JAROCHA-ERNST@RU-BLUE.ARPA (07/26/85)
From: Chris Jarocha-Ernst <JAROCHA-ERNST@RU-BLUE.ARPA>
I just finished reading Wayne Throop's posting on this subject, in which he
says something like "Earlier postings have established that we would have
no material wealth that invading aliens would want" (apologies for any
drastic misquoting, but that was the gist of the comment).
I don't recall anyone saying that, and I would be surprised if anyone had.
Of course we have material wealth that invaders might want. It's just not
likely to be the same materials we value as wealth. It's the old gimmick
about aliens finding gold worthless because their cities back home are
built with it, but *wow* is that really granite?
I can easily imagine a technologically advanced race scouring other planets
looking for certain elements (I dunno, Chromium, or Tungsten, or something).
In fact, I can imagine them valuing certain materials, which we value highly,
even higher. "Can you believe it, Chbik? These humanoids were *burning*
their *hydrocarbons*!"
Never having seen an episode of V (hurray for me!), I can't conjecture too
successfully on why the lizards wanted water. But answer this for me:
were they stealing salt water or fresh water? Or tap water?
Chris
("...and *fissioning* their radioactive materials!" "They must be mad, Hoon!")
-------throopw@rtp47.UUCP (Wayne Throop) (07/31/85)
> I just finished reading Wayne Throop's posting on this subject, in which he > says something like "Earlier postings have established that we would have > no material wealth that invading aliens would want" (apologies for any > drastic misquoting, but that was the gist of the comment). Not a misquote. My exact words were "Earlier articles point out that we have no material wealth to offer an advanced technology, and slave labor seems ridiculously expensive to a technically advanced society." I was refering to the earlier posting of the notion that any material wealth on earth is also on planets elsewhere in the solar system with little or no gravity wells (and no hostile natives (I assume)). But you give an interesting counter-example below, so I'd like to expand on this a little. > I can easily imagine a technologically advanced race scouring other planets > looking for certain elements (I dunno, Chromium, or Tungsten, or something). > In fact, I can imagine them valuing certain materials, which we value highly, > even higher. "Can you believe it, Chbik? These humanoids were *burning* > their *hydrocarbons*!" So can I. But why come to earth for it? Asteroids and other easier-to-process sources for it exist nearby. I also can't buy the slave-labor notion. The technology to get here would seem to me to imply the technology to refine most anything they would want from asteroids. However, your point about hydrocarbons is a telling one. Biological material is a good possibility (since the physical technology needed for interstellar transport doesn't imply synthetic biologicals). Therefore, I'll have to add to my (rather short) list of Why Aliens Might Conquor Little Old Us (WAMCLOS list): - insanity - disaster - biological resources Note that this list doesn't "invalidate" very many SF stories. Almost all aliens-conquor-us SF can be sorted into one of the first two cases (as opposed to aliens-visit-us, which is a much broader category). Does anybody know of a clear-cut example of the third? > Never having seen an episode of V (hurray for me!), I'll admit to having seen one (1) episode. It was more than enough. > I can't conjecture too > successfully on why the lizards wanted water. But answer this for me: > were they stealing salt water or fresh water? Or tap water? > Chris Not clear, but I *think* it was fresh water, pumped from some aqueduct or other in California. And the point remains that V had the lizards after two things, meat and water. Both of these things (given interstellar technology) would be easier to obtain locally than by interstellar transport. Now, if they'd been after some rare drug, or if they were pumping oil rather than water... (About meat: I'm not saying they might not take a few folks for noshes on the way back home. But the correct strategy (it seems to me) would be to take just a few, and breed more when you get home. In *this* sense, meat is easier to obtain locally than from earth. (Thus, something with a faster breeding cycle would be indicated... they should take rabbits.) Therefore, I don't class meat as a biological resource worth conquering earth to obtain.) -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw