@@HazeLmao That's only a presumption. We don't actually know to what degree non-human animals communicate with each other and what exactly they are communicating More to the point, though, it's Scifi. Aliens are likely to be sentient in Scifi settings
One thing I've always hated in sci-fi is when a super advanced spacefaring alien shows up and rags on earth for how poorly it treats its environment, like the immense infrastructure for space travel and advanced technology didn't harm their home planet. I at least want a better explanation than just space hippy magic.
And even if they do have a bunch of eco friendly tech to compensate I’d be like “give me a time line of your history… ok right there you did the exact same thing”
Maybe they did but... It might have took them a billion times more longer than us to develop their own technology. Without the drive for conflict and competition, we might not have the technological capabilities and prowess we have today. We might get stuck for over a millennia of being in a medieval age at best, or still live in caves at worst.
3) yes, it's magic. And here is my doctorate-level analysis of how it would interact with real physics 4) no, it's not magic. This bullshit could theoretically happen.
@@tarvoc746 1 pretends it isn't magic, 3 embraces it. 2 and 4 are similar, but I described 4 with the implication of real physics only being a vessel for justifying stuff that looks like magic (so, curie point radiators, hibernation, and a whole bunch of stuff more probably.) while 2 is described in a way that - to me- implies that it wasn't written for a person who isn't already knowledgeable in the field
is there any book that doesn’t? i can find political statements in the most random romance books, and in expected places like nonfiction. i think, as a species, despite how hard we try, we always let our bias’ slip through. i mean… everyone thought jk rowling wrote harry potter apolitically until she got a twitter… there’s other authors, who let their views slip in, but i can’t remember them rn lol
@@coyotemars5130Everything’s political, and I’d argue that trying to eliminate one’s political bias while writing fiction is both impossible and undesirable.
@@coyotemars5130 harry potter, apolitical ? Even before she came out as a terf you could tell hp was a love letter to neoliberalism and the status quo
That type 1 speech goes somewhere really beautiful but then it goes back to being horrifying and just ends with "yeah so it's no big deal if we giga-genocide all other life in the universe, they don't matter"
@@only-mint this would honestly be a pretty good twist for a sci Fi setting were the galaxy is at war and later ends with the aliens and humanity seeing through they're governments propaganda and coming together to overthrow the tyrants and establish a new galactic federation or something
@Afterword. I also think anime/manga have done well with rules based magic. Full Metal Alchemist's magic being both simple and rules based. Nen from Hunter x Hunter as well.
@@chapa3794 Rules-based magic in anime is a really good point. Was a video game anime, but Log Horizon's first season was awesome with this. I'd argue that to a large extent My Hero Academia and certainly Black Clover fall into this category where the power sets and abilities are carefully mapped out.
I thought it was going to be something like Type I: My world is not realistic enough... I've consulted biology experts to simulate how a species would reasonably evolve and shape themselves into a civilization, but I don't have the molecular theory down, people are going to laugh at my work! Type II: So... This species of alien are cat people... And this one are lobster people... And this one is squid people. And the fact that they resemble earth animals is completely by coincidence don't think about it.
@@lordbuss Well, I guess then there would also be a type 2.45: "The aliens look like humans or giant metal boxes with actors inside because the world is designed for a TV budget show and we can only afford makeup and giant puppets"
The funny thing is how the first type doesn't even explain how there are so many individuals of the alien species if no empathy would mean they let people to die and therefore wouldn't be able to create super empires
@@marcoz6281Right. Being unique in inventing empathy implies everyone else survived SOME OTHER way. That basically narrows it down to cowardice (which means no empires) or insatiable universal lust: no empathy, no politics, no debate, just "Wow you're pretty. Let's bang."
@@marcoz6281 It's not. Love and loyalty are the key to families. Even animals who are arguably incapable of anything as sophisticated as empathy still form family units or even massive herds. Your parents the leader of your family group whether they empathize with you or not, and a young person who can't take care of himself has to follow their leaders even if they can't empathize with them. So a species that is not capable of empathy but DOES practice monogamy and recreational breeding can produce a pretty enormous empire just by having a number of really big families that all agree to intermarry and work together. Arguably, this is basically why Germany exists.
"We've literally been crashing our ships onto your planet so you could have access to it." okay, but like-- why would you think that's the most efficient way of sharing knowledge?
If Aliens wanted to prove their existence to us, they could just hover their massive ships over New York and stay there. Literally, the plot of District 9 opens with a mothership hovering over Johannesburg in plain sight.
And the worst part: the top humans know all about Azorgalel, but they have blocked Earth’s access to him because they’re convinced they’re going to beat his prices any time now.
Seems like a fun little plot The small maa and paa planet competing with the multi sextillion credits demon mega corp and his horde of stockpiled Anti matter with their home baked anti matter
Settings with multiple sentient species usually fall into one of these: - humans are the best - humans are the worst - everyone is the worst - everyone is bad at something - Lovecraft was sugarcoating the bloody cosmos any of them may or may not contain one or more alien groups classified as "Mary sue, the species", which may or may not be a race of prehistoric superbeings that somehow just all died one day.
@@beeftips1628I think he feels about humanity in the same wah a good parent taking care of a teenager feels: You love then, but godammit, when they will learn to get their shit together?
I can't tell which type annoys me more: the "humans are glorious wonderful benevolent creatures with a special undefinable wonderfulness that sets them apart" OR the "fictional aliens are better than humans because the author made them that way."
And on the type 2: "Oh yeah, and humanity will rip alien fleets to shreds with boarding actions and spec-ops teams, and win with all the aliens against them. Then everyone will love them because they invented pizza and hiphop."
I prefer "humans are pretty awful, but their capacity for the awful coincides with their capacity for the wonderful, something found only in a species as irrational as humans"
"We're societist not racist." "What?" "Discrimination based on where you come from, not what you are." "That's very similar to racism." "It's totally different."
@@timmyuniboi2050that Is literally the excuse used by all racists since war exists! Well, we don't have war. How? We are diplomatic by nature, like Everyone else. You Just said you discriminate people based on their culture, and decided the best way to share technology with a primitive planet Is to just throw It instead of comunicating in any way! Shut up we are smarter than you somehow based
01:00 He just explains why an inherently evil species couldn't form a lasting advanced civilization and therefore aliens need to have human-like traits lol
2:34 There's a Harry Turtledove short story called _The Road Not Taken_ where humanity is probably the only intelligent species not to have obtained faster than light travel through gravity manipulation. However, this is because the technology is so simple that almost every other species works out how to do it at about a 15th century level of technology, which means that they go off to conquer space and all other technological development stagnates. So we have a situation where aliens arrive on near future earth and try to awe the primitive natives by attacking them with their most advanced weaponry: matchlock muskets. You can imagine how well that goes for them.
I loved that ending when alien POWs are in horror as they have straight away given this technology to humans This basically acts as a horror story but for aliens. As a new threat is incoming and they can't do anything about it
@@lemoncholly They never had a reason to, because all other civilisations they'd encountered previously were either less advanced than them, or more-or-less the same. By the way, it was pretty much a shaggy dog story, you could spend all day picking holes in it, but it was fun and original.
@@jic1 The key thing that doesn't make sense is that every other species worked it out and went off to conquer but never had to develop weapons further. So they just never fought each other?
Star Wars is the only fantasy/sci-fi universe I’ve come across that tries to treat every species relatively the same. Humans are most common due to budgetary reasons and for the sake of resonating with viewers.
@@laisphinto6372Yeah, the main conflict in basically all of galactic history is Core (where all the political and economic power is centralised) vs Rim (which has a rebellious streak and is generally difficult to control)
@@eldrago19And iirc the differences between the species aren’t just ignored. Differences are what make us unique, after all. But letting then divide us is stupid.
If you think about it, another species would have millennia of time to develop completely different moral systems. It's not that we'd be uniquely good, it's just that everyone else would be so different that they would look like space nazis from our perspective.
Sci fi universes where every species are just humans but one small thing changed are weirder. That would mean we just happen to be exactly average in every way. The only species with no weird or unique traits, in a universe where every species is basically the same. Realistically there would probably be a ton of diversity. And humans would be just as far from the average as everyone else. With some weird unique traits few other species have.
@@Houshalter True. Like in Star Trek, where (almost) every intelligent species is basically humans but with a gimmick to the point where (in Enterprise) the Vulcans are suspicious of humans for not having a gimmick
@@Mrpersonman0 Being racist against humans for being “the only species” that has racism is not merely hypocrisy, it’s something which demonstrates the claim is false.
Perhaps thats the point? A critque of enlightened liberalism? Same with the first being a critique of western chauvinism, like looking at others as barbaric and backwards, needing to be civilized
Meanwhile Warhammer Humans:Yap we are racist Xenos:Yap we are racists Tau:Yap we are communists Chaos:...Were just fuckin evil I'll est a baby for the hell of it
Type 1 - You need a PHD in physics to even understand it Type 2 - yes it is science, but i won't explain it. Look at that cool battle instead I love both
the best dynamic is when everyone involved thinks they're at least somewhat in the first camp but are firmly in the second one to everyone else. so you get interactions like Gleep Glorp the alphacenturian ridiculing humanity for never invention spacial expansion tech shortly before faceplanting on the curb because their species never invented the concept of stairs
Honestly, this drives me crazy when I see it. A universe so incomprehensibly vast, then there’s that one author who writes one of these 2 options. My favorite Sci-Fi stuff is just where there’s variety. Humans and Aliens who are good and evil, planets less technologically advanced and more. Mainly, my go to is Star Wars since it’s the most familiar to me. Sure, you have planets like Coruscant and Nar Shadaa that are way more advanced, but then you have planets like Dathomir, which is incredibly backwater and very tribalistic. Star Wars has its problems too-I always find it annoying that there’s almost always a human protagonist in a huge, galaxy-wide story-But it took the first steps and has iconic characters like Ashoka and Thrawn. There’s probably a bunch of other Sci-Fi stuff without these issues, and if you know of them feel free to tell me so I can read them.
The trick is that types one and two exist at the same time, in the same universe, and the central premise of the story is that both those things have absolutely no right to coexist, but they do
@@LordDaret on one part we have Cadians and Space Marines killing any xeno they come across. On the other we have Nobles trading with other intelligent species like the Tau and establishing relations with Drukhari, you know, the hyper-sadistic race that turns people into furniture but are somehow more polite than their original counterparts.
Star Trek, Uchuu Senkan Yamato, Stargate, etc. all pretty neatly fall under that category. It also pretty regularly features a primordial Primogenitor species, responsible for all the very similar humanoid aliens.
"The indominable human spirit" mfs when the alien doesn't just fall over and start crying after getting punched in the face (truly a universal anomaly)
@@kingofworms831 If the author is honest, it's great. My first civilization I built shattered my world view as I realized my utopia is actually pretty distopic. If the author treats it as an honest exploration great. But if the author hides all the stuff that doesn't make sense so they can preach their childish worldview it can suck.
"Why dont you share your resources amongst yourselves? We figured that out from the start." "You were literally just describing about how you just let a demon steel all of the antimatter in the universe."
And the other way around : 1) Humanity was attacked by multispecies alien empire, aiming for our destruction for theyr selfish goals. 2) *IN THE GRIMDARK FUTURE OF THE 41ST MILLENNIUM...*
Halo is grimdark done right. Because the universe really is against humanity, and humanity is losing badly, right up until the Prophets decide to backstab the Elites _before_ they finish burning Earth.
>Who are those? >Theyre us with blue skin, they think theyre pure and good, theyre just at the beginning of the journey that were almost finished with so they dont know yet
@@remliqa Humanity fuck yeah, a type of genre where humans are like great at something, could be our resilience, could be because we're vermin, could be because we're short-lived or everlasting.
I like how "only on earth there is kindness and empathy" while humanity in itself can also be seen as evil. This itself is self-righteous evilness, giving ourselves the illusion that we are the only good ones.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx We are the only extant species we know of capable of understanding the existence of other persons. There were likely other species that could, but they're dead now.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx I think you mean in the *observed* universe. we didn't check most of the observable universe, it's too big. No reason to assume there's no aliens around. Oh, and stop celebrating. Just because you have no one to compere yourself to, doesn't mean you should ignore the mountain of literal sh*t you're living in. Please move to an actual hose. Or at least a lees smelly waste disposal area.
My favourite type is "humans and aliens baffled each other with their lifestyles" Like, a human goes along and eats capsaicin or something and an alien looses their mind. And then the alien comes in chomping on cyanide and the human is terrified for their alien buddy's life. Or the human is having a great time boogieing to some old rock music, and the alien finds it odd because the music is uncomfortable to listen to with the way it thumps intensly through their body. But then the alien decides to get down to some music that makes the humans ears ring painfully. It's like, they're both so different yet similar enough that it throws everyone off. Like, yeah, they have food that each other can't eat at risk of painful death, they have music that hurts each other, their dances are different due to different physical features, maybe they have different hand to hand fighting styles that utilise these different features. But they sill eat, dance and spar.
"you're like the only species to invent racism" continues to bash someone for the species they belong to with literally zero reference to the individual talked to.
@@davidthelong2154 Oh, it 100% is. The trouble with humans is that of all our flavours, we're all the same basic thing, but this reasoning does not apply at all to non-humans. A dog is not a human. An orc is not a human. An alien is not a human. They are not just a superficial variant of what we are. They are legitimately different creatures. And a lot of what makes racism bad is a matter of subjective social values. Let's shift to another topic as an example: is it wrong to sterilize people with genetic conditions that impact their health? Oo, we're getting on eugenics. Is it wrong? Yes or no? There is no objective answer. Most of us would think it's wrong, primarily because we highly value individual rights, but additionally because of a ton of secondary values and narratives, like the sentiment that "it's wrong to play god" or "there may be solutions in the future" or vague waffling about how "it's better to live poorly than to not live," or perhaps a sentiment about what powers the state should or shouldn't have, or maybe pragmatically because the existence of those genetic conditions may be of unknown future value. For example, people with Sickle Cell Disease are significantly less likely to get HIV. Who knows what interactions other conditions will or are having that may provide insight or utility to humanity moving forward? But... unless your brain is a pebble you can play devil's advocate for yourself. These are subjective values. There is no objective answer. And that's half of racism. The first half is racism that's just objectively wrong. The second half is racism that's contrary to our subjective values. And to be clear, I don't mean by saying that they're subjective that they're not serious or important, or that we should compromise on them. I think subjective values are worth dying and killing over. I just think it's important to understand why we think things we do, especially when we're applying things to new contexts. Racism can be wrong. The Jews were not destroying society and the nazis were deranged. Racism can be subjectively bad. Black Americans are more likely to commit certain crimes. This isn't an inherent flaw in what they are. There are factors that exaggerate it, there are reasons for it, and no individual should be punished simply for their involuntary membership to a category. An alien race, however... a species that isn't human to begin with, falls far more afoul of the first. I'm far more into fantasy, and I like to use dark elves as an example. Dark elves are not humans. Dark elves are inherently evil. It's not just cultural, it's a fundamental aspect of what they are. For a dark elf, things like compassion and empathy are aberrations akin to sociopathy in humans. Now, the plausibility of such a race surviving is another matter, but that's neither here nor there. And as for how far tolerance extends, that depends on how secure you are. Presumably you're not going to wait and see and give everyone a chance when they've broken into your home and are coming at you with a weapon.
type III: Everyone is warlike, including ourselves, we should have never set our ambition to the stars for all we found is a war we weren't yet ready to fight.
@unitednations3647 the two arguably good guy factions both have a weird religious beings guiding them with wayyyy too much power -humans, with the god emperor of mankind -tau, with the Greater Good:tm: (and celestials) welcome to 40k. your best option is either fully indpendant trader, or a cult
"We have FTL travel and communications" vs "You need to either freeze yourself for several thousand years or create a generational lineage on board a spaceship so that your great great great grandchildren can arrive and pay your taxes on Tau Ceti Prime"
There's also the weird ones where humanity travels at relativistic speeds and time dilation is taken into account, so people do travel to other stars in a matter of years, but it means everyone they knew before they traveled is old or dead, possibly by centuries depending on how far they're going.
Alien franchise always been kinda weird in that aspect. How can a society even function when its normal for people to just go and sleep for a few years as a part of their job? Ripley slept through like the whole history of Weyland Yutani and like bruh
I wish there were more “humans are middle of the road” things, like sure we waste a lot of time and we wage a lot of wars but our technological advancements skyrocket like nothing else whenever we’re at war.
I actually do wonder about this. Large scale war does tend to foster innovation, but I do wonder whether, on the balance of things, it's of net benefit. People talk about advances in tech, but they ignore the mass economic destruction of the war itself, and a brief look at economies surrounding war, it certainly doesn't seem clear there's a benefit.
More like war just forces humans to put theory into practice Every technological development “created during war” was created years before the war started, with the groundwork solely being put in place. Wars simply amp up the funding and centralize efforts to turn “neat flying machine” into “flying fortress”. The ‘ideal’ scenario is an intense war every 20-30 years so there is enough time to rebuild and improve before getting back into it.
@@seigeengine bs, war is good in the long term. Ww2 has given us the modern world. The advancement is there and basically only there, specifically large scale. Not saying war is a good thing but it definitely benefits those coming after it on the condition that it isn't total annihilation. Without pressures of advancement, aka war we will eventually become wall-e in no uncertain terms.
@@tarektechmarine8209 Did it though? War fosters investment in R&D above and beyond peace time, but war also causes immense damages that inevitably have to be made up, eating resources. Meanwhile, war time development only gets to come to fruition in the years and decades following the war as the technology gets adapted and spread to more productive purposes. People talk about how WW2 helped develop technology, and it undoubtedly did, but... people don't talk about the costs. Just the expenditures in financing the war adjusted to today would be around $15T. Consider the damage to property. Significant areas suffered significant bombing. The cost in damage to property like this alone likely would amount to more than $15T, possible multiples of it. Then consider the loss of all the productive labour that those who fought the war or were disrupted by it, and never mind the damage accrued in the estimated 75 million people that died. That too has a cost on the order of $15T. Altogether, WW2's costs are at least on the order of $50T, possibly significantly higher. Were the gains really worth the losses? Would our tech actually be less developed today, or would we have figured it out anyway? There are a few clear wins. For example, the war involving heavy use of planes lead to airfields being built everywhere in massive numbers and these planes and the airfields allowed for the rise of general aviation in a way that wouldn't likely have happened without WW2.
You know one time an alien said to Earthen how trash looking Earth looked, the next day huge destroyers from every nation on Earth went to that planet and threatened if the aliens didn’t take back what they said about Earth they would flatten their planet’s surface (they did take it back) 2:08
Gotta say Mass Effect does a pretty good job balancing the the types of Sci-fi, since humans are the new kid in the Galaxy, the other species look down on them while also amazed by their tenacity and willpower.
@@dibbidydoo4318 Humans aren't very special in mass effect. Every species has it's one unique trait that makes it dominate like rock paper scissors. There is a cycle effect described where the council breaks in new species to fights the old problem like a failed ecosystem project. Humans look special because they are the latest in the cycle but the dread of humans being replaced as the special new kid on the block hangs over the pre-reaper world building.
Personally, I’m a big fan of Type 3, or as I like to call it, the Star Wars/Star Trek method: aliens are basically humans in every way. They just look a little different and they have different languages (but they also somehow speak perfect English).
The reason I prefer the later is because it actually says things I have t heard before. Like "stole all the anti matter" that's brilliant I love that so much, but the former isn't world building it's just trying to convince me being normal is awesome, and I'm sorry, I came for some Sci-Fi.
@@ShadowRulah Yeah but the so much of that side of sci-fi isn't exploring what beings without that would be like, it's glorifying something I already know about. Sci-fi is about something new, and exciting, and spacey. And i'm sure it was unique the first ten times someone did it but since then it hasn't been. If you don't want to make cool aliens, make a humans only universe, I mean dune is a classic and the expanse (not humans only but the aliens are largely gone) is one of my personal favorites. Yeah, when people put in the effort to think what aliens without something fundamental to humanity would be like, that's awesome, I want to know about that, but if you half-ass it and just make them badly autism-coded, please just don't, I can just watch the next generation to see that done well, or hang out with all my autistic friends, or something else more enjoyable. also, glorifying normality is really lame imo.
@@RowlesisgayThree Worlds Collide is done with that sort of thing- the culture clash is from different evolutionary pressures- the R-selected filial cannibals aren’t treated as being somehow morally inferior- they’re very similar to us, they just never evolved K-selection, and the other group is also pretty neat. To make a point that that future humanity would also be very different from our current one, they just casually mention that future humans don’t think that rape is that bad but at no point is any worldbuilding done there, as opposed to the effort that went into the alien species. A lot of rationalists invent wildly different aliens for purposes of parables, but the focus on that is mainly using them as metaphor “wow, it’s silly to do this! now what else does that remind you of?” or something, but the ideas given are neat worldbuilding (the wounding mind thing, the aliens who pile pebbles, the whole bodies that mitoses)
I prefer the "Everyone is awful" approach. Aliens are killing each other for good and petty reasons. Alliances are forged for political gain instead of values. Everyone does something, which would consider good and something we consider bad. ... ... ... So basically the real world, just with Aliens.
“The call to arms rings out across the dark void that is the galaxy. Its toll is answered by the iron willed devotees who are themselves but humble servants of a greater power. Who among the teeming billions of Mankind has the strength to answer the call and match to war? Come forth you mighty warriors, gather under the bloodstained banners and grisly trophies of conquest! Join now the massed throng whose aim is to rid Humanity of its blighted fate. To win famous victory on hellish otherworlds.”
@@blackjak4185 "It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that he may never truly die. Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants -- and far, far worse. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods."
Also, we sent you one of our historians to start informing you about our desert culture. But you all mistook it for a bunch of fiction books and made them into two expensive entertainment movies (featuring, on the plus side, the talented and delightful Timothée Chalamet).
Erm... Dune, excluding the possibility of a near-identical Earth history on another planet, must take place int he future. They read from the Orange-Catholic Bible, afterall.
The Book of the New Sun is styled as an autobiography from the distant future that the IRL author found and translated from a languagee that doesn't exist yet. In-universe author is writing about events that took place many years earlier, tries desperately to justify his former actions, and his whole personality and outlook has shifted due to the hundreds of other people living in his head, not to mention a few "demons" up there that are literally just never explained. He constantly tries to philosophize his behavior but can't philosophize his way out of a paper bag and just proves that he's messed up. IRL author uses universe author as a much less perfect Jesus analogue in a much worse version of the world as a weird commentary on catholic eschatology. It's... certainly something.
This feels like how fantasy worlds somehow contain people while there are ageless elves, brutal and destructive orcs, hard-working dwarves, and fucking dragons, all while the reasoning is that humans are just so damn tenacious.
@@sassas1487 I mean to be its the same as having the aliens look like humans with funny make-up or very slight differences and also hot. and don't tell that captain kirk wouldn't bang them.
In my setting Theres an alien species thats just super nice and hate violence, but they lobotomize their criminals and use them as slaves, and a myriad of other things we'd consider horrific; meanwhile we do stuff we dont think twice about that freak them out just as much.
well i got 2 alien bois where one is a sapient fungus taking humans control to make them work for them. and well they usually have the level technology of ww1 and locked within the confines of their fungal forest., and theres some foxpeople tribes where i gonna say that they have been adapted to drink sulfuric water 2% sulfur in the atmosphere idk what will go wrong in a hydrogen dominant atmosphere with the tech level of an Iron Age civilization and being isolationists and exiling people with more different thinking. idk what will that do while humans being an interstellar species would be something within this red dwarf system of a 30 hour rotation exoplanet
there was basically a scene like this in warhammer novel where a tau diplomat got horrified when seeing a servitor (lobotomised cyborg used as servant) while on diplomatic mission in imperium
First of all, nice video. I love watching sci-fi content and commenting/chatting about it. 1) One of the factors that promote the development of intelligence is being pack animals, social animals. The more complex the interrelationships, the better (do not confuse with ants that everything they do is because they are programmed through chemical/instinctive stimulation; they do not think). 2) It is impossible for a single individual to be an expert in everything or know everything, especially as existing knowledge increases, so cooperation and specialization is necessary for the technological advancement of a civilization/species. 3) It seems that diversity is natural, and just like the small mutations/variations that promote evolution, individuality promotes spontaneity and creativity. A civilization, if there can be one, without individualism will probably advance more slowly or remain stagnant. And if there is individuality, the natural thing is that if others impose something by force/authority, it is probably unfair, so others will be dissatisfied with this and will make a theoretical and practical fight against it. At various times humanity had tyrannical, authoritarian or dictatorial regimes... but they did not last. And even if an alien civilization has been dominated by, for example, alien-Nazis or an oppressive and controlling religious doctrine... there will be individuals who want to break away from that, that is, they will not all be irredeemably evil even if the majority are patriots of that system. 4) As a society becomes more complex and new ideas appear that revolutionize everything... it is also natural that new ideas and experiments of all kinds appear, there are also stages in knowledge, it is natural that something like philosophy arises first before science as we know it today... and ethics and logic is part of philosophy.
ooo this is really cool, I love hearing about this stuff! I'm curious, how do octopi fit into this? They seem really intelligent, but they aren't really pack animals. Do you specifically mean intelligent in the civilization and knowledge way?
@@Jonanation Octopuses are an exceptional case, without a doubt. But the surprising thing about their intelligence is that they simply possess it when it is totally counterintuitive for them to have it. They are the only invertebrate animals that have noteworthy intelligence, and in fact there are very, very few intelligent animals that are aquatic... practically all of them remained in the primitive fish brain stage or earlier (cetaceans such as dolphins, whales and orcas are actually mammals that returned to the water relatively recently). Also, the intelligence that octopuses have is surprising considering their very short life expectancy... it makes no sense that they are so intelligent if the oldest ones live just 3 years. Even crows/ravens with comparable intelligence can live to be 40 years old; but as I say... it's not much intelligence either: they can open jars from the inside and solve problems, but so can crows/ravens. They should be given the mirror test to see if they are aware of themselves. But as I say, octopuses are a rather strange case because they are not pack animals. I would dare to suggest that perhaps they developed that intelligence because their body is basically pure muscle without bones, so they have a much broader and more complex capacity for movement, so perhaps they developed intelligence because of that. But I have seen/heard that having a more complex form of movement, with more than 2 pairs of limbs, for example, would be a hindrance to the development of intelligence more than a promotion because the brain would have to use more resources in neurons that control the muscles of those parts. Who knows why it is, evolution is based a lot on chance and events that unexpectedly come together. Like for example, primates have always been prey more than anything else... but they still developed eyes on the front of their heads, like carnivores, instead of eyes on the sides like herbivores (which almost all primates and apes are). Eyes on the sides are more useful for prey as it allows them to see more of their surroundings and reduce the chance of being surrounded/stalked. But the eyes on the front of the head give the ability to perceive depth which is extremely useful for aiming, so... better for hunting. And well, the answer is that primates, upon adapting to trees, benefited from developing eyes in front... with which prey and herbivores animals developed a characteristic of carnivores, but for different reasons (developing hand-eye coordination to catch branches in jumps). Who knows what conditioned natural selection so that octopuses were more intelligent, at least when it came to problem solving. Perhaps because they are prey, the octopuses that usually survive are the ones that are cunning enough to hide best and evade/escape best; so natural selection would be benefiting those qualities related to cunning. But I think even with that, survival cunning has a ceiling... it's the development of complex communities that has been shown to encourage complex behaviors.
I personally think the best way to do humans in both fantasy and sci-fi is to give them one trait that actually does genuinely make them special. Eg. Even if they’re not as book smart/high IQ as other aliens their ingenuity is special, or they have the highest capability for artistic expression because human brains are flawed in a way that allows for that where everyone else’s brains are too perfect, etc. The important thing is to keep it to one trait, essentially instead of making them generic “jack of all trades” types you’re giving them things they are and aren’t good at like all the other species
Really? I notice more "These humans sure lack (insert alien's best trait)" and then 20 minutes later they're all "Human, we need you to do something clever/innovative."
Those stories tend to mostly be jokes about other species noticing how wierd and inexplicable highly specialized experts are on their particular fields. Which is something we notice about ourselves, but we semi-expect it, and the aliens just don't. Like, my favorite is "give it a whack" stories, where the aliens are mystified by the fact that a machine that should be working isn't, despote tearing it down and finding no flaws, then the human comes in, punches it, and it works, becaue _his_ first response to the machine not working was to hit it in different spots until it did. Or the stories where aliens have logically eliminated not only suffering, but all discomfort in every area they can, being mystified by humans liking the discomfort and performing better because of it. Stuff like that.
There's also the type 3: "What do you mean you don't know about Azorgael?" "Well, we didn't, so we just made enough antimatter ourselves, but then we figured out it was too inefficient, so we made a warp drive, but then it was stupidly weak, so now we can just teleport across the galaxy with our indomitable spirit"
My favorite is “humans are space orcs”. It kind of has flavors of both types. Humans are so great: because we are tough and resilient and kick ass Humans are so bad: dumb, stinky
You forgot Star Wars, where humans and other species are all war like and capitalistic. So the only difference is appearance. And Star Trek, where humans and some aliens are good and some other aliens are bad. Edit: And Warhammer 40k, where everyone is militaristic, totalitarian, and evil.
I think in 40k it is necessary to be evil, cruel and only looking out for your own kind. Doing otherwise would mean the end of your faction. Because while other fictional universes have these gray areas and questions about what is evil, what is good and how to get along with others and understand them, in the 40k universe everyone is out to get you and there are certainly quite black-and-white evil factions and gods that want to eat your soul.
@@HenkkaArtGames not really. To a certain extent, yes, obviously several factions will never engage in diplomacy and your only real option is to fight them (as the Tau found out with the Orks. And space marines. And the Nids), but a concistent theme with the Imperium esspecially is how they would do amazing is they allied with someone like the craftworld eldar or the Tau or even the Necrons. But they don't, because of there rampant xenophobia. And as such, great opportunities for cooperation which would massively benfit both sides get stomped out, leaving everyone worse off.
@@HenkkaArtGamesthe whole point of the imperium is that they're technologically and culturally backwards (compared to the golden age of man) and only survive through old technology passed down through essentially oral history (adeptus mechanicus rituals) and just throwing billions of lives at every problem. The empire under the living god-emperor was cruel to outsiders but decent for humans.
Oh, you only know Star Wars from teevee and you're twelve. Not that I'm defending Star Wars or something. It is a tale written by a moron for children and mentally stunted idiots. But really? Capitalism? Really? REALLY? It's a whole universe literally ruled by dark vs. light spiritual magic. You know... radiant beings... not crude and random blasters.
I love watching videos that can make me potentially laugh while drinking as a try not to choke challenge, I got really close with this one but I still managed not to choke. I don't even know how I'm doing that, it just happens
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
Type 1: Currency is called "credits"
Type 2: Currency is called "floorps"
Soooo...
_Star Trek_ vs. _Rick and Morty?_
@@ChaosRayZero *star wars. star trek doesn't even have a currency; they're communists
Spacebucks!
Type 1: Wants to sound "Intellectual" (is not)
Type 2: Wants to sound "Interesting" (is not)
@@nohbuddy1 This one.
I love the idea of asymmetry being explained by "A demon stole all the antimatter."
"Where is all the antimatter?"
"Time traveler needed a lot of Boom. It hasn't happened yet, but it's coming."
@@Sorain1 Even at the tiny level of a YT pfp, I can see an ace combat reference and I like it.
I think the funny thing is that humans still try to make it despite an eldritch being gatekeeping the resource
I see Maxwell's demon did more than just invent fridges
Yeah I'm so pissed that bro just threw out such a dope concept with such potential depth just for a throwaway gag
I hope that the plot of the second story is humans perfecting antimatter creation in order to disrupt the demonic monopoly
That demon might have invented capitalism but that aint gonna stop us from outcompeting that demon douche.
Itsnt that a plot point similar in accelerando or something
So that's what the Jesuits are up to
That would be very awesome
I was thinking about this too
"You're saying all aliens are evil? I can't believe only humans are good"
"Oh no, humans are evil too"
Warhammer 40K
Because we killed all the nice ones😎
There is no evil if you dont even have a concept of this term. ^^
@@tbotalpha8133you know, it doesn't work when you just blatantly state it like that👀
It makes sense that most/all aliens are evil according to human standard of evil.
“It’s best to share resources, we figured that out day one”
Well clearly azorgalel didn’t!
He's an eldritch entity from before the dawn of time, so I'm pretty sure the rules don't apply to him.
@@genericallyentertaining Unironically that sounds like a fun worldbuilding bit
@@genericallyentertainingtypical Eldritch.
Azorgolel out here with the means of production
@@colbyboucher6391, more specifically, the means of propulsion.
Type II is literally just Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Not entirely, since there are a bunch of asshole aliens like the vogons or whatever
And the first is 40k
Exactly what I was thinking lmao
Mostly harmless
except the rest of the universe is just as stupid and fucked up as earth, just with spaceships
Having an eldritch out of reality demon have a monopoly on the universe’s most important resource sounds like a great extra plot.
And when the characters finally confront the demon it's revealed that he was just bored and decided to start stealing antimatter for shits and giggles
@@toastergaming7783 Yeah, I guess if someone could just steal all the antimatter at once and store it for sale, what use would they have for money?
Basically Dune but instead of a planet it's a demon.
May I introduce you to 40k
Sounds like Bill Cipher tried a new business
Little does type 1 realize, every other species in their universe is telling themselves the exact same thing
@ScipiPurr
honestly the last part is a dead giveaway, "its okay to kill them like vapor in the wind!"
That actually makes a good plot. Every species is almost the exact same, but their supremacy makes them view the rest as barbaric and subhuman.
@lukegibson6044 you don’t need an alien plot for that
every other species we know lacks the capability to tell themselves anything even close to that.
@@HazeLmao That's only a presumption. We don't actually know to what degree non-human animals communicate with each other and what exactly they are communicating
More to the point, though, it's Scifi. Aliens are likely to be sentient in Scifi settings
One thing I've always hated in sci-fi is when a super advanced spacefaring alien shows up and rags on earth for how poorly it treats its environment, like the immense infrastructure for space travel and advanced technology didn't harm their home planet. I at least want a better explanation than just space hippy magic.
Alien prequel movies kinda did that good. The engineers use biopunk technologies
And even if they do have a bunch of eco friendly tech to compensate I’d be like “give me a time line of your history… ok right there you did the exact same thing”
Maybe they did but... It might have took them a billion times more longer than us to develop their own technology. Without the drive for conflict and competition, we might not have the technological capabilities and prowess we have today. We might get stuck for over a millennia of being in a medieval age at best, or still live in caves at worst.
That can easily be explained by aliens not being capitalists
The real two types: 1) no it's not magic, there's some science I can't explain
2) first, read my physics thesis, then get doctorate in engineering
3) yes, it's magic. And here is my doctorate-level analysis of how it would interact with real physics
4) no, it's not magic. This bullshit could theoretically happen.
@@KarolOfGutovo Isn't 3 just 1 and 4 just 2? 🤔
@@tarvoc746 1 pretends it isn't magic, 3 embraces it. 2 and 4 are similar, but I described 4 with the implication of real physics only being a vessel for justifying stuff that looks like magic (so, curie point radiators, hibernation, and a whole bunch of stuff more probably.)
while 2 is described in a way that - to me- implies that it wasn't written for a person who isn't already knowledgeable in the field
my book is def type one lol
I like the spirit and effort of the 2.
Type I: humans harbor the author's political views
Type II: aliens harbor the author's political views
Type III: Good aliens harbor the author’s political views, the bad ones don’t.
Type IV: aliens harbor the author's kinks and fetishes
is there any book that doesn’t? i can find political statements in the most random romance books, and in expected places like nonfiction. i think, as a species, despite how hard we try, we always let our bias’ slip through.
i mean… everyone thought jk rowling wrote harry potter apolitically until she got a twitter… there’s other authors, who let their views slip in, but i can’t remember them rn lol
@@coyotemars5130Everything’s political, and I’d argue that trying to eliminate one’s political bias while writing fiction is both impossible and undesirable.
@@coyotemars5130 harry potter, apolitical ? Even before she came out as a terf you could tell hp was a love letter to neoliberalism and the status quo
That type 1 speech goes somewhere really beautiful but then it goes back to being horrifying and just ends with "yeah so it's no big deal if we giga-genocide all other life in the universe, they don't matter"
Truly one of the most based speeches in existence and a wonderful testimony to human supremacy.
Because its not, we were given this world to rule it
Cut to all other aliens repeating the same exact speech in their own language just to drive the point home.
@@only-mint this would honestly be a pretty good twist for a sci Fi setting were the galaxy is at war and later ends with the aliens and humanity seeing through they're governments propaganda and coming together to overthrow the tyrants and establish a new galactic federation or something
SecCom
The two types of writers developing a magic system
-the one who develops a literal rpg system that’s meant to account for everything
-a wizard did it
And the second one is consistently superior
Outside of Brandon Sanderson, I have yet to see anyone pull off a rules-based magic system well
@@cara-seyun Works pretty well in the D&D novels.
@Afterword. I also think anime/manga have done well with rules based magic. Full Metal Alchemist's magic being both simple and rules based.
Nen from Hunter x Hunter as well.
@@chapa3794 nen is definitely not rules-based, anymore than Pokemon magic is rules-based, though FMA is a good example
@@chapa3794 Rules-based magic in anime is a really good point. Was a video game anime, but Log Horizon's first season was awesome with this. I'd argue that to a large extent My Hero Academia and certainly Black Clover fall into this category where the power sets and abilities are carefully mapped out.
I thought it was going to be something like
Type I: My world is not realistic enough... I've consulted biology experts to simulate how a species would reasonably evolve and shape themselves into a civilization, but I don't have the molecular theory down, people are going to laugh at my work!
Type II: So... This species of alien are cat people... And this one are lobster people... And this one is squid people. And the fact that they resemble earth animals is completely by coincidence don't think about it.
Type 2.5: all aliens look like humans, or combination of humans and Earth animals. Because it's cool. But here's the 6 pages of justifications.
@@lordbuss Well, I guess then there would also be a type 2.45:
"The aliens look like humans or giant metal boxes with actors inside because the world is designed for a TV budget show and we can only afford makeup and giant puppets"
I’ve created both 😭
Type 3: all aliens look like crustacean people because carcinization ran rampant on their primarily ocean based planets
type 4: all other "aliens" are exactly the same as humans, just from a different planet.
I like the "Humans are actually Terrifying monsters but also nice" type of worldbuilding
humans are space orcs ahh worldbuilding
@@siriuslywastaken exactly
DEATHWORLDERS!
@@TheKoriKasaiDEATHWORLDERS!
@@venlocity2 Yeah!
"Earth is the only place in the universe where beings evolved to have empathy. All the other beings have is horniness--where are you going??"
The funny thing is how the first type doesn't even explain how there are so many individuals of the alien species if no empathy would mean they let people to die and therefore wouldn't be able to create super empires
@@marcoz6281Right. Being unique in inventing empathy implies everyone else survived SOME OTHER way. That basically narrows it down to cowardice (which means no empires) or insatiable universal lust: no empathy, no politics, no debate, just "Wow you're pretty. Let's bang."
@@newtypealpha this means empathy is the key to family (in animals, because if you have a consciousness too you can also create empires etc.)
@@marcoz6281 It's not. Love and loyalty are the key to families. Even animals who are arguably incapable of anything as sophisticated as empathy still form family units or even massive herds. Your parents the leader of your family group whether they empathize with you or not, and a young person who can't take care of himself has to follow their leaders even if they can't empathize with them.
So a species that is not capable of empathy but DOES practice monogamy and recreational breeding can produce a pretty enormous empire just by having a number of really big families that all agree to intermarry and work together.
Arguably, this is basically why Germany exists.
@@newtypealpha it's better for me if I don't say another word, I don't wanna start arguing right now
"We've literally been crashing our ships onto your planet so you could have access to it."
okay, but like-- why would you think that's the most efficient way of sharing knowledge?
If Aliens wanted to prove their existence to us, they could just hover their massive ships over New York and stay there. Literally, the plot of District 9 opens with a mothership hovering over Johannesburg in plain sight.
@@joshuagraham104 "We come to say hello, and that we exist. Thank you. Goodbye."
And then they leave and we never see them again.
@@seigeengine Hi Rick, Bye Rick
They're very shy and don't like being a bother, so they figured it would be a good compromise.
They want us to figure it put by ourselves, they were just leaving some tips so we could get there faster
And the worst part: the top humans know all about Azorgalel, but they have blocked Earth’s access to him because they’re convinced they’re going to beat his prices any time now.
Seems like a fun little plot
The small maa and paa planet competing with the multi sextillion credits demon mega corp and his horde of stockpiled Anti matter with their home baked anti matter
Settings with multiple sentient species usually fall into one of these:
- humans are the best
- humans are the worst
- everyone is the worst
- everyone is bad at something
- Lovecraft was sugarcoating the bloody cosmos
any of them may or may not contain one or more alien groups classified as "Mary sue, the species", which may or may not be a race of prehistoric superbeings that somehow just all died one day.
Hey! The Forerunners died for *very specific* reasons, thank you very much!
@@patrickhector the chozo, however, did Not.
There's always that one race which had really advanced technology but went extinct for some reason.
@@darthutah6649 it adds mystery and intrigue
me: humans are ehhhh well they are advanced though. anyway you like the group of foxpeople?
Somehow Doctor Who does both.
Peak Sci-Fi.
That's the power of collaborative writing
Love how the doctor loves humanity and is constantly amazed by how wonderful they are, but then also thinks every single one is an idiot.
@@beeftips1628 Very accurate actually. That's just reality. Amazing wonderful idiots.
@@beeftips1628I think he feels about humanity in the same wah a good parent taking care of a teenager feels: You love then, but godammit, when they will learn to get their shit together?
"Humans are beings that spread LOVE and COMPASSION throughout the world"
Yeah buddy yeah humans LOVE killing things with COMPASSION
Kill'm with Kindness
(My sword's name is Kindness)
I can't tell which type annoys me more: the "humans are glorious wonderful benevolent creatures with a special undefinable wonderfulness that sets them apart" OR the "fictional aliens are better than humans because the author made them that way."
No need to be annoyed by that 🤷🏽♂️😂 their serve to explore different concepts
And on the type 2: "Oh yeah, and humanity will rip alien fleets to shreds with boarding actions and spec-ops teams, and win with all the aliens against them. Then everyone will love them because they invented pizza and hiphop."
Like, can we just have a sci-fi world that acknowledges, "Humans are pretty awful, but aliens probably aren't any better"?
@@easolinas1233 I'd say that's 40k, but it constantly tries to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to humanity
I prefer "humans are pretty awful, but their capacity for the awful coincides with their capacity for the wonderful, something found only in a species as irrational as humans"
"Did you know that you're the only species in the universe that invented racism." - "You... really don't see what you're doing, do you?"
I realized the irony of that after I wrote it, lol.
"We're societist not racist." "What?" "Discrimination based on where you come from, not what you are." "That's very similar to racism." "It's totally different."
@@timmyuniboi2050that Is literally the excuse used by all racists since war exists!
Well, we don't have war.
How?
We are diplomatic by nature, like Everyone else.
You Just said you discriminate people based on their culture, and decided the best way to share technology with a primitive planet Is to just throw It instead of comunicating in any way!
Shut up we are smarter than you somehow
based
@@genericallyentertaining I mean intra-species racism, not inter-species racism I suppose
@@timmyuniboi2050 Isn't that just xenophobia? Even more fitting given the context
01:00 He just explains why an inherently evil species couldn't form a lasting advanced civilization and therefore aliens need to have human-like traits lol
Hivemind civilization bro
There is a Type 3
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Luna, the moon of Terra in the Sol system"
Type 4: Huge amounts of complex lore, and planets and aliens and their ecosystems to the tiniest level.
And in the grim darkness of the 42nd millenium, there is only war.
I'm the captain of the Rocinante
@@flyingpies Protomolecule where
@@Hal34329 I totally didn't give it to the OPA.
My second-in-command did.
2:34 There's a Harry Turtledove short story called _The Road Not Taken_ where humanity is probably the only intelligent species not to have obtained faster than light travel through gravity manipulation. However, this is because the technology is so simple that almost every other species works out how to do it at about a 15th century level of technology, which means that they go off to conquer space and all other technological development stagnates. So we have a situation where aliens arrive on near future earth and try to awe the primitive natives by attacking them with their most advanced weaponry: matchlock muskets. You can imagine how well that goes for them.
I loved that ending when alien POWs are in horror as they have straight away given this technology to humans
This basically acts as a horror story but for aliens. As a new threat is incoming and they can't do anything about it
Why couldnt they just accelerate projectiles at faster than light speeds?
@@lemoncholly They never had a reason to, because all other civilisations they'd encountered previously were either less advanced than them, or more-or-less the same.
By the way, it was pretty much a shaggy dog story, you could spend all day picking holes in it, but it was fun and original.
@@jic1 The key thing that doesn't make sense is that every other species worked it out and went off to conquer but never had to develop weapons further. So they just never fought each other?
@@seigeengine As I said, you can pick holes in it all day.
Type 3: It's breeding time
Surprisingly, Ben 10
Basically just Mass Effect
"The aliens are evil"
"What?"
"Yeah they're all communists"
Imagine if instead of chaos gods 40k just had a universe-wide "red tide"
Haha xD and the God Emperors mission was to bring democracy in the form of exterminatus
Based
Disgusting
Unironically might be true.
Star Wars is the only fantasy/sci-fi universe I’ve come across that tries to treat every species relatively the same. Humans are most common due to budgetary reasons and for the sake of resonating with viewers.
They also have a Bit more seperation based on regions and Not only species
@@laisphinto6372Yeah, the main conflict in basically all of galactic history is Core (where all the political and economic power is centralised) vs Rim (which has a rebellious streak and is generally difficult to control)
Star Trek is the same except we see the universe from the perspective of humans due to having an even smaller budget.
may i introduce you to "a long way to a small angry planet" by becky chambers?
@@eldrago19And iirc the differences between the species aren’t just ignored. Differences are what make us unique, after all. But letting then divide us is stupid.
If I had to choose between these extremes, I'd, rather obviously, choose type two because it makes far more sense and is far more interesting.
I just hope the “distaste” is basically because those species see their embarrassing past in us
Oddly enough, both posit human uniqueness. Type 1 says humans are uniquely good and Type 2 says we’re uniquely bad.
If you think about it, another species would have millennia of time to develop completely different moral systems. It's not that we'd be uniquely good, it's just that everyone else would be so different that they would look like space nazis from our perspective.
@@THEBEEEANSS Could be.
Sci fi universes where every species are just humans but one small thing changed are weirder. That would mean we just happen to be exactly average in every way. The only species with no weird or unique traits, in a universe where every species is basically the same. Realistically there would probably be a ton of diversity. And humans would be just as far from the average as everyone else. With some weird unique traits few other species have.
@@Houshalter I liked 'how' Star Trek 'explained' it. All humanoid creatures near earth has a common ancestor.
@@Houshalter True. Like in Star Trek, where (almost) every intelligent species is basically humans but with a gimmick to the point where (in Enterprise) the Vulcans are suspicious of humans for not having a gimmick
2:24, ironic that the alien says that to justify being racist against humans
Ah the appeal to hypocrisy. Time honored.
@@Mrpersonman0 Being racist against humans for being “the only species” that has racism is not merely hypocrisy, it’s something which demonstrates the claim is false.
Perhaps thats the point? A critque of enlightened liberalism? Same with the first being a critique of western chauvinism, like looking at others as barbaric and backwards, needing to be civilized
@@NeostormXLMAX Maybe
The self agreeing bots don't understand racism
Meanwhile Warhammer
Humans:Yap we are racist
Xenos:Yap we are racists
Tau:Yap we are communists
Chaos:...Were just fuckin evil I'll est a baby for the hell of it
Type 1 - You need a PHD in physics to even understand it
Type 2 - yes it is science, but i won't explain it. Look at that cool battle instead
I love both
Read Hannu Rajaniemi and have both!
I have bachelor degree in astronomy, it's really hard to watch scifi
'i know i don't have good education, i just wanted fun pew pew in space!' i say as i cry into my oatmeal
Or type 3 (body) - Most think you need a PHD to understand it, but if you have one it makes less science sense than Harry Potter.
Type 3 - yeah its magic but in spacw
the best dynamic is when everyone involved thinks they're at least somewhat in the first camp but are firmly in the second one to everyone else. so you get interactions like Gleep Glorp the alphacenturian ridiculing humanity for never invention spacial expansion tech shortly before faceplanting on the curb because their species never invented the concept of stairs
The road not taken, aliens discover ftl travel and think humans are primitive, yet they got no modern guns and just flintlocks
inventing*
Honestly, this drives me crazy when I see it. A universe so incomprehensibly vast, then there’s that one author who writes one of these 2 options.
My favorite Sci-Fi stuff is just where there’s variety. Humans and Aliens who are good and evil, planets less technologically advanced and more.
Mainly, my go to is Star Wars since it’s the most familiar to me. Sure, you have planets like Coruscant and Nar Shadaa that are way more advanced, but then you have planets like Dathomir, which is incredibly backwater and very tribalistic.
Star Wars has its problems too-I always find it annoying that there’s almost always a human protagonist in a huge, galaxy-wide story-But it took the first steps and has iconic characters like Ashoka and Thrawn.
There’s probably a bunch of other Sci-Fi stuff without these issues, and if you know of them feel free to tell me so I can read them.
The trick is that types one and two exist at the same time, in the same universe, and the central premise of the story is that both those things have absolutely no right to coexist, but they do
Schrodinger's world building
The guy speaking in type I, is likely the salty guy from type II.
I think we call it “Warhammer 40k.”
@@LordDaret on one part we have Cadians and Space Marines killing any xeno they come across.
On the other we have Nobles trading with other intelligent species like the Tau and establishing relations with Drukhari, you know, the hyper-sadistic race that turns people into furniture but are somehow more polite than their original counterparts.
And then there’s the third ones that are kinda like “humans and aliens are actually not that far apart” and then we end up in a Space UN with aliens
Star Trek, Uchuu Senkan Yamato, Stargate, etc. all pretty neatly fall under that category. It also pretty regularly features a primordial Primogenitor species, responsible for all the very similar humanoid aliens.
Yeah but space UN is usually founded by humans so it is secretly just type 1.
Well I prefer that over the ones where we mercilessly destoy everything, making us no different from actual monsters
Mass Effect
"The indominable human spirit" mfs when the alien doesn't just fall over and start crying after getting punched in the face (truly a universal anomaly)
-👽
One of my most hated trends fr.
Yes, Inquisitor. This foul Xeno over here !
indomitable human spirit when indomitable orbital 𐌀ዓꝊነ𐌀፱𐌉ፕ👾🛸
Ight, face the wall xeno.
just today have i realized that You and Man Carrying Things are different people
Yeah well it helps when one of them cuts their hair
The only thing similar really is their format.
Man carrying Generic Thing
same lmao
And (the long-hair times of) James Tullos
One is where the author loves humanity a little too much, the other is where they hate it a little too much.
Type 1: The emperor is just some guy in robes
Type 2: The emperor is a worm
One uses reality to prove fantasy the other uses fantasy to prove reality
both options are equally likely as long as we have a sample size of just one planet
or there's the secret third option of humans being nothing much remarkable in either direction, but we have our own useful quirks and traits
But which is which?
What you mean?
Which is which?
And then the slow dawning realization that both types are secretly the same type
How so?
@@kingofworms831 Both are author soapboxing, but in case 1 author's ideology is represented by humans and in case 2= by aliens.
@@granienasniadanie8322 Is there anything wrong about that?
@@kingofworms831 No.
@@kingofworms831 If the author is honest, it's great. My first civilization I built shattered my world view as I realized my utopia is actually pretty distopic.
If the author treats it as an honest exploration great. But if the author hides all the stuff that doesn't make sense so they can preach their childish worldview it can suck.
"Why dont you share your resources amongst yourselves? We figured that out from the start."
"You were literally just describing about how you just let a demon steel all of the antimatter in the universe."
thats a demon
the fuck are you gonna do against him
he aint even of them, he is from hell
I mean...fucker has ANTIMATTER.
What are they gonna do? Explode with rage of thousands of suns?
3:51 we've built you pyramids so you can have free electricity yet you used it as body fridges?
And the other way around :
1) Humanity was attacked by multispecies alien empire, aiming for our destruction for theyr selfish goals.
2) *IN THE GRIMDARK FUTURE OF THE 41ST MILLENNIUM...*
Warhammer is more like "evil humans vs. evil aliens and even eviler aliens".
"everyone is a bad guy, because bad guys are cool!
Of course, the coolest guys are the Egyptian Robots, but that's beside the point"
Halo is grimdark done right. Because the universe really is against humanity, and humanity is losing badly, right up until the Prophets decide to backstab the Elites _before_ they finish burning Earth.
>Who are those?
>Theyre us with blue skin, they think theyre pure and good, theyre just at the beginning of the journey that were almost finished with so they dont know yet
@@tehValorin and all of them combined vs a galactically sized cockroach swarm and also vs a literal demons from hell
Type 3)
Alien: "Humanity is evil!"
Human: "Yes. Now perish in the name of the Emperor!"
Ah yes, the two Sci Fi types, badly written HFY and Fantasy with space travel slapped on
What is HFY?
@@remliqa Humanity fuck yeah, a type of genre where humans are like great at something, could be our resilience, could be because we're vermin, could be because we're short-lived or everlasting.
@@rust5427 yeah, no, the first type is more like western chauvinism applied to the whole universe
@@minestar2247 I'm referring to the definition of HFY. It's a subreddit
There's _good_ HFY? HFY that isn't white supremacism for sci-fi nerds?
I like how "only on earth there is kindness and empathy" while humanity in itself can also be seen as evil. This itself is self-righteous evilness, giving ourselves the illusion that we are the only good ones.
we're the only ones, period. we're all of the good and all of the evil in the observable universe. 💪💪💪🌏💯
@@xXx_Regulus_xXxHuman Supremacy vibes. I F with it.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx We are the only extant species we know of capable of understanding the existence of other persons.
There were likely other species that could, but they're dead now.
@@xXx_Regulus_xXx I think you mean in the *observed* universe. we didn't check most of the observable universe, it's too big. No reason to assume there's no aliens around.
Oh, and stop celebrating. Just because you have no one to compere yourself to, doesn't mean you should ignore the mountain of literal sh*t you're living in. Please move to an actual hose. Or at least a lees smelly waste disposal area.
@@seigeengine Or just far away that we can't interact with
My favourite type is "humans and aliens baffled each other with their lifestyles"
Like, a human goes along and eats capsaicin or something and an alien looses their mind. And then the alien comes in chomping on cyanide and the human is terrified for their alien buddy's life.
Or the human is having a great time boogieing to some old rock music, and the alien finds it odd because the music is uncomfortable to listen to with the way it thumps intensly through their body. But then the alien decides to get down to some music that makes the humans ears ring painfully.
It's like, they're both so different yet similar enough that it throws everyone off. Like, yeah, they have food that each other can't eat at risk of painful death, they have music that hurts each other, their dances are different due to different physical features, maybe they have different hand to hand fighting styles that utilise these different features. But they sill eat, dance and spar.
"you're like the only species to invent racism" continues to bash someone for the species they belong to with literally zero reference to the individual talked to.
Said racism. Not speciesm. One is when you’re fighting eachother, and the other is when you’re fighting other species.
It isn't racism to say "wow, these dogs sure do bark, huh?"
@@davidthelong2154 Oh, it 100% is.
The trouble with humans is that of all our flavours, we're all the same basic thing, but this reasoning does not apply at all to non-humans.
A dog is not a human. An orc is not a human. An alien is not a human.
They are not just a superficial variant of what we are. They are legitimately different creatures.
And a lot of what makes racism bad is a matter of subjective social values.
Let's shift to another topic as an example: is it wrong to sterilize people with genetic conditions that impact their health? Oo, we're getting on eugenics. Is it wrong? Yes or no?
There is no objective answer. Most of us would think it's wrong, primarily because we highly value individual rights, but additionally because of a ton of secondary values and narratives, like the sentiment that "it's wrong to play god" or "there may be solutions in the future" or vague waffling about how "it's better to live poorly than to not live," or perhaps a sentiment about what powers the state should or shouldn't have, or maybe pragmatically because the existence of those genetic conditions may be of unknown future value. For example, people with Sickle Cell Disease are significantly less likely to get HIV. Who knows what interactions other conditions will or are having that may provide insight or utility to humanity moving forward?
But... unless your brain is a pebble you can play devil's advocate for yourself.
These are subjective values. There is no objective answer.
And that's half of racism. The first half is racism that's just objectively wrong. The second half is racism that's contrary to our subjective values.
And to be clear, I don't mean by saying that they're subjective that they're not serious or important, or that we should compromise on them. I think subjective values are worth dying and killing over.
I just think it's important to understand why we think things we do, especially when we're applying things to new contexts.
Racism can be wrong. The Jews were not destroying society and the nazis were deranged.
Racism can be subjectively bad. Black Americans are more likely to commit certain crimes. This isn't an inherent flaw in what they are. There are factors that exaggerate it, there are reasons for it, and no individual should be punished simply for their involuntary membership to a category.
An alien race, however... a species that isn't human to begin with, falls far more afoul of the first. I'm far more into fantasy, and I like to use dark elves as an example. Dark elves are not humans. Dark elves are inherently evil. It's not just cultural, it's a fundamental aspect of what they are. For a dark elf, things like compassion and empathy are aberrations akin to sociopathy in humans. Now, the plausibility of such a race surviving is another matter, but that's neither here nor there.
And as for how far tolerance extends, that depends on how secure you are. Presumably you're not going to wait and see and give everyone a chance when they've broken into your home and are coming at you with a weapon.
@@seigeengine this
@@davidthelong2154 can you verbalise why it isn't?
basically Humans Are Space Elves vs Humans Are Space Orcs
Type 3: everyone is an asshole, we've gone back to using swords and shields, FOR THE EMPEROR
Both authors' philosophies are defined by hatred, one for oneself and other for the others
You caught it. When the reality is probably something in-between: no species is uniquely bad or good. We all are just scraping by in the universe.
nah. 2nd one is more realistic. 1st one is basically when the writer is out of touch with reality
type III: Everyone is warlike, including ourselves, we should have never set our ambition to the stars for all we found is a war we weren't yet ready to fight.
Warhammer
@@Volcano22207 I think I recognize you? We used to be in the same server on discord right?
Type IV.
"Centuries of exploration and we never found another intelligent species. Why nobody seem to ... Oh look highly suspicious ruins !"
Doctor Who can be both, sometimes in the same episode depending on what the team is taking
both options are equally likely as long as we have a sample size of just one planet
Statisticians hate this trick!
Type 1: human roasting alien.
Type 2: alien roasting human.
I love that this are both perspectives of how people in the Imperium of Man in warhammer 40k sees itself 😂
You either go 40k or hitchhiker's guide
@unitednations3647 the two arguably good guy factions both have a weird religious beings guiding them with wayyyy too much power
-humans, with the god emperor of mankind
-tau, with the Greater Good:tm: (and celestials)
welcome to 40k. your best option is either fully indpendant trader, or a cult
"We have FTL travel and communications"
vs
"You need to either freeze yourself for several thousand years or create a generational lineage on board a spaceship so that your great great great grandchildren can arrive and pay your taxes on Tau Ceti Prime"
There's also the weird ones where humanity travels at relativistic speeds and time dilation is taken into account, so people do travel to other stars in a matter of years, but it means everyone they knew before they traveled is old or dead, possibly by centuries depending on how far they're going.
Alien franchise always been kinda weird in that aspect. How can a society even function when its normal for people to just go and sleep for a few years as a part of their job? Ripley slept through like the whole history of Weyland Yutani and like bruh
1: Three Body Problem
2: The Star Wars Prequels
Out of all genres, sci-fi is the one in which this could be a series off of this concept alone and end up in comic con next season.
Ever heard of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy?
I wish there were more “humans are middle of the road” things, like sure we waste a lot of time and we wage a lot of wars but our technological advancements skyrocket like nothing else whenever we’re at war.
I actually do wonder about this.
Large scale war does tend to foster innovation, but I do wonder whether, on the balance of things, it's of net benefit. People talk about advances in tech, but they ignore the mass economic destruction of the war itself, and a brief look at economies surrounding war, it certainly doesn't seem clear there's a benefit.
More like war just forces humans to put theory into practice
Every technological development “created during war” was created years before the war started, with the groundwork solely being put in place. Wars simply amp up the funding and centralize efforts to turn “neat flying machine” into “flying fortress”.
The ‘ideal’ scenario is an intense war every 20-30 years so there is enough time to rebuild and improve before getting back into it.
@@seigeengine bs, war is good in the long term. Ww2 has given us the modern world. The advancement is there and basically only there, specifically large scale. Not saying war is a good thing but it definitely benefits those coming after it on the condition that it isn't total annihilation. Without pressures of advancement, aka war we will eventually become wall-e in no uncertain terms.
@@tarektechmarine8209 Did it though?
War fosters investment in R&D above and beyond peace time, but war also causes immense damages that inevitably have to be made up, eating resources. Meanwhile, war time development only gets to come to fruition in the years and decades following the war as the technology gets adapted and spread to more productive purposes.
People talk about how WW2 helped develop technology, and it undoubtedly did, but... people don't talk about the costs. Just the expenditures in financing the war adjusted to today would be around $15T. Consider the damage to property. Significant areas suffered significant bombing. The cost in damage to property like this alone likely would amount to more than $15T, possible multiples of it. Then consider the loss of all the productive labour that those who fought the war or were disrupted by it, and never mind the damage accrued in the estimated 75 million people that died. That too has a cost on the order of $15T.
Altogether, WW2's costs are at least on the order of $50T, possibly significantly higher.
Were the gains really worth the losses? Would our tech actually be less developed today, or would we have figured it out anyway?
There are a few clear wins. For example, the war involving heavy use of planes lead to airfields being built everywhere in massive numbers and these planes and the airfields allowed for the rise of general aviation in a way that wouldn't likely have happened without WW2.
@@tarektechmarine8209 are you delusional
You know one time an alien said to Earthen how trash looking Earth looked, the next day huge destroyers from every nation on Earth went to that planet and threatened if the aliens didn’t take back what they said about Earth they would flatten their planet’s surface (they did take it back) 2:08
> stole all the antimatter
I laughed so hard after this
Gotta say Mass Effect does a pretty good job balancing the the types of Sci-fi, since humans are the new kid in the Galaxy, the other species look down on them while also amazed by their tenacity and willpower.
it didn't balance it, its still type 1. looking down on humans is something that both sci-fi types do, it just happens to be true in type 2.
@@dibbidydoo4318 Type 1 at its extreme is facist. Type 2 at its extreme is absurdly misanthropist.
@@dibbidydoo4318 Humans aren't very special in mass effect. Every species has it's one unique trait that makes it dominate like rock paper scissors. There is a cycle effect described where the council breaks in new species to fights the old problem like a failed ecosystem project. Humans look special because they are the latest in the cycle but the dread of humans being replaced as the special new kid on the block hangs over the pre-reaper world building.
1. Warhammer 40k
2. Mass effect
Personally, I’m a big fan of Type 3, or as I like to call it, the Star Wars/Star Trek method: aliens are basically humans in every way. They just look a little different and they have different languages (but they also somehow speak perfect English).
The reason I prefer the later is because it actually says things I have t heard before. Like "stole all the anti matter" that's brilliant I love that so much, but the former isn't world building it's just trying to convince me being normal is awesome, and I'm sorry, I came for some Sci-Fi.
The exploration of what might make humanity unique and what beings without those factors would be like is peak sci-fi.
@@ShadowRulahI prefer the cosmological principle on every level. We must be average... Probably
@@ShadowRulah Yeah but the so much of that side of sci-fi isn't exploring what beings without that would be like, it's glorifying something I already know about. Sci-fi is about something new, and exciting, and spacey. And i'm sure it was unique the first ten times someone did it but since then it hasn't been. If you don't want to make cool aliens, make a humans only universe, I mean dune is a classic and the expanse (not humans only but the aliens are largely gone) is one of my personal favorites. Yeah, when people put in the effort to think what aliens without something fundamental to humanity would be like, that's awesome, I want to know about that, but if you half-ass it and just make them badly autism-coded, please just don't, I can just watch the next generation to see that done well, or hang out with all my autistic friends, or something else more enjoyable. also, glorifying normality is really lame imo.
@@RowlesisgayThree Worlds Collide is done with that sort of thing- the culture clash is from different evolutionary pressures- the R-selected filial cannibals aren’t treated as being somehow morally inferior- they’re very similar to us, they just never evolved K-selection, and the other group is also pretty neat. To make a point that that future humanity would also be very different from our current one, they just casually mention that future humans don’t think that rape is that bad but at no point is any worldbuilding done there, as opposed to the effort that went into the alien species.
A lot of rationalists invent wildly different aliens for purposes of parables, but the focus on that is mainly using them as metaphor “wow, it’s silly to do this! now what else does that remind you of?” or something, but the ideas given are neat worldbuilding (the wounding mind thing, the aliens who pile pebbles, the whole bodies that mitoses)
I prefer the "Everyone is awful" approach. Aliens are killing each other for good and petty reasons. Alliances are forged for political gain instead of values. Everyone does something, which would consider good and something we consider bad.
...
...
...
So basically the real world, just with Aliens.
Earthlings the clowns of the universe. I like that SciFi concept.
I like the second one. I love the idea of humans being the Florida Man of the universe
That's what HASO(Humans Are Space Orcs) is all about.
@@BrunoMaricFromZagreb Recognized!
BORN TO INHERIT THE STARS
“The call to arms rings out across the dark void that is the galaxy. Its toll is answered by the iron willed devotees who are themselves but humble servants of a greater power. Who among the teeming billions of Mankind has the strength to answer the call and match to war? Come forth you mighty warriors, gather under the bloodstained banners and grisly trophies of conquest! Join now the massed throng whose aim is to rid Humanity of its blighted fate. To win famous victory on hellish otherworlds.”
@@blackjak4185 "It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth.
He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that he may never truly die.
Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds.
Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants -- and far, far worse.
To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods."
Also, we sent you one of our historians to start informing you about our desert culture. But you all mistook it for a bunch of fiction books and made them into two expensive entertainment movies (featuring, on the plus side, the talented and delightful Timothée Chalamet).
Erm... Dune, excluding the possibility of a near-identical Earth history on another planet, must take place int he future. They read from the Orange-Catholic Bible, afterall.
The Book of the New Sun is styled as an autobiography from the distant future that the IRL author found and translated from a languagee that doesn't exist yet. In-universe author is writing about events that took place many years earlier, tries desperately to justify his former actions, and his whole personality and outlook has shifted due to the hundreds of other people living in his head, not to mention a few "demons" up there that are literally just never explained. He constantly tries to philosophize his behavior but can't philosophize his way out of a paper bag and just proves that he's messed up. IRL author uses universe author as a much less perfect Jesus analogue in a much worse version of the world as a weird commentary on catholic eschatology.
It's... certainly something.
This feels like how fantasy worlds somehow contain people while there are ageless elves, brutal and destructive orcs, hard-working dwarves, and fucking dragons, all while the reasoning is that humans are just so damn tenacious.
Type 3: alliens are literaly humans, but with advanced tecnoligies and a bit strenge costumes
@6n-thorus945
type 4: every alien is either scalie, furry, or some anthropic shape is bangable if you're into that.
Star Trek in a nutshell
@@chongwillson972I know what kind of man you are
@@sassas1487
I mean to be its the same as having the aliens look like humans with funny make-up or very slight differences and also hot.
and don't tell that captain kirk wouldn't bang them.
@@chongwillson972bangability is also a trait shared with the essentially human ones as well
Aliens took one look at us and were like "no thanks"
"They're made out of meat"
That's very smart.
@@TheZigsDkI got that reference.
Because we would unalive them.
@@thehawk8332 Our governments would. A good portion of us do not give a absolute crap if we get invaded/become a subject of a alien empire.
“It’s not that we hate aliens, it’s that aliens hate freedom.”
-SuperEarth
In my setting
Theres an alien species thats just super nice and hate violence, but they lobotomize their criminals and use them as slaves, and a myriad of other things we'd consider horrific; meanwhile we do stuff we dont think twice about that freak them out just as much.
well i got 2 alien bois where one is a sapient fungus taking humans control to make them work for them. and well they usually have the level technology of ww1 and locked within the confines of their fungal forest., and theres some foxpeople tribes where i gonna say that they have been adapted to drink sulfuric water 2% sulfur in the atmosphere idk what will go wrong in a hydrogen dominant atmosphere with the tech level of an Iron Age civilization and being isolationists and exiling people with more different thinking. idk what will that do while humans being an interstellar species would be something within this red dwarf system of a 30 hour rotation exoplanet
Every single alien government does that?
there was basically a scene like this in warhammer novel
where a tau diplomat got horrified when seeing a servitor (lobotomised cyborg used as servant) while on diplomatic mission in imperium
@@ofal5124a diplomatic mission to the Imperium? Well ig it's better than the Orks but I'm guessing that didn't end well
First of all, nice video. I love watching sci-fi content and commenting/chatting about it.
1) One of the factors that promote the development of intelligence is being pack animals, social animals. The more complex the interrelationships, the better (do not confuse with ants that everything they do is because they are programmed through chemical/instinctive stimulation; they do not think).
2) It is impossible for a single individual to be an expert in everything or know everything, especially as existing knowledge increases, so cooperation and specialization is necessary for the technological advancement of a civilization/species.
3) It seems that diversity is natural, and just like the small mutations/variations that promote evolution, individuality promotes spontaneity and creativity. A civilization, if there can be one, without individualism will probably advance more slowly or remain stagnant. And if there is individuality, the natural thing is that if others impose something by force/authority, it is probably unfair, so others will be dissatisfied with this and will make a theoretical and practical fight against it. At various times humanity had tyrannical, authoritarian or dictatorial regimes... but they did not last. And even if an alien civilization has been dominated by, for example, alien-Nazis or an oppressive and controlling religious doctrine... there will be individuals who want to break away from that, that is, they will not all be irredeemably evil even if the majority are patriots of that system.
4) As a society becomes more complex and new ideas appear that revolutionize everything... it is also natural that new ideas and experiments of all kinds appear, there are also stages in knowledge, it is natural that something like philosophy arises first before science as we know it today... and ethics and logic is part of philosophy.
ooo this is really cool, I love hearing about this stuff! I'm curious, how do octopi fit into this? They seem really intelligent, but they aren't really pack animals. Do you specifically mean intelligent in the civilization and knowledge way?
@@Jonanation
Octopuses are an exceptional case, without a doubt. But the surprising thing about their intelligence is that they simply possess it when it is totally counterintuitive for them to have it. They are the only invertebrate animals that have noteworthy intelligence, and in fact there are very, very few intelligent animals that are aquatic... practically all of them remained in the primitive fish brain stage or earlier (cetaceans such as dolphins, whales and orcas are actually mammals that returned to the water relatively recently). Also, the intelligence that octopuses have is surprising considering their very short life expectancy... it makes no sense that they are so intelligent if the oldest ones live just 3 years. Even crows/ravens with comparable intelligence can live to be 40 years old; but as I say... it's not much intelligence either: they can open jars from the inside and solve problems, but so can crows/ravens. They should be given the mirror test to see if they are aware of themselves.
But as I say, octopuses are a rather strange case because they are not pack animals. I would dare to suggest that perhaps they developed that intelligence because their body is basically pure muscle without bones, so they have a much broader and more complex capacity for movement, so perhaps they developed intelligence because of that. But I have seen/heard that having a more complex form of movement, with more than 2 pairs of limbs, for example, would be a hindrance to the development of intelligence more than a promotion because the brain would have to use more resources in neurons that control the muscles of those parts.
Who knows why it is, evolution is based a lot on chance and events that unexpectedly come together. Like for example, primates have always been prey more than anything else... but they still developed eyes on the front of their heads, like carnivores, instead of eyes on the sides like herbivores (which almost all primates and apes are). Eyes on the sides are more useful for prey as it allows them to see more of their surroundings and reduce the chance of being surrounded/stalked. But the eyes on the front of the head give the ability to perceive depth which is extremely useful for aiming, so... better for hunting. And well, the answer is that primates, upon adapting to trees, benefited from developing eyes in front... with which prey and herbivores animals developed a characteristic of carnivores, but for different reasons (developing hand-eye coordination to catch branches in jumps).
Who knows what conditioned natural selection so that octopuses were more intelligent, at least when it came to problem solving. Perhaps because they are prey, the octopuses that usually survive are the ones that are cunning enough to hide best and evade/escape best; so natural selection would be benefiting those qualities related to cunning. But I think even with that, survival cunning has a ceiling... it's the development of complex communities that has been shown to encourage complex behaviors.
Type 1: Ender’s Game
Type 2: Speaker for the Dead
Love the matter-antimatter asymmetry theory, telling a physicist and an SCP author about that rn.
I personally think the best way to do humans in both fantasy and sci-fi is to give them one trait that actually does genuinely make them special. Eg. Even if they’re not as book smart/high IQ as other aliens their ingenuity is special, or they have the highest capability for artistic expression because human brains are flawed in a way that allows for that where everyone else’s brains are too perfect, etc.
The important thing is to keep it to one trait, essentially instead of making them generic “jack of all trades” types you’re giving them things they are and aren’t good at like all the other species
I prefer a "aliens are actually chill but they want to destroy us because we attacked them first" story
Really? I notice more "These humans sure lack (insert alien's best trait)" and then 20 minutes later they're all "Human, we need you to do something clever/innovative."
Those stories tend to mostly be jokes about other species noticing how wierd and inexplicable highly specialized experts are on their particular fields. Which is something we notice about ourselves, but we semi-expect it, and the aliens just don't.
Like, my favorite is "give it a whack" stories, where the aliens are mystified by the fact that a machine that should be working isn't, despote tearing it down and finding no flaws, then the human comes in, punches it, and it works, becaue _his_ first response to the machine not working was to hit it in different spots until it did.
Or the stories where aliens have logically eliminated not only suffering, but all discomfort in every area they can, being mystified by humans liking the discomfort and performing better because of it. Stuff like that.
I'm definitely in Camp Sweaty Armpit.
Dude from type 2 becomes the one who explains human superiority in type 1
There's also the type 3:
"What do you mean you don't know about Azorgael?"
"Well, we didn't, so we just made enough antimatter ourselves, but then we figured out it was too inefficient, so we made a warp drive, but then it was stupidly weak, so now we can just teleport across the galaxy with our indomitable spirit"
The Indomitable Human Spirit mentioned? Peak fiction.
*the aliens thought the human spirit and adrenaline were a myth...
Only the first one was a myth*
the indomitable human spirit vs the indomitable tarantula spirit
@@ocinprofessionhave you seen those things swim?
My favorite is “humans are space orcs”. It kind of has flavors of both types.
Humans are so great: because we are tough and resilient and kick ass
Humans are so bad: dumb, stinky
To be honest, I thought that the first one talking about all we went through as a race to get to where we are was actually kind of inspirational
glorble zeep zmorp guzk "indomitable human spirit" gop ag zreep 😂😂😂
“Every alien is evil” killed me when them probably better off than us😂😂😂
So both types are just "humans are special and different"
And in both Aliens suck
That's why I like Warframe: spoiler
No aliens, only humans, their creations and the void.
Peak sci fi
Dune: Join the club kiddo
@@draochvar9646 Oh, i definitely should watch Dune. Or even read it, since I've been looking for something to read recently.
So the alien customer service reps are just as rude as the human customer service reps 😂
2:43 The alien who doesn't have racism is being racist.
it's specieism, not racism
You forgot Star Wars, where humans and other species are all war like and capitalistic. So the only difference is appearance. And Star Trek, where humans and some aliens are good and some other aliens are bad. Edit: And Warhammer 40k, where everyone is militaristic, totalitarian, and evil.
Except the Tau, who have free healthcare and diplomacy. And state mandated brainwashing. As ya do.
I think in 40k it is necessary to be evil, cruel and only looking out for your own kind. Doing otherwise would mean the end of your faction. Because while other fictional universes have these gray areas and questions about what is evil, what is good and how to get along with others and understand them, in the 40k universe everyone is out to get you and there are certainly quite black-and-white evil factions and gods that want to eat your soul.
@@HenkkaArtGames not really. To a certain extent, yes, obviously several factions will never engage in diplomacy and your only real option is to fight them (as the Tau found out with the Orks. And space marines. And the Nids), but a concistent theme with the Imperium esspecially is how they would do amazing is they allied with someone like the craftworld eldar or the Tau or even the Necrons. But they don't, because of there rampant xenophobia. And as such, great opportunities for cooperation which would massively benfit both sides get stomped out, leaving everyone worse off.
@@HenkkaArtGamesthe whole point of the imperium is that they're technologically and culturally backwards (compared to the golden age of man) and only survive through old technology passed down through essentially oral history (adeptus mechanicus rituals) and just throwing billions of lives at every problem. The empire under the living god-emperor was cruel to outsiders but decent for humans.
Oh, you only know Star Wars from teevee and you're twelve.
Not that I'm defending Star Wars or something. It is a tale written by a moron for children and mentally stunted idiots. But really? Capitalism? Really? REALLY?
It's a whole universe literally ruled by dark vs. light spiritual magic. You know... radiant beings... not crude and random blasters.
I love watching videos that can make me potentially laugh while drinking as a try not to choke challenge, I got really close with this one but I still managed not to choke. I don't even know how I'm doing that, it just happens
The first one is funny because half of the things that are built up as virtues exist because of behaviors the second one decries as incompetence