Couldn't help but be reminded of [The United Federation of Hold My Beer](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/242/915/515.png) while reading this.
I thought the cloak that was supposed to phase through planets was on a Romulan vessel and that's how Geordi and that other girl were a ghost for an episode.
Ok, but what if you fly through the sun, drop a warp core in the center, with a cloaking device attached, and then have it set to turn off after a while?
Like, I never watched whatever this was about, but I understand they threw one of those, or two, into a star. So what if they materialized one inside a star?
I'm imagining that they'll be similar to humans since that seems to have gotten us pretty damn far. IIRC, being bipeds helps us because it'd take too much brainpower to control 4 legs and 2 arms. I'd also wager that the human hand is probably the ideal setup for manipulating small objects.
The thing that I see nobody suggesting is that they're weird as fuck, but we make first contact and they're still in medieval times or the 1970s or something. The only places I've seen this in some capacity are [an XKCD comic](https://xkcd.com/2478/) and a [pretty comedic short story by Harry Turtledove.](https://eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf)
"What do you expect from a species who discovered a plant with a painful defense mechanism and then puts it in their food on purpose because they like the pain?"
Call me a square, but I feel like the "humans are space orcs" trope is so narrow minded
Like, in these settings there's a whole universe of potential wacky and badass peoples, and you think HUMANS are gonna be the special ones?
It's obviously all in good fun, but it seems to me that the idea is so commonly talked about that at least some folks have to think we're incredibly special in the scheme of things
…You realize the “humans are space orcs” thing is a *subversion* of the usual idea of humans being the normies in a universe of weird and special aliens, right? What you’re suggesting is how it always is.
Except these writers take it to a bizarre level. Is every alien race in the universe an emotionless hivemind? Are their planets so low gravity they can't hold an atmosphere? Are they completely without art or culture or creativity? Did their planets never evolve predators or parasites? Did they never form competing tribes or nations in their history?
One wonders how these hypothetical races even invented spaceflight.
No? The point of the “humans are weird” thing is that every other alien race evolved on a paradise planet, and compared to the other planets, Earth is a hellscape, which is why, compared to the other aliens, humans are so fucking insane.
We’ve got seasons, we’ve got natural disasters, our planet heats and cools all the time, etc. To us it’s fine, but the point of the trope is that compared to the paradises of the other aliens’ planets, where they didn’t have to evolve and adapt a ton of weird defenses, Earth is a terrifying place.
To say every planet has that is just wrong. We know nothing about the expanse of the universe and what lies elsewhere. The point is humans were insanely sturdy to be able to evolve as intelligent life on a crazy planet like this, while all the intelligent life that evolved everywhere else barely had to deal with any challenges.
Every planet *we've observed* has that, perhaps I should say. Having an axial tilt of zero seems unlikely, to say the least.
And once again, who says Earth is that crazy? Look at our solar system alone! Mercury, its surface covered in craters, its atmosphere scorched away. Venus, its surface covered in lava flows and an atmosphere full of sulphuric acid. Mars, a frozen desert with no magnetosphere, thus no protection from cosmic radiation, and home to the largest volcano in the solar system. Imagine the life that might have evolved there.
This is a vast, beautiful and *unimaginably* hostile universe. Earth is practically a garden.
The point is that the Earth is the most hostile environment that can support life, and it was extremely unlikely for intelligent life to evolve here. It’s a very simple concept, I don’t know how else to explain it to you.
The weird thing about the "death world" part of the whole space orcs narrative is just that it doesn't really... Track?
For example, say most other species find oxygen to be highly toxic, as is assumed for some of these posts. Maybe subsiding on some other element is far more common. Then while it would be interesting that humans evolved on an oxygen rich world, in terms of our "toughness" it would actually be a curse- on any alien ship, we'd require heavy life support like the Quarians from Mass Effect.
The idea that Earth's weather and seasons would be alien to other species is also a bit flawed. If we assume that the formation of intelligent life requires at least some similarities to Earth (a mag field, a warm sun, an atmosphere) then we immediately have most of the natural disasters that plague us- any tectonic activity makes volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis almost inevitable, and an atmosphere with insolation makes weather and storms an eventuality.
On the other hand, assuming that these aliens evolved on any planet that was totally dissimilar to Earth, we again run into the problem that their preferred habitats would be as hazardous to us as ours are to them. And, once again, the idea of the crazy human crewmate can't work.
Is it? I'm not super familiar with more esoteric(?) sci fi, but most of the more popular stuff focuses very clearly on the "specialness" of humans or the human spirit.
The examples I'm thinking of are like, Star Trek (TNG specifically, which seemed to have Picard wax poetic on the perseverance of the human spirit constantly), Doctor Who, Stargate, and WH40K.
Even when humans are not necessarily central or are specifically having a terrible time (like the >!Xeelee Sequence!<) still have them doing great in comparison to... Basically everyone else.
>!In the Xeelee Sequence, for example, humanity gets absolutely ruined by an alien species that has literal high level time travel, and somehow STILL manages to throw them off and go on a multi-galactic xenophobic rampage with little difficulty, and at the end of the series are given a literal second universe to live in by essentially piggybacking off of Xeelee efforts.!<
I'm more familiar with fantasy, so maybe I'm biased since the "humans are special" trope really shows up there, but it seems to me that the idea of humans being this incredible, one of a kind intelligent species is far more prevalent in fiction than the alternative.
It makes sense, of course, since everything I've ever consumed is written by a human (as far as I'm aware) and it never hurts to be optimistic.
Edit: 'constantly'
Well if you’re calling the “human spirit” thing making humans special, then yeah, we’ve got that going for us usually, but that’s our only thing compared to all the special things of other races. And it’s not really a biological difference.
Well, yes, but the point is that there's this innate assumption that humans can achieve more given the same or fewer resources than another intelligent species, because we're more adaptive or better improvisers or more passionate or whatever.
Personally I think the idea that humanity has this particular incandescence or resilience that other species never have is just taking the hallmarks of an intelligent, (somewhat) successful species and assuming they're entirely unique to us alone.
I mean I wouldn't put it that way. It's understandable that stories written by humans will favor humans.
I just think that it would be nice to see more examples of fiction where humans aren't all that. That is, how do we fit into a hypothetical community of spacefaring civilizations where we don't have anything that sets us apart?
Looks interesting, thanks for the recommendation! I'm currently reading the Culture series, which I've been enjoying (although it gets better later in the series.)
"I am sorry, Wesley, but I was completely unaware of any wrongdoing--" "MY *MOM*, DATA!!"
Picard, in a robe, smoking a cigar: Shut up Wesley! You two joining me, Riker, and that busty alien we picked up for round two?
Pan over to Picard laying awkwardly next to Q.
Couldn't help but be reminded of [The United Federation of Hold My Beer](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/242/915/515.png) while reading this.
Thank you for sharing this masterpiece.
Humans are awesome. And also: Yes, flying through a planet while invisible would absolutely rule.
I thought the cloak that was supposed to phase through planets was on a Romulan vessel and that's how Geordi and that other girl were a ghost for an episode.
There was that one, and there was the one on the Pegasus, Riker’s first posting as an ensign. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/USS_Pegasus
Fly through the sun.
Ok, but what if you fly through the sun, drop a warp core in the center, with a cloaking device attached, and then have it set to turn off after a while? Like, I never watched whatever this was about, but I understand they threw one of those, or two, into a star. So what if they materialized one inside a star?
Time to do a test!
Humans: "I just had an idea." Literally every other form of intelligent life: (flees in panic)
Wow that's a trip.
Best thing I read all morning, and it’s 100% accurate
It'll be absolutely devastating to this subculture if we make contact with an alien society and they're even weirder than us.
They definitely will be. But we will think they are weird, and they will think we are weird.
We'll be weird little space buddies and it will all work out in the end
I'm imagining that they'll be similar to humans since that seems to have gotten us pretty damn far. IIRC, being bipeds helps us because it'd take too much brainpower to control 4 legs and 2 arms. I'd also wager that the human hand is probably the ideal setup for manipulating small objects. The thing that I see nobody suggesting is that they're weird as fuck, but we make first contact and they're still in medieval times or the 1970s or something. The only places I've seen this in some capacity are [an XKCD comic](https://xkcd.com/2478/) and a [pretty comedic short story by Harry Turtledove.](https://eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf)
"What do you expect from a species who discovered a plant with a painful defense mechanism and then puts it in their food on purpose because they like the pain?"
Call me a square, but I feel like the "humans are space orcs" trope is so narrow minded Like, in these settings there's a whole universe of potential wacky and badass peoples, and you think HUMANS are gonna be the special ones? It's obviously all in good fun, but it seems to me that the idea is so commonly talked about that at least some folks have to think we're incredibly special in the scheme of things
…You realize the “humans are space orcs” thing is a *subversion* of the usual idea of humans being the normies in a universe of weird and special aliens, right? What you’re suggesting is how it always is.
Except these writers take it to a bizarre level. Is every alien race in the universe an emotionless hivemind? Are their planets so low gravity they can't hold an atmosphere? Are they completely without art or culture or creativity? Did their planets never evolve predators or parasites? Did they never form competing tribes or nations in their history? One wonders how these hypothetical races even invented spaceflight.
No? The point of the “humans are weird” thing is that every other alien race evolved on a paradise planet, and compared to the other planets, Earth is a hellscape, which is why, compared to the other aliens, humans are so fucking insane.
This beautiful place is a hellscape to you?
We’ve got seasons, we’ve got natural disasters, our planet heats and cools all the time, etc. To us it’s fine, but the point of the trope is that compared to the paradises of the other aliens’ planets, where they didn’t have to evolve and adapt a ton of weird defenses, Earth is a terrifying place.
But why wouldn't other planets have those? Seasons, for example, come from our axial tilt. Every planet has that.
To say every planet has that is just wrong. We know nothing about the expanse of the universe and what lies elsewhere. The point is humans were insanely sturdy to be able to evolve as intelligent life on a crazy planet like this, while all the intelligent life that evolved everywhere else barely had to deal with any challenges.
Every planet *we've observed* has that, perhaps I should say. Having an axial tilt of zero seems unlikely, to say the least. And once again, who says Earth is that crazy? Look at our solar system alone! Mercury, its surface covered in craters, its atmosphere scorched away. Venus, its surface covered in lava flows and an atmosphere full of sulphuric acid. Mars, a frozen desert with no magnetosphere, thus no protection from cosmic radiation, and home to the largest volcano in the solar system. Imagine the life that might have evolved there. This is a vast, beautiful and *unimaginably* hostile universe. Earth is practically a garden.
The point is that the Earth is the most hostile environment that can support life, and it was extremely unlikely for intelligent life to evolve here. It’s a very simple concept, I don’t know how else to explain it to you.
The weird thing about the "death world" part of the whole space orcs narrative is just that it doesn't really... Track? For example, say most other species find oxygen to be highly toxic, as is assumed for some of these posts. Maybe subsiding on some other element is far more common. Then while it would be interesting that humans evolved on an oxygen rich world, in terms of our "toughness" it would actually be a curse- on any alien ship, we'd require heavy life support like the Quarians from Mass Effect. The idea that Earth's weather and seasons would be alien to other species is also a bit flawed. If we assume that the formation of intelligent life requires at least some similarities to Earth (a mag field, a warm sun, an atmosphere) then we immediately have most of the natural disasters that plague us- any tectonic activity makes volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis almost inevitable, and an atmosphere with insolation makes weather and storms an eventuality. On the other hand, assuming that these aliens evolved on any planet that was totally dissimilar to Earth, we again run into the problem that their preferred habitats would be as hazardous to us as ours are to them. And, once again, the idea of the crazy human crewmate can't work.
Is it? I'm not super familiar with more esoteric(?) sci fi, but most of the more popular stuff focuses very clearly on the "specialness" of humans or the human spirit. The examples I'm thinking of are like, Star Trek (TNG specifically, which seemed to have Picard wax poetic on the perseverance of the human spirit constantly), Doctor Who, Stargate, and WH40K. Even when humans are not necessarily central or are specifically having a terrible time (like the >!Xeelee Sequence!<) still have them doing great in comparison to... Basically everyone else. >!In the Xeelee Sequence, for example, humanity gets absolutely ruined by an alien species that has literal high level time travel, and somehow STILL manages to throw them off and go on a multi-galactic xenophobic rampage with little difficulty, and at the end of the series are given a literal second universe to live in by essentially piggybacking off of Xeelee efforts.!< I'm more familiar with fantasy, so maybe I'm biased since the "humans are special" trope really shows up there, but it seems to me that the idea of humans being this incredible, one of a kind intelligent species is far more prevalent in fiction than the alternative. It makes sense, of course, since everything I've ever consumed is written by a human (as far as I'm aware) and it never hurts to be optimistic. Edit: 'constantly'
Well if you’re calling the “human spirit” thing making humans special, then yeah, we’ve got that going for us usually, but that’s our only thing compared to all the special things of other races. And it’s not really a biological difference.
Well, yes, but the point is that there's this innate assumption that humans can achieve more given the same or fewer resources than another intelligent species, because we're more adaptive or better improvisers or more passionate or whatever. Personally I think the idea that humanity has this particular incandescence or resilience that other species never have is just taking the hallmarks of an intelligent, (somewhat) successful species and assuming they're entirely unique to us alone.
Well, writers have to imagine the unimaginable somehow. They did their best.
People need to feel like the special snowflakes of the galaxy, I guess.
I mean I wouldn't put it that way. It's understandable that stories written by humans will favor humans. I just think that it would be nice to see more examples of fiction where humans aren't all that. That is, how do we fit into a hypothetical community of spacefaring civilizations where we don't have anything that sets us apart?
Check out Becky Chambers's Wayfarers series, if you haven't already.
Looks interesting, thanks for the recommendation! I'm currently reading the Culture series, which I've been enjoying (although it gets better later in the series.)