Is an Alien invasion even possible?
In this Article, I’m reviewing various Sci-Fi author's comments, and the portrayals of alien invasion; to Ask – Is an Alien invasion even possible?
Harry Harrison, one of my favourite authors, expressed in a number of his stories, The ‘Stainless Steel Rat’ novels, for example, that interplanetary invasion was impossible. The logistics of lifting even a single bullet up and out of a planet's gravity well and then travelling the interplanetary distance, months just to get to Mars, make it disproportionately expensive.
The ‘World War’ series is the nickname given to a series of alternate history science fiction novels by Harry Turtledove. The invading reptile creatures have technology similar to what we have today and are invading Earth during the middle of WW2. That would give them technology some 75 years more advanced. In the story, the human race fights until a stalemate is achieved. So even though the invaders are more advanced, they can’t achieve a total victory. Harry Harrison suggested that if the defenders could arrange a decent defence, then interplanetary invasion would be impossible.
What about H. G. Wells’s Martians, well although they had technology far in advance of 1900s Britain, they still didn’t achieve a victory beyond establishing a toehold in Southern England. A mistake that Wells made in his portrayal, is that given the Martians were using a cannon to fire their ships at the Earth, they probably would have aimed at a large landmass; he should have had the Martians land East of the Ural Mountains. But that might not have been as dramatic for the British readers of the story.
What about if the Aliens only want destruction, to Exterminate the humans, to quote a Dalek?
Let’s consider – ‘Footfall’, a 1985 science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. In this story, the invaders just drop a large rock on the Earth to intimidate and weaken the human race's chance of fighting back. They also lose in the end. But this does introduce a very different type of alien attack. You don’t need an Alien battleship hanging over the White House; they just throw rocks at us from the asteroid field. Or even worse, just skim the edge of the solar system and dislodge a few Oort cloud objects and drop them into the inner system. When the subsequent comets destroyed all life on Earth, we might not even realise it was an attack. Another take on this theme is ‘Starship Troopers’, there is, however, some uncertainty if this was an alien attack or an inside job. I’ll let you explore that internet rabbit hole on your own.
But why would you even invade another planet or solar system; resources, right?
Wrong – there are easily accessible metals, water and other useful materials in the asteroid field or moons of the gas giants. If you have interplanetary travel, trying to descend into a planet’s gravity well to extract the material you need would be a wasteful effort. As you’ve already flown past them on your way to the Earth.
One option is mentioned in Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ series, which is a type of gravity engine. But there’s no way of knowing if such a thing is even possible. But, I hear you cry - if the aliens are millions of years ahead of us, then they may have technology we can’t imagine. Yes, that is possible, but if you go down that road, you end up with flying dragons and unicorns! Theoretically, anything is possible, but I’ve tried to stick to technology that we at least can see the scientific principles behind it, even if we can’t build it yet.
Wells’s Martians wanted the human race as a food crop, although the biologists would probably suggest this is also implausible as we’d be incompatible with each other. So even having the Human race as lunch isn’t really that practical.
So, although alien invasion makes great Science Fiction, at least as far as our understanding goes, it isn’t great Science Fact.
Harry Harrison, one of my favourite authors, expressed in a number of his stories, The ‘Stainless Steel Rat’ novels, for example, that interplanetary invasion was impossible. The logistics of lifting even a single bullet up and out of a planet's gravity well and then travelling the interplanetary distance, months just to get to Mars, make it disproportionately expensive.
The ‘World War’ series is the nickname given to a series of alternate history science fiction novels by Harry Turtledove. The invading reptile creatures have technology similar to what we have today and are invading Earth during the middle of WW2. That would give them technology some 75 years more advanced. In the story, the human race fights until a stalemate is achieved. So even though the invaders are more advanced, they can’t achieve a total victory. Harry Harrison suggested that if the defenders could arrange a decent defence, then interplanetary invasion would be impossible.
What about H. G. Wells’s Martians, well although they had technology far in advance of 1900s Britain, they still didn’t achieve a victory beyond establishing a toehold in Southern England. A mistake that Wells made in his portrayal, is that given the Martians were using a cannon to fire their ships at the Earth, they probably would have aimed at a large landmass; he should have had the Martians land East of the Ural Mountains. But that might not have been as dramatic for the British readers of the story.
What about if the Aliens only want destruction, to Exterminate the humans, to quote a Dalek?
Let’s consider – ‘Footfall’, a 1985 science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. In this story, the invaders just drop a large rock on the Earth to intimidate and weaken the human race's chance of fighting back. They also lose in the end. But this does introduce a very different type of alien attack. You don’t need an Alien battleship hanging over the White House; they just throw rocks at us from the asteroid field. Or even worse, just skim the edge of the solar system and dislodge a few Oort cloud objects and drop them into the inner system. When the subsequent comets destroyed all life on Earth, we might not even realise it was an attack. Another take on this theme is ‘Starship Troopers’, there is, however, some uncertainty if this was an alien attack or an inside job. I’ll let you explore that internet rabbit hole on your own.
But why would you even invade another planet or solar system; resources, right?
Wrong – there are easily accessible metals, water and other useful materials in the asteroid field or moons of the gas giants. If you have interplanetary travel, trying to descend into a planet’s gravity well to extract the material you need would be a wasteful effort. As you’ve already flown past them on your way to the Earth.
One option is mentioned in Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ series, which is a type of gravity engine. But there’s no way of knowing if such a thing is even possible. But, I hear you cry - if the aliens are millions of years ahead of us, then they may have technology we can’t imagine. Yes, that is possible, but if you go down that road, you end up with flying dragons and unicorns! Theoretically, anything is possible, but I’ve tried to stick to technology that we at least can see the scientific principles behind it, even if we can’t build it yet.
Wells’s Martians wanted the human race as a food crop, although the biologists would probably suggest this is also implausible as we’d be incompatible with each other. So even having the Human race as lunch isn’t really that practical.
So, although alien invasion makes great Science Fiction, at least as far as our understanding goes, it isn’t great Science Fact.
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