So long, and thanks for all the fish.
@sibelian: Writing up my last post, this idea came to me. What if the Xenomorphs are pseudo-parasitic, but more like a defensive mechanism / immune system for spacecraft? {stay with me here}.
Using the "third race created" idea, but the race is actually "machine based" (AI, robotics, etc). They get tired of these biological things coming around, killing them, and then feeding on them (think salvage operations). So they turn around and come up with something that is part immune system (for their ships) and part infection for the biologicals.
Hmmm…
Using the "third race created" idea, but the race is actually "machine based" (AI, robotics, etc). They get tired of these biological things coming around, killing them, and then feeding on them (think salvage operations). So they turn around and come up with something that is part immune system (for their ships) and part infection for the biologicals.
Hmmm…
@sibelian: My resistance to the evolution approach is that the creature is too aggressive as a parasite; it would burn out its hosts, preventing it from spreading. Admittedly, some of the story lines (from the movies) could offer counter arguments: the dormant periods they seem to sustain, the eggs that last forever, etc. However, a blood that when spilt can burn through the craft exposing it to vacuum can (in essence) destroy the craft. Complete consumption of the crew means that a craft would / could fail in its long travels (a nuclear reactor running without oversight).
However, there are supporting points (to evolution) as well. Besides the ones mentioned above, I always was curious why (in Aliens) they stayed in the compound at the base. They were on a planet with no population to feed them. So instead of roaming across the planet surface looking for more food, they hunker down near the reactor and settle in "for a long winters nap". That fits nicely into the "space craft parasite" idea.
My thinking about "the third race" making the creatures as bad as they were had more to do with a "revenge" thing. Borrowing from other SF areas, I never really like the idea that a domineering race (like Klingon’s) would be good at creating technology. They would be more likely to steal it from others, or at a particular point, subjugate another race and make them create the technology. That was part of my theory here; the third party was a subjugated race, possibly even on the edge of extinction, and attempted to strike back at the Predators.
Anyway, I like the theory. It brings ideas to the story that I hadn’t considered, and has a good grounding.
BTW: in reference to "Dracula being created", I was always partial to the vampires origins story that came from the Doctor Strange comics.
However, there are supporting points (to evolution) as well. Besides the ones mentioned above, I always was curious why (in Aliens) they stayed in the compound at the base. They were on a planet with no population to feed them. So instead of roaming across the planet surface looking for more food, they hunker down near the reactor and settle in "for a long winters nap". That fits nicely into the "space craft parasite" idea.
My thinking about "the third race" making the creatures as bad as they were had more to do with a "revenge" thing. Borrowing from other SF areas, I never really like the idea that a domineering race (like Klingon’s) would be good at creating technology. They would be more likely to steal it from others, or at a particular point, subjugate another race and make them create the technology. That was part of my theory here; the third party was a subjugated race, possibly even on the edge of extinction, and attempted to strike back at the Predators.
Anyway, I like the theory. It brings ideas to the story that I hadn’t considered, and has a good grounding.
BTW: in reference to "Dracula being created", I was always partial to the vampires origins story that came from the Doctor Strange comics.
@sibelian: I would have gone with the "Vampires vs Werewolves" meme myself; which seems to be all the rave these days.
However, my take (weak as it might be) was that the Aliens were created by an outside party (the crashed ship) for the Predators, and they were maybe made too good?
However, my take (weak as it might be) was that the Aliens were created by an outside party (the crashed ship) for the Predators, and they were maybe made too good?
@sibelian: I like this, it’s an interesting theory. I never considered the Alien as a parasite evolved to inhabit space ships, but more as a bio-weapon that got out of control. I doubled-down on that idea when they merged the Predator with Alien story lines. I was thinking that the Predators actually commissioned the Aliens to be created / altered to make for "the ultimate" prey, but they got "out of containment" so to speak.
@Fungi from Berkeley: "So long, and thanks for all the Guano." Great line: I might have a use for that soon.
Can anyone explain to me how this has anything to do with Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, or Fantasy?
@BoomingEchoes: That was my first thought after reading this. Does a high tide affect evaporation?
$62.5 trillion per gram of antihydrogen
[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]
@periodontist: Adding to this; you don’t just "go to the Naval Academy", if you get my meaning. There had to be something exceptional about him (grades, contacts, etc) to get into that institution. To go from "poor growing up, so he enlisted and went to Annapolis" seems to leave something important out of the history.
@Lassus: I’ve enjoyed the "post Frank" work on Dune, but more so from revisiting familiar territory than from great writting. However, I’m with you on the quality of the Butlerian Jihad works. They almost felt like Frank Herbert wrote them; not quite, but close.
I also felt like the ending was rushed a bit, as well as having some unanswered questions. For the "rushed" part, the birth of the Bene Gesserit was almost "emaculate conception". To have a fully developed Bene Gesserit occur the way it was portrayed felt wrong to me. As to unanswered questions; I really expected the nuclear attack on Corrin to be in the books, but it was not. It is never really addressed in the books (that I have read so far), so the attack was implied to have occurred after the Butlerian Jihad, during the "jockying for position" of the various human factions, post Jihad. To me the state of Corrin, and its use as a prison planet and breeding ground/development center for the Sardaukar, is a big component of Dune.
Just a couple of observations.
I also felt like the ending was rushed a bit, as well as having some unanswered questions. For the "rushed" part, the birth of the Bene Gesserit was almost "emaculate conception". To have a fully developed Bene Gesserit occur the way it was portrayed felt wrong to me. As to unanswered questions; I really expected the nuclear attack on Corrin to be in the books, but it was not. It is never really addressed in the books (that I have read so far), so the attack was implied to have occurred after the Butlerian Jihad, during the "jockying for position" of the various human factions, post Jihad. To me the state of Corrin, and its use as a prison planet and breeding ground/development center for the Sardaukar, is a big component of Dune.
Just a couple of observations.
@Cheney Guevara: Well said, and I fully agree.
@99TelepodProblems: Would that be tata-opus, or tata-topus?
A few years back, an issue of Scientific American discussed this issue and laid out 3 approaches to shielding spaceships.
The first was water, approximately a meter thick, the craft was a sphere with 2 hulls, with the water between them.
The second was magnetic, and in that case the craft was torus shaped.
The third was electrostatic, where the craft looked "normal" (so to speak), but in that case the craft was ejecting a lot of electrons to create the charge.
Personally I like the electrostatic approach, except I’m not sure you have to eject the electrons so much as (somehow) create the hull plating as a big capacitor.
Wasn’t it Star Trek: Enterprise that had the phrase "polarize the hull platting"?
The first was water, approximately a meter thick, the craft was a sphere with 2 hulls, with the water between them.
The second was magnetic, and in that case the craft was torus shaped.
The third was electrostatic, where the craft looked "normal" (so to speak), but in that case the craft was ejecting a lot of electrons to create the charge.
Personally I like the electrostatic approach, except I’m not sure you have to eject the electrons so much as (somehow) create the hull plating as a big capacitor.
Wasn’t it Star Trek: Enterprise that had the phrase "polarize the hull platting"?
@Fauxcused: I think I’ve got this right…
"I’m glad you changed your name you son of a bitch"
"I’m glad you changed your name you son of a bitch"
@seedypete: Troll. Add something worthwhile.
As to "on notice", get it straight; I’m a customer stating a complaint. Pay attention.
As to "on notice", get it straight; I’m a customer stating a complaint. Pay attention.
@jackdavinci: Agreed. My issue isn’t a that this is a discussion of politics in SciFi/Fantasy. It’s that it isn’t. My contention is that the framing of the article intended it to NOT be a discussion of political ideas in SciFi/Fantasy. I complained, and the trolls responded.
@seedypete: Troll. Add something worthwhile.
As to "on notice", get it straight; I’m a customer stating a complaint. Pay attention.
As to "on notice", get it straight; I’m a customer stating a complaint. Pay attention.
@comrade_leviathan: Yes, and if we were discussing anything that had to do with the politics of LoTR, I’d be more than happy. However, the staging of the post was IMHO a set up to discuss politics, not politics in SciFi/Fantasy. That was part of my complaint.
@Name of Numbers: That’s right. I’m not her boss. I’m a customer of the site. I’ve expressed a concern.
