Humans are "Special"

[AdamLeisemann]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

The one thing that humans can do that others can't is, sadly, warfare.

 

No other species so regularly fights in large groups against itself. In a galactic game like that, humans are generals.

 

Certain species of Apes and Ants also engage in warfare against their own species.

[Mister E]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Certain species of Apes and Ants also engage in warfare against their own species.

 

Army ants?

[Captain Xenon]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

well, humans are a species of ape...

 

as for ants, i think each colony counts as one individual for general purposes, so when colonies fight its like individual animals fighting over a resource. not really a 'war'

 

ants are a good example of a bug hive though. nice and alien, in how different they are from us.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Most animals will make a show of violence, then back down if the other guy doesn't look like he's getting ready to himself. Humans, and presumably apes, won't back down if they feel they are in the right. The lack of warfare in the animal kingdom is not the result of some spiritual enlightenment.

[Mister E]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

It's my understanding that any two species that fill the same niche in an ecology will compete until eventually one is extinct. Like it's inevitable... even if the odds are 50/50.

 

The whole of life is in conflict. Plants... animals... all of it can be likened to one aeons-long continuous war of natures within nature. In a fictional setting, you can muse that the warring trait of man is unique or excessive due to some flaw in our collective psyche... but it stretches the imagination to believe that this is true in real life.

[McCoy]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

It's my understanding that any two species that fill the same niche in an ecology will compete until eventually one is extinct.

Or adapts to a diffetent niche.

[Captain Xenon]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

so to follow that train of thought... you meet aliens, and either fight to the death, or else adapt to a niche, each race holding a comparative advantage on something in galactic commerce.

 

in sci-fi, mankind adapt to being merchants.

[Mister E]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Or adapts to a different niche.

 

Quite right... by necessity, if lucky... like the birds who retreated to the air having been conquered on Earth. New vistas, and all that. However, to the victor go all the future niches, usually. Like the marsupials of South America whose myriad niches were supplanted by the placentals of North America when the continents collided. What's left? Possums. Possums with their bifurcated penises; females born pregnant; and 5 litters a year for 2 or 3 years until death... hobbling around in the night, biting people through their jeans when they can. Hates them, we do.

 

Well, being sapient, I think we and others like us should be able to break the whole 'conflict-over-niche-space' rule. Just need to be open-minded a bit.

 

so to follow that train of thought... you meet aliens, and either fight to the death, or else adapt to a niche, each race holding a comparative advantage on something in galactic commerce.

 

in sci-fi, mankind adapt to being merchants.

 

Likely, when two extra-terrestrial civilizations meet, one will handily dominated the other. Not to say that one will destroy the other (though maybe by accident of absorption)... just that the lesser/newer/more-primitive one will have nothing of consequence to add to the other which would be universally more advanced in all spheres and much further along the techno-cultural event horizon... if only by seconds.

 

I presume.

 

So like, the future of space is basically a dessert currently: an empty place void of civilization, filled with potential future niches that don't now exist. Right now, humans get the privilege of filling all the best new niches in space. No other species can get itself up there, so they get left behind. Like in Dune, where the Spacing Guild evolved those big unborn-looking things that live in tanks. That's a fictional new niche... a branch off of modern humanity rather than say of ants or elephants.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

You're lucky I can't take rep away.

 

You dare blaspheme the name of Heinien???

 

I have sent my cyber-ninja-pirate-zombies to your secret lair to deliver my vengence.

Heinien? He's an Asshat then?

[DEFCON Clown]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

I've always thought that Humans main advantage was their instinct and ability to "close ranks". If an outsider (whether it be humans from a different planet or country or alien invades) attacks humans they temporarily forget their differences and disputes just long enough to kick the holy crap out of the outsider. Then they go right back to squabbling amongst themselves.

 

And Heinlein is awesome. You grok, Enforce84?

[Armitage]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Look at Star Trek' date=' especally the retro-series [i']Enterprise[/i]. The Vulcans, Andorians, and Klingons had been in contact for years if not centuries. Humans came up with the idea of the Federation. Humans kept insisting "we have more in common than you believe." Humans were able to fight wars against the Andorians, the Klingons, much later the Cardassians, and after they won, say, "the past is past, we can be friends now."

 

This could also tie into the episode of "Enterprise" that revealed the real reason the Vulcans were restricting Humanity's technological development.

The Vulcans fought a war that trashed their civilization and rebuilt in 300 years. The humans did the same thing, but only required about 60 years to rebuild. The Vulcans were almost wetting their pants at the thought of what Humanity might accomplish in another 100 years if left unchecked.

 

Something similar was used in the Delta Green setting for Call of Cthulhu. One of the reasons the Mi-Go are interested in Humanity is because we went from having no powered flight to nuclear fission and manned space flight in less than a century, a rate of progress unheard of in any other species. The key is Humanity's intuition-the ability to make accurate leaps of logic without taking the time to pass through all of the intermediate steps. The Mi-Go are attempting to determine if the faculty has a physical source in the human brain which they can then manufacture in their own.

[Armitage]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

I really don't buy into the grossly overused assertion that any race sufficiently advanced to acheive interstellar travel MUST be peaceful. I really don't. For all we know' date=' when compared to other starfaring sentients, the entire Human race may seem like long-haired, tree-hugging, folk-singing, peacenik hippies.[/quote']

 

I remember a scene in one of David Weber & Steve White's "Starfire" novels. The Terran ambassador is talking to the Orion ambassador about how their initial survey ships weren't armed. They assumed that any species capable of interstellar travel would have advanced beyond warfare, so the ships would have no need to defend themselves. The Orion looked at him curiously and asked what possessed them to think that.

[Peregrine]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

I remember a scene in one of David Weber & Steve White's "Starfire" novels. The Terran ambassador is talking to the Orion ambassador about how their initial survey ships weren't armed. They assumed that any species capable of interstellar travel would have advanced beyond warfare' date=' so the ships would have no need to defend themselves. The Orion looked at him curiously and asked what possessed them to think that.[/quote']

 

It's a cultural psychosis...

[Armitage]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Thinking about it, I have discovered the real reason!

 

We are stupid and lemmings

 

We will try anything even if it is the most stupid thing in the world, and no matter how many people get killed at it, there will always be someone to try again. Even if you rely on pure luck, eventually someone will succeed.

 

Harry Turtledove's Worldwar books.

When The Race developed FTL travel, they spent centuries perfecting it and removing every conceivable flaw before building their first ship.

As soon as Humanity had researched the science enough to build a working prototype they built a ship.

The Race didn't know if they were more horrified by Humanity's recklessness or by the realization that the race they tried to conquer would soon be more advanced than they were.

Of course, The Race did everything at a glacial pace, as did all of the species they had conquered, so they assumed every sentient species functioned that way. They spent 800 years planning the conquest of an Earth defended by knights on horseback and arrived during World War II.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Harry Turtledove's Worldwar books.

When The Race developed FTL travel, they spent centuries perfecting it and removing every conceivable flaw before building their first ship.

As soon as Humanity had researched the science enough to build a working prototype they built a ship.

The Race didn't know if they were more horrified by Humanity's recklessness or by the realization that the race they tried to conquer would soon be more advanced than they were.

Of course, The Race did everything at a glacial pace, as did all of the species they had conquered, so they assumed every sentient species functioned that way. They spent 800 years planning the conquest of an Earth defended by knights on horseback and arrived during World War II.

 

I loved that series to death. I really felt kinda sorry for the lizards towards the end.

[Vestnik]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Quite right... by necessity' date=' if lucky... like the birds who retreated to the air having been conquered on Earth. [/quote']

 

Yeah, like those soaring ostriches and emus.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Yeah' date=' like those soaring ostriches and emus.[/quote']

 

Meh! They only landed when it was safe.

[Querysphinx]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Heh. I wrote a story once based on the premise that Earth had been conquered by highly advanced aliens who were intent on using humans as stupid troopers against other advanced aliens because we were so war like. Humanity eventually rebelled, and took back control of Earth, but we had no way to get off Earth, so we needed allies. The confederation of aliens who were fighting against the original alien conquerers came to Earth, and essentially wanted to find out what special trait humans had that would justify including them in the coalition. They sent a philosopher/priest to be the judge.

 

The quickly discovered humans were the only species they had ever encountered who had developed gambling. "The players know they're going to lose valuable resources but they gamble anyway thinking they can beat the odds." Humans don't just accept risk; a small but significant subgroup actually embrace it.

 

When the original BG aliens showed up with a force 10 times bigger than anything available to humanity, the coalition aliens ordered the humans to get on the space-arks and abandon Earth. They would blow it up and leave nothing for the BGs to take.

 

The humans were having none of it. They gambled, they attacked, they kept raising the stakes in ways no "sane" alien would. Certain individuals stood on the long end of some cosmic lever and shifted a weight hundreds of times their own.

 

At the end of the story the philosopher/priest wrote one word in his book...

 

HEROES

[Mister E]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Yeah' date=' like those soaring ostriches and emus.[/quote']

 

Meh! They only landed when it was safe.

 

Ostriches and emus are "special."

[Vestnik]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Ostriches and emus were dating the GM.

[GoldenAge]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Humans are the rats of the galaxy. We breed like crazy, safely carrying our young (live) for only 9 months and often giving birth to 2, 3, even up to 6 at a time. We can also survive on almost any source of protein; bugs, snails, fish, domesticated and wild beasts of all kinds are our candy. In addition, we are just smart enough to modify our environment to live (and thrive) almost anyplace.

 

Rats!

 

Or maybe cockroaches.

 

You can bomb us back to the Stone Age... but we'll find a way to survive, repopulate, overrun and destroy once again!

 

Is that a super power? Nope, but it is a recipe for inheriting the universe!

[Spence]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Humans are the rats of the galaxy. We breed like crazy, safely carrying our young (live) for only 9 months and often giving birth to 2, 3, even up to 6 at a time. We can also survive on almost any source of protein; bugs, snails, fish, domesticated and wild beasts of all kinds are our candy. In addition, we are just smart enough to modify our environment to live (and thrive) in almost any environment.

 

Rats!

 

Or maybe cockroaches.

 

You can bomb us back to the Stone Age... but we'll find a way to survive, repopulate, overrun and destroy once again!

 

Is that a super power? Nope, but it is a recipe for inheriting the universe!

 

[Tim]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

Heh. I wrote a story once based on the premise that Earth had been conquered by highly advanced aliens who were intent on using humans as stupid troopers against other advanced aliens because we were so war like. Humanity eventually rebelled, and took back control of Earth, but we had no way to get off Earth, so we needed allies. The confederation of aliens who were fighting against the original alien conquerers came to Earth, and essentially wanted to find out what special trait humans had that would justify including them in the coalition. They sent a philosopher/priest to be the judge.

 

The quickly discovered humans were the only species they had ever encountered who had developed gambling. "The players know they're going to lose valuable resources but they gamble anyway thinking they can beat the odds." Humans don't just accept risk; a small but significant subgroup actually embrace it.

 

When the original BG aliens showed up with a force 10 times bigger than anything available to humanity, the coalition aliens ordered the humans to get on the space-arks and abandon Earth. They would blow it up and leave nothing for the BGs to take.

 

The humans were having none of it. They gambled, they attacked, they kept raising the stakes in ways no "sane" alien would. Certain individuals stood on the long end of some cosmic lever and shifted a weight hundreds of times their own.

 

At the end of the story the philosopher/priest wrote one word in his book...

 

HEROES

 

I'd be willing to read the entire story.

[Clonus]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

OK, how about this premise. Every other known species must take 2 dice of Bad Luck. The human superpower is "not having that lack of luck". Or really, being Lucky.

[Querysphinx]

Re: Humans are "Special"

 

I'd be willing to read the entire story.

 

It's actually book two of a series of novels that I'm trying to get published. The first one is called The Scions of Spartacus. I'd be more than happy to email you the .pdf if you'd be willing to tell me what you think.