Worthless Humans

[Asperion]

We frequently see stories where humans are if not in a superior position to the aliens, at least they are at the same level that they are. This is not just in terms of tech level but also in the areas physical and mental abilities. As a result, at the very least in most stories humans would make a fair to good fight for any alien that decides to give us trouble. Even in the exceptions there will generally be some form of weakness that we are able to exploit. A good example (and well known) is the alien invasion in the movie Independence Day and how we were able to defeat them by introducing computer virus. In reality their operating system would be so different that it would take years to figure out how it works. But they got around that major problem by saying they had a ship at Area 51. Wait - that ship was unpowered from the time it crashed until the others appear overhead so they could get material readings but anything that that requires power would be a total mystery to them. They would have absolutely no idea how the operating computer works. Being able to make a virus within a few hours like they show in the movie would not be possible.

 

I would like for any story that depicts humans in a less-than-favorable light. I do not mean like the Independence Day movie above but the way that it would actually occur. Where humans are the underdog in the story - has inferior tech, physical, and mental abilities. The humans are not granted some miracle solution towards the end that will allow them to save the day and come out victorious. Rather they need to spend considerable time figuring out the best method to get out of this situation. That might not always be a tech-based solution.

[Beast]

read footfall

[Beast]

the aliens in independence day will have killed everybody in days
so the exploit has to be something quick to level the war zone

[Cancer]

H G Wells's original War of the Worlds -- which arguably started the genre -- fits your prescription.

[DasBroot]

Humans are nothing special in David Brin's Uplift series or in John Scalzi's Old Man's War series - both feature humanity tiptoeing around and only picking fights with aliens within striking distance of their own tech level lest they get stomped into toothpaste.  Both feature higher tech races that basically let the other races around them survive due to racial psychology / cultural restrictions.

 

In tv there was always Babylon 5 - several other races had higher tech that they, for their own reasons, didn't use to wipe out everyone else. V for Visitor, both series, same sort of thing - basically humanity enslaved for quite a while until they can figure out what the hell they can actually do. And then getting lucky because the writers have painted themselves into a corner and the series needs to end on a happy note.

 

Movies tend to be about wooden vessels (humanity) vs modern battleship (aliens) - where through sheer numbers, attrition, desperation, time, exploits, and drive to win we can board that vessel and claim it for our own / destroy it. It's not a very fun story where the aliens play to their technical levels and take off and nuke us from orbit (it's the only way to be sure).

 

That's really the heart of the problem with 'worthless' humans in a story.  If a genocidal hostile force has a glaringly obvious and overpowering technical advantage humanity can only survive due to plot armour - so they have to pray for the conquering hostile force.  If it's a conquering force with serious enough advantages then humanity will have to do what humans have had to since the dawn of recorded history: wait for the superior alien culture to change in such a manner that it is no longer fashionable, profitable, or deemed ethical to keep other sentients enslaved.

[SirViss]

I would check out the HERO source book: Alien Wars. It details a campaign that is a pretty close fit. It is a military SF. The humans have more than a few extra-solar colonies, but they eventually meet up with the Xenovores who are technologically more advanced. The war last for most of a century, and the humans win, but they play catch-up for most of that, and the reason they win is not because of any single thing but a combination of factors.

[Zeropoint]

Basically, what it comes down to is that most writers are humans writing for an audience of humans. A story wherein humans discover that they are both numerically and technologically outmatched by the aliens and then get realistically curbstomped just wouldn't appeal to most people. "War of the Worlds" probably wouldn't be a classic if it didn't have the Martians get sick and die in the end.

 

Hmm, should I have put that in spoiler tags?

[DShomshak]

I'd say that knowing how War of the Worlds ends falls under "Basic Cultural Literacy." It's old enough, well known enough, and influential enough. 

 

Dean Shomshak

[bigdamnhero]

In tv there was always Babylon 5 - several other races had higher tech that they, for their own reasons, didn't use to wipe out everyone else.

I thought B5 did a good job with that. First off, it was established there were always alien races willing to sell advanced technology to humans and other younger races, so humanity was able to jump quickly forward to building "modern" spaceships. Earth's first experience with interstellar warfare was against the technologically-superior Dilgar, which humanity won because 1) we were allied with a number of other more advanced races, 2) we fought like hell, 3) we managed to intercept and decode Dilgar communications, and 4) we got lucky. Afterwards, Earth's success gave them an undeserved superiority complex that led, partly, to the disastrous war with the Minbari, which we only survived because of [plot].

 

There was a book/story/comething I read a long time ago, can't remember title or even author, in which a newly-starfaring humanity was able to hold our own against other more advanced races because we had so much military experience in our recent past, whereas the more advanced & civilized races had long-since forgotten how to fight. Essentially, we're the orcs. 

[Manic Typist]

 

There was a book/story/comething I read a long time ago, can't remember title or even author, in which a newly-starfaring humanity was able to hold our own against other more advanced races because we had so much military experience in our recent past, whereas the more advanced & civilized races had long-since forgotten how to fight. Essentially, we're the orcs. 

 

If you remember the author or title, I'd be pleased to know it.

[Clonus]

We frequently see stories where humans are if not in a superior position to the aliens, at least they are at the same level that they are. This is not just in terms of tech level but also in the areas physical and mental abilities. As a result, at the very least in most stories humans would make a fair to good fight for any alien that decides to give us trouble. Even in the exceptions there will generally be some form of weakness that we are able to exploit. A good example (and well known) is the alien invasion in the movie Independence Day and how we were able to defeat them by introducing computer virus. In reality their operating system would be so different that it would take years to figure out how it works. 

 

They had decades.  In fact I think we were supposed to have got our computers by reverse engineering theirs.  

 

<sigh>  Eagle Against The Stars retells the story of the Meiji Restoration in a future United States with the United States playing the part of Japan and aliens playing the part of the Westerners.  It is flawed by the author's political axe-grining.  

[Xavier Onassiss]

In Stephen Baxter's Xeelee Sequence stories, humanity is conquered not once, but twice, (by the Squeem and then the Qax). Then they meet their match a third time when they encounter the Xeelee, who actually don't care about fighting humans because they've got bigger fish to fry.

[Ninja-Bear]

How about Falling Skies? The several episodes that I saw showed Humanity's butt kicked then Humanity figures how to melt the Aliens armor to make bullets armored piercing. We could before penetrate their armor but we had to unload a ton of bullets to be effective. And when I last saw it, we were making allies were some of the other aliens which were slave races also.