Humans. Are. Superior.

[Purple]

Well I was on a fucking orbital platform with a team of military personal or something along those lines. There where several xenomorphs on the lose and we were supposed to clean up the thing but instead everyone was just playing cards and on one hangar. Suddenly we got attacked, I haven't any weapon at hand so I had to run a woman was with me, she was armed but was scared as hell so we tried to hid behind some boxes and that's when I got the chance to this morbid and sickening show.

I heard his infamous voice saying some non sense like "missa very scared" and as soon I turn around I saw him running from a corridor towards the hangar followed by 3 or 4 xenomorphs, suddenly stopping in the middle of it as one of the aliens got his left arm with his jaws, acid dripping and dissolving his senator clothes, with a quick turn it riped it from the elbow bellow. Then another two bitted the other arm and leg while stabbing him with their tails and pushing him with their arms trying to rip off the pieces. The right arm and the right leg where was riped off the socked and then the real screaming begun, it felt like 20 minutes of it. While falling to the ground the first alien bite the stump of his left arm preventing the fall while yet another one started to chew his left leg and riped it of from the knee down.

At this point the stump of his arm is completely dissolved so it falls to the ground limbless screaming at me to escape just as an alien get near its face and with the little mouth bit and rip off his right eye. At this point it was covered on acidic saliva from the xenos, all his clothes dissolved away and his skin starting to boil away. Then more yet screaming and some convoluted movements while staring to curl like a snail that had touched salt and finally die.

It was sick and horrible, yet I found it kind of funny, the dream then goes on about how almost every one with me where androids and all that, but I guess the part you where interested I already described.

Please don't toss any judgment over my because of this, it was only a very peculiar dream, what it shocked me is that I almost never dream anything (or at least remember it), even less something with that luxury of details.

Oh my god! That is so cool!
You my man have to collect the whole thing and write it down as a fanfic! It's so brilliant!

[Lord Baal]

Purple, you have some serious issues my friend. Yeah I didn't quite liked that character too, but what I "saw" is something I don't think most people or characters might deserve... :S

But really? Brilliant..?

[Purple]

Purple, you have some serious issues my friend.

No kidding.

Yeah I didn't quite liked that character too, but what I "saw" is something I don't think most people or characters might deserve... :S

But really? Brilliant..?

Dude, the only way that could have been better was if Nelix was somehow involved. Just give in to the dark side and write away.
If not for your sake, than for us the readers.

[SpaceMarine93]

There's one view that it doesn't even matter even if Humanity is special in some way. HP Lovecraft can explain it in detail

In the Cthulhu mythos (technically Sci Fi, more emphasis on horror of the cosmic kind), each alien species, including Humanity, are special, unique and alien in their own way in terms of culture, technology, science, society, physiology etc.

For examples:

- The Great Race of Yith is the only race could travel through time, project their minds into other species to study them, had cone shaped bodies that reproduce via spores, living over 250 million years ago on Earth.

- Their enemies, the Flying Polyps, are half polypous lifeforms only partly composed of matter and half composed of wind, builds city of basalt, could control gusts of intense wind as weapons and has mind so alien that even the Great Race of Yith could not study.

- The Elder Things were ancient aliens that colonized Earth 1 billion years ago, who are basically a bunch of cone shaped, tentacled, star headed vegetable carnivorous beings living in ancient Antarctica, and are masters of Genetic engineering and Nanotechnology that was responsible for life on Earth and created advance nanotech beings known as the Shoggoths that could turn any matter into anything programmed into, and who turned against them at the end of their history.

Rather than making us special, however, it makes us appear incomprehensible and repulsive to other alien species that would find us, and more often in the stories, making us repulsed and unable to comprehend other alien species, a source of much of the extreme horror and madness in the story.

And let us not get to the alien beings that form the classical basis of the mythos.

Ultimately, it did not matter that Humans are special in some ways (whatever it is, who cares?). The Lovecraftian theme of Cosmicism states that regardless of our uniqueness, we are really just insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence, and perhaps are just a small species projecting their own image onto the vast cosmos, could easily being wiped from existence in any second. This also suggested that the majority of undiscerning humanity are creatures with the same significance as insects in a much greater struggle between greater forces which, due to humanity's small, visionless and unimportant nature, it does not recognize.

With no recognizable divine presence, such as a god, or meaning in the universe, no standard morals, what's going to protect us from the unspeakable horrors that preys on us? What special quality do we or any insignificant races have that would save us from madness and destruction at greater beings such as Cthulhu, Shub-Niggrath, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth etc. that are indifferent to us? What's special quality do we have that would save us from our inevitable extinction?

But the main point is, it does not matter that we are superior or inferior in any way, we are ultimately insignificant in the greater scheme of things in the vast cosmos regardless. How's that for food for thought?

[edaw1982]

The good thing about The Damned Trilogy is that humans are jack-of-all-trades. True, other aliens outclass them in respective environments, but they've got stronger bones than one race, they can swim where other races would flounder.

Are there any books where humans aren't either better or worse than certain races? There's species out there in the respective series where there are race(s) in similar strength/senses etcetera as humanity; or are the aliens always worse/better than humanity?

[Lord Baal]

A fairly cheese one could be the Halo ones, beyond the forerunners looking a lot like humans (only in the shape of body, as far as I know no forerunner face has been showed) and the humans being the heirs of the forerunners crap.. humans are fairly regular and just yet another race. Sure elites and brutes are stronger, and that's the reason they are employed as warriors. The only not really convincing race are the hunters that supposedly are some kind of worm colony, the rest of the aliens are regular. The grunts are shorter and clumsier than humans, the jackals are about the same size a human but are far weaker with more fragile bones, the same for those scarabs that fly around in groups and are annoying as hell, the prophets race is bigger but clumsier and very weak (they need anti-gravity bells and chairs to move around and I never heard or saw one walking). There's even a excerpt of a conversation between two elites where they wonder why humans are being hunted down instead of being recruited in the covenant because even when they are not as strong as the elites, they out-do almost everything the grunts does and are far more honorable.

[Molyneux]

Rather than making us special, however, it makes us appear incomprehensible and repulsive to other alien species that would find us, and more often in the stories, making us repulsed and unable to comprehend other alien species, a source of much of the extreme horror and madness in the story.

Yeah, but Lovecraft was a racist bastard, so of course he didn't think that different species could learn to live and work together.

I quite liked the Foglios' variation on this; while humanity itself has differentiated into several breeds by the time of the story, in Buck Godot, it's revealed that the one truly original idea that humanity brought to the galactic potluck was this - get this, those crazy little hairless ape-things, they actually freeze water and put it on sticks - and then eat it! They put all sorts of flavorings in it, too, it's so wild! I hear they'll have some of these "pop sickles" at the Earth Embassy meet-and-greet next week, you've got to try them.

[Almightyboredone]

In the "Only You Can Save Mankind" book, something that was touched on was that humans, unlike the aliens, were warm-blooded. While the book didn't go too deep into, beyond a joke about how much we eat because of it and how we apparently are very excitable and all have ADD compared to the more level ScreeWee, I think it may be interesting to look more into that. Something along the lines of humans getting all the crap jobs on cold planets

[edaw1982]

I rather liked the Founding of the Commonwealth Trilogy.

The Thranx don't cope with cold weather very well, but they have almost 360 range of vision, their chittenious exterior makes them harder to damage and they have four arms.
On the down side, the location of their spiracles on their abdomens/thoraxes means they can drown even when their heads are above water, and if you break the chittin, they bleed out quickly. But you have to break through the hard shell first.
And sure, humans are more flexible, but our flexible squishy exterior is easier to penetrate. And there's that annoying ability to be able to choke on our food what with the breathing and the swallowing being part of the same tube.

But in terms of being arseholes or ability to fight, they're no better or no worse than humans. Certainly the third book goes to show that both the Humans and Thranx have bigots a-plenty. Both sides repulsed by the 'giant bugs' or the 'squicky flexible skin' respectivly.

[Molyneux]

I rather liked the Founding of the Commonwealth Trilogy.

The Thranx don't cope with cold weather very well, but they have almost 360 range of vision, their chittenious exterior makes them harder to damage and they have four arms.
On the down side, the location of their spiracles on their abdomens/thoraxes means they can drown even when their heads are above water, and if you break the chittin, they bleed out quickly. But you have to break through the hard shell first.
And sure, humans are more flexible, but our flexible squishy exterior is easier to penetrate. And there's that annoying ability to be able to choke on our food what with the breathing and the swallowing being part of the same tube.

But in terms of being arseholes or ability to fight, they're no better or no worse than humans. Certainly the third book goes to show that both the Humans and Thranx have bigots a-plenty. Both sides repulsed by the 'giant bugs' or the 'squicky flexible skin' respectivly.

I definitely have to read more of that; I've encountered the Humanx in other books, but I didn't really know where to get started. Do you know a good title for an intro to the setting?

[Imperial528]

I would suggest reading Nor Crystal Tears. It's a prequel novel and is based around first contact between the Thranx and Humanity, and is written from the Thranx point of view. As far as first contact stories go it is quite enjoyable, and in my opinion one of the better ones.

[Ariphaos]

In my own setting, humanity is no longer a species but rather something akin to a philosophy or moral code. Some who were once biologically human aren't, any longer, and some aliens have joined humanity.

They are served by the Concordants - AGIs and others who do not consider themselves human but adopt a more rigid moral code appropriate to the power that they wield. This also leads to cases where aliens might stumble on an ancient human relic that might aid them in humane causes.

The First (Cognita Primus) were the first species in Creation to achieve sapience, which was before our Universe was born. There are actually only a handful of them - they eat anyone who gets too powerful, even of their own kind. This means they tend to be rather personally greedy, trying to race to swallow a newly awakened race first. This first assault occasionally fails, sometimes with the death of the First who led it. After that, they perform a Purge - wiping the race from existence. Over countless aeons, however, there are a scant few races they simply have to come to terms with - dragons, humans, etc.

Dragons (it's a science fantasy setting) are sort of low-level, individual antagonists of great power - they don't threaten humanity as a whole, per se, but they do threaten individual pet projects or star systems. Like humanity, they are more of a philosophy, though one needs great personal power to join them as anything other than a slave. Likewise, some biological dragons are now human, and some biological humans are now draconic. They managed to hold their own against the First long before humanity could ever hope to.

Archons are the servants of God. They appeared to wipe out the First when they failed to Ascend, and those they exterminate become Archons themselves eventually. They eventually start going after humans and dragons, as well, as plans for another attempt at Ascension begin.

There are a lot of others - homogenizing swarms, etc. but the basic idea is, that with rare exceptions (basically, just the First and perhaps God), a 'species' is rarely defined by its physical makeup past a certain point. It's rather about how you approach Creation and intend to 'solve' it.

StarCraft: Humans are the new kids on the block, and hold their own against the others mostly by sheer orneriness. That also leads to major infighting, however.

Starcraft humans also breed faster than the Zerg.

[speaker-to-trolls]

The most ridiculous approach to the place of mankind in relation to other species is probably the approach taken in Star Trek, Babylon 5 and most other space opera, where human beings get into space on their own and find themselves 'somewhere in the middle' of the local galactic scene in terms of technology in pretty short order. If galactopolitics are anything like geopolitics then the chances are in a galaxy where people have communicated effectively with one another for centuries or millennia or however long, then yes, the chances are there will be a basic technological level across that part of the universe. BUT, as Stark said, humans should come into the universe at a level far, far below that, because we haven't been part of the general pan-species scene for the last however many hundred or thousand years, so we haven't had a chance to get in on that.

We could climb up to be 'somewhere in the middle', eventually, but if Terrestrial politics has shown us anything then this will probably happen after we've been swamped by alien stuff and gone through a lengthy hazing period at the bottom of the pile. Something which I at least haven't seen but would like to is the idea of Earth taking on a lot of the culture of more advanced species in the same way former colonies and less advanced nations on Earth have done. I think a missed opportunity in Enterprise was a chance to show humans taking on aspects of Vulcan culture.

Anyway.

I also agree with Stark about the absurdity of human beings having an advantage because damnit, America Humanerica doesn't bend the knee to anyone! Seriously? Ten thousand years of absolute autocrats and proliferous patriarchs and mankind's greatest strength is that it won't submit to unjust authority? And I know this isn't just an American conceit, other nations love to talk about their resilience in the face of tyranny, it's just that Americans seem to love this as a theme that little bit more than everyone else.

[Lagmonster]

I would suggest reading Nor Crystal Tears. It's a prequel novel and is based around first contact between the Thranx and Humanity, and is written from the Thranx point of view. As far as first contact stories go it is quite enjoyable, and in my opinion one of the better ones.

Read his Icerigger trilogy. It's set in the Commonwealth universe, but details first contact involving an advanced alien race (us) crash-landing onto a shitty planet with only a handful of broken tech and working to land the help of the pragmatic but alien medieval-level natives.

[Rekkon]

I will second Nor Crystal Tears. It is excellent. I did not like the Founding of the Commonwealth Trilogy as much since the whole justification for the antagonist's actions was a big whiskey tango foxtrot. The whole setup seemed rather contrived.

Babylon 5 humans did not get into space on their own. The Centauri sold them jumpgate technology. It took until the events depicted in the series before the Earth Alliance was on par with any of the other major young races. Even then it was arguably the weakest of the four, perhaps on par with the Narn due to all the tech purchased during the Earth-Minbari war. The EA becomes much more significant by the end of the series, but in The Lost Tales Galen warns Sheridan of an Earth-Centauri war in thirty years. It is implied that Earth loses.

[Samuel]

I read a decent story (at least conceptually) on the internet following Stofsk's idea - basically, our first contact isn't violent or benevolent, but capitalistic. Aliens show up, and offer us the cure for cancer, and fusion power, and some old rustbucket FTL ships they were going to scrap anyways - in exchange for legal sovereignty over Jupiter. And the Moon. And Antarctica. And a few hundred tonnes of uranium per year...

It was called 'Snake Oil', as I recall.

First Contract takes this idea and runs with it. Alien business men sell us their equivalent of microsoft encarta for Jupiter. Then they flood the market with cheap jobs. The main character is a human businessman trying to find a way to make money and make Earth industrialize from a third world planet.

[Simon_Jester]

Anyway.

I also agree with Stark about the absurdity of human beings having an advantage because damnit, America Humanerica doesn't bend the knee to anyone! Seriously? Ten thousand years of absolute autocrats and proliferous patriarchs and mankind's greatest strength is that it won't submit to unjust authority? And I know this isn't just an American conceit, other nations love to talk about their resilience in the face of tyranny, it's just that Americans seem to love this as a theme that little bit more than everyone else.

Step back and look again at that.

Who's the tyrant we're heroically resisting in all that stereotyped SF? Usually some alien warlord or elder god or ascended being or whatnot. One who is, most conspicuously, not human.

Maybe that "strength" isn't refusal to submit to unjust authority. It's refusal to submit to a tyrant who isn't "one of us." Bloody-mindedness, with a dash of xenophobia...

[The Romulan Republic]

Anyway.

I also agree with Stark about the absurdity of human beings having an advantage because damnit, America Humanerica doesn't bend the knee to anyone! Seriously? Ten thousand years of absolute autocrats and proliferous patriarchs and mankind's greatest strength is that it won't submit to unjust authority? And I know this isn't just an American conceit, other nations love to talk about their resilience in the face of tyranny, it's just that Americans seem to love this as a theme that little bit more than everyone else.

Step back and look again at that.

Who's the tyrant we're heroically resisting in all that stereotyped SF? Usually some alien warlord or elder god or ascended being or whatnot. One who is, most conspicuously, not human.

Maybe that "strength" isn't refusal to submit to unjust authority. It's refusal to submit to a tyrant who isn't "one of us." Bloody-mindedness, with a dash of xenophobia...

Their are exceptions to this. Most notably Star Wars. The alien villains there are backwater crime bosses or lackies to the real arch villains, who are pure humans, and racist alien-oppressing humans at that.

[Shroom Man 777]

That would be a great story. Humans band together to overthrow an alien despot, only to end up becoming oppressed by corrupt as hell human dictators who are even worse than the alienoids, but hey we're cool with it because it's one of us.

[Eleas]

That would be a great story. Humans band together to overthrow an alien despot, only to end up becoming oppressed by corrupt as hell human dictators who are even worse than the alienoids, but hey we're cool with it because it's one of us.

It would have the virtue of truth, at least. We could call it Humanoid Farm.

[Simon_Jester]

Their are exceptions to this. Most notably Star Wars. The alien villains there are backwater crime bosses or lackies to the real arch villains, who are pure humans, and racist alien-oppressing humans at that.

Yeah, but in those, there's nothing unique about human resistance to tyranny to explain; both sides mix aliens and humans as heroes and villains alike. Humans aren't really that special in Star Wars; they're just numerous.

[Shroom Man 777]

That would be a great story. Humans band together to overthrow an alien despot, only to end up becoming oppressed by corrupt as hell human dictators who are even worse than the alienoids, but hey we're cool with it because it's one of us.

It would have the virtue of truth, at least. We could call it Humanoid Farm.

Oh god yes. I can see it now. Humans depose an alien oppressor, say some Bragulan occupying force, and then end up becoming just as bad, if not worse, themselves. Foolish Human Shits Farm!

Then the aliens just fucking laugh and nuke the shit out of the humans, use their home tree for firewood, and mine all of their unobtanium. Yes. With nuclear-powered VTOLs with opaque metal canopies dropping asteroids at the humans to Tunguska them. Then humans get put in reservations, waterboarded (aliens think they're administering an enema but irrigate the wrong hole!), and are given zerg-infested blankets and get infested with xenopox.

All the atrocities the Western world has visited upon the rest of mankind, but now done by aliens to all humanity. Yes.


Gods. Imagine a rendition of the European colonialization of the Americas, but with the aliens playing the Europeans and humans for native Americans. Fuck me, imagine that. Space Cortezianoid coming to Earth and killing the shit out of all humans, three hundred aliens on ubertech horses and with sticks that belch guns, plus greedy human auxiliaries, murdering the populations of the mightiest human nations. Then the alien priests come in and eradicate almost all vestiges of native human culture and replace it with worship to the alien messiah.

Yes. The only free native humans would be in the fucking jungles. The rest of us would be in the reservations after they steal our land.

It will be magnificent.

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah, but it kind of sucks for people like the Maya or the Africans or Indians, who now have to put up with their shit getting ruined twice.

[Shroom Man 777]

The Maya don't exist anymore. Instead of Montezumas, they're all full of Ruizes and Juans and Don Diegos and whatever.

The Africans and Indians could always serve the role as those native auxiliaries who helped Cortez kill the shit out of the dominant Mayztecan nations.

[Simon_Jester]

The Maya don't exist anymore. Instead of Montezumas, they're all full of Ruizes and Juans and Don Diegos and whatever.

It's not quite so simple- the people of the Yucatan peninsula stayed independent for a long time after the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, and are still, for lack of a better term, "more Native American" than other Mexicans to an extent. And my point is that you'll have all these people who are mostly the descendants of the conquered (mestizo-types in Latin America), who are getting their shit ruined here.

The Africans and Indians could always serve the role as those native auxiliaries who helped Cortez kill the shit out of the dominant Mayztecan nations.

Yeah, but the native auxiliaries got screwed over too, it just took a little longer. So these people are still getting their shit ruined twice, instead of just once.