "destiny"?.
it's horrible!!. it's an evil entity and its minions destroying civilizations.
@@pelgervampireduck Right? Everyone is all "They're helping us." Yeah, helping you onto the fucking buffet platter of a cosmic monstrosity with a god-complex!
It's like Deadspace but we're supposed to believe the Brethren Moons are the good guys.
@@pelgervampireduck Civilizations!?!?? The whole planet. Civilizations came and went in a few hundred years cycles. This is shows we dont even understand where the fuck we are living...
I haven't read the book, but from this video the Overmind reminds me to the Borg.
@@johannageisel5390 It's like the Borg but they chose the Psionics route in Stellaris.
The opposite end of us not being alone in the universe, is what if we are alone in the universe?
That we are in fact the first, the ones that hold that responsibility.
So when we see stories about lost technological advanced species like the Forerunners from Halo or the Ancients from the Stargate universe those stories are about us.
That we have to set the example, that we might be the ones helping life evolve eons from now.
That's how I see it sometimes.
Their is a rising theory that we may be the first to travel space. Space is curiously silent to the point it confuses scientists on how quiet it is and how if their is other life how have one of us not even caught a trace of each other? One solution to the question is that in terms of space travel we are truly alone. If their are others they are less advanced than us by leaps and bounds. Everything that has ever been done someone was the first to do it and in that theory when it comes to the Space Race, We might have beaten the entire universe to that goal.
If that is the case then it is a dismal prospect, since we will likely destroy ourselves before we ever evolve into something worthy enough to deserve that position.
for the emperor!
@@fist-of-doom487 Just because there are isolated tribes in various rainforests doesn't mean they are the only people who know how to travel in rainforests. Also if there was a worldwide civilisation wouldn't it build semaphore towers in the middle of nowhere in order to contact them? Clearly the lack of those means there is no civilization outside of theirs, especially not one capable of traveling vast distances that would be nearly impossible and take years on foot.
Why wouldn't we be the first? Someone had to be, and it's just as unlikely that we'd be the first, as anybody else being the first.
Some of your best work. Great job, Quinn!
What a terrific addition to your already impressive output, sir. Really enjoyed this.
I KNEW IT! I knew the Kardashians weren't human! At least in part.
"These human suits itch us!"
Quite sure their “behinds” have their own gravity fields. :)
They're much closer to Bajoran than human.
@@richjordan6461 There’s always a Bajoran to make a Kardashian boring.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge has a number of interesting concepts for aliens. Notably the plant machine hybrid species of the Skroderiders and the pack minded Tines
The Tiens.
This is a wonderful, brilliant piece of work.
It's given me a number of things to think about.
I came alive for this. Knowing I'm not alone in my thoughts, imagination and ideas through this content. Maybe I'll be another unique science fiction novel author. Was into this kind of context since I was 6, I have so many ideas about creation, life and other life forms in my mind.
Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker" is an incredible classic exploration of potential alien civilizations.
I was going to suggest that as well. Sentient stars communicating across galaxies to try to reach the Starmaker. Such an interesting concept.
Damn straight! Probably the greatest work in science fiction. Predicts science fiction ideas for decades to come. Each page is a revelation.
Yes, and Stapledon's First and Last Men.
@@weldonanderson5124 Very good as well, but less about potential aliens that are out there and more about how alien human beings could become.
Arthur C Clarke, you godammed genius!
This series is brilliant. Loving it
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy changed Mos Def deeply, he devotes his life to read and analyze sci-fi
Love the insight here!!! love this channel
Favorite book: Starship Troopers
Favorite movie: Aliens
Favorite show (live action): Babylon 5
Favorite show (cartoon): Helluva Boss (has demons instead of aliens, but still)
Really digging these Brief History of in SciFi series, sir
A very interesting video, greatly narrated and cut. Thank you for your hard work.
Love your channel, great stuff!
[Claims violence is an effective means of solving conflict]
Nuclear weapons causing mutually assured destruction: "allow us to introduce ourselves"
he has been proved wrong.
the world was literally saved by a soviet not pressing the red button during a false alarm.
The threat of violence still involves violence in the equation. MAD, thus far, has been effective too.
until the day terrorists get some correct.
basically all futurists say thats how the world will end one day, smart guy ;)
your right until the day your dead wrong...no pun intended but there it is
ITS A COOKBOOK!!
OVERMIND: "Mmm perfectly prepared sentient energies, Om Nom Nom Nom"
add zero point energy
and i will take ur entire stock
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Probably the best bookseries on alien life and lifeforms. Great video.
I absolutely LOVE these kinds of videos, but I will for sure fall asleep everytime :')
I've never liked aliens that are just not-humans, bipeds with different palettes of skin colours, different shaped heads, maybe extra limbs or eyes. The worst offender is Marvel, specifically the MCU, 99% of every "alien" species is just blue human, green human, pink human, grey human. This is why I love the Cthulhu Mythos, Lovecraft deliberately made his aliens as inhuman as possible. My favourite would be the Elder Things with their pentagonal bodies which makes them completely unfamiliar in the human lens. Unlike what you said at the beginning, I think I'd be comfortable enough with an alien that doesn't resemble us (after adjusting to the fact I'm seeing an actual alien). Other animals on earth don't even look like us, we can't expect something from an entirety separate planet to look too familiar to anything we have here.
I know that these series will have an explanation for why almost every sapient species looks the same, common ancestor, intelligent design or something. But even with that, these species have evolved separate of each other on different planets. I'm just not a fan of the trope. I like my aliens to be alien, not rainbow humans
@@TheNotoriousLARGE What about the predators? I mean, I know they don't look like much but at least they look somewhat more alien then human.
@@TheNotoriousLARGE And I agree with you, I'm really tired of aliens looking human. I like the ones that look more morbid and strange. It feels more realistic too me.
Xenomorphs
Alien and Predator too. Yes, Xenomorphs crawl around on all fours, but they still have four limbs, a torso, and a head. Predators are humanoid with clawed fingers and admittedly cool looking heads. Again, Lovecraft is the best example of truly alien creatures, like the Yith with their tent shaped lower halves and four stalks protruding out. Most sci-fi will have one or two non-humanoid species, like the Hanar and Rachni in Mass Effect or the Huragok (Engineers) and Mgalekgolo (Hunters) in Halo, but everyone else will look more or less the same.
I don't know how close it is to your idea but I'm going to recommend The Eternity Artifact by L.E. Modesitte Jr. It's about an incredibly advanced human societies first actual evidence of alien life. An artifact without a known origin. It's... not always an easy read. Modesitte isn't the best at action but the ideas in this book are pretty cool.
What an eclectic and insightful video. Don't often comment on things but this channel is just perfect!
You'll make it to a million man, just keep up the good work. Unfortunately few people read nowadays and your narration is the next best thing