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From a hard science perspective, there is very little that's available on Earth that they could not get cheaper and easier from somewhere else. Invading Earth for water, food, minerals, mates, or just about anything else is stupid, ludicrous, or crazy.

What can find on Earth that might be rare in the Universe (and therefore worth the cost of invasion) is:

Life

Earth has a unique biosphere which originated here based upon all the evidence we can find. It is likely (but not certain) to be different from life elsewhere in the Universe.

An alien civilization may want the treasure trove of biology found here on Earth or just not like how we're doing as caretakers of that treasure trove.

Sapience

This one is more difficult. Members of other species possess some traits of sapience that we generally assume are unique to humans (some dogs show self-awareness, many animals use tools, Octopi learned out to open mason jars *on their own*, etc.). So alien life may view human levels of intelligence a very valuable commodity and may view our own self-destructive tendencies as ample reason to take over administration of this planet - peacefully if possible, forcefully if necessary (see Arthur C. Clarke's **Childhood's End**).

Industrialization

You're an alien invader in a war of survival against a deadly foe. Your own productive capacity is pushed to its limit. Luckily, you found a backwater planet in an isolated place in space with 7 billion people and lots of excess capacity to produce your war fighting materials.

There's just the simple matter of quickly and unequivocally convincing them to turn that productive capacity to your needs.

If intelligence is rare, then an industrialized society is even rarer. The alien's could produce things more efficiently than we could. It might be like our modern society utilizing the manufacturing output from the 1600s. It'd be crude and the quantities wouldn't be very impressive compared to what we can do now, but that extra 1% added to the war effort might be just what Xog the Emperor needs to win. Plus with some key advancements they might increase the quantities and improve the quality of output.

Just be wary of those duplicitous humans, who simply don't understand all that Xog has done for them.

Intellectual Property

Art, music, architecture, engineering, science, history, etc. Aliens mine the databases of other races and use the information for advancing themselves. They may have stolen star drives from another race and simply don't have the background to understand what it is that they have. They raid or conquer other races to collect yet more technology and information.

Or pirate music mp3s for selling on the galactic market.

Human understanding of physics and engineering might be woefully inadequate on the Galactic stage, but perhaps Humans are the Galaxy's experts at spinning entertaining stories or writing computer viruses.

Still most intellectual property can be far more easily transmitted to other places, so it's usually better to trade for this than to attempt to capture it.

From a hard science perspective, there is very little that's available on Earth that they could not get cheaper and easier from somewhere else. Invading Earth for water, food, minerals, mates, or just about anything else is stupid, ludicrous, or crazy.

What they might find on Earth that could be rare in the Universe (and therefore worth the cost of invasion) is:

Life

Earth has a unique biosphere which originated here based upon all the evidence we can find. It is likely (but not certain) to be different from life elsewhere in the Universe.

An alien civilization may want the treasure trove of biology found here on Earth or just not like how we're doing as caretakers of that treasure trove.

Sapience

This one is more difficult. Members of other species possess some traits of sapience that we generally assume are unique to humans (some dogs show self-awareness, many animals use tools, Octopi learned out to open mason jars *on their own*, etc.). So alien life may view human levels of intelligence a very valuable commodity and may view our own self-destructive tendencies as ample reason to take over administration of this planet - peacefully if possible, forcefully if necessary (see Arthur C. Clarke's **Childhood's End**).

Perhaps they want us to serve as slave soldiers in their military forces. Or work in environments that are dangerous to them (they might also be dangerous to us but they don't have to be).

Industrialization

You're an alien invader in a war of survival against a deadly foe. Your own productive capacity is pushed to its limit. Luckily, you found a backwater planet in an isolated place in space with 7 billion people and lots of excess capacity to produce your war fighting materials.

There's just the simple matter of quickly and unequivocally convincing them to turn that productive capacity to your needs.

If intelligence is rare, then an industrialized society is even rarer. The alien's could produce things more efficiently than we could. It might be like our modern society utilizing the manufacturing output from the 1600s. It'd be crude and the quantities wouldn't be very impressive compared to what we can do now, but that extra 1% added to the war effort might be just what Xog the Emperor needs to win. Plus with some key advancements they might increase the quantities and improve the quality of output.

Just be wary of those duplicitous humans, who simply don't understand all that Xog has done for them.

Intellectual Property

Art, music, architecture, engineering, science, history, etc. Aliens mine the databases of other races and use the information for advancing themselves. They may have stolen star drives from another race and simply don't have the background to understand what it is that they have. They raid or conquer other races to collect yet more technology and information.

Or pirate music mp3s for selling on the galactic market.

Human understanding of physics and engineering might be woefully inadequate on the Galactic stage, but perhaps Humans are the Galaxy's experts at spinning entertaining stories or writing computer viruses.

Still most intellectual property can be far more easily transmitted to other places, so it's usually better to trade for this than to attempt to capture it.

From a hard science perspective, there is very little that's available on Earth that they could not get cheaper and easier from somewhere else. Invading Earth for water, food, minerals, mates, or just about anything else is stupid, ludicrous, or crazy.

What can find on Earth that might be rare in the Universe (and therefore worth the cost of invasion) is:

Life

Earth has a unique biosphere which originated here based upon all the evidence we can find. It is likely (but not certain) to be different from life elsewhere in the Universe.

An alien civilization may want the treasure trove of biology found here on Earth or just not like how we're doing as caretakers of that treasure trove.

Sapience

This one is more difficult. Members of other species possess some traits of sapience that we generally assume are unique to humans (some dogs show self-awareness, many animals use tools, Octopi learned out to open mason jars *on their own*, etc.). So alien life may view human levels of intelligence a very valuable commodity and may view our own self-destructive tendencies as ample reason to take over administration of this planet - peacefully if possible, forcefully if necessary (see Arthur C. Clarke's **Childhood's End**).

Industrialization

You're an alien invader in a war of survival against a deadly foe. Your own productive capacity is pushed to its limit. Luckily, you found a backwater planet in an isolated place in space with 7 billion people and lots of excess capacity to produce your war fighting materials.

There's just the simple matter of quickly and unequivocally convincing them to turn that productive capacity to your needs.

If intelligence is rare, then an industrialized society is even rarer. The alien's could produce things more efficiently than we could. It might be like our modern society utilizing the manufacturing output from the 1600s. It'd be crude and the quantities wouldn't be very impressive compared to what we can do now, but that extra 1% added to the war effort might be just what Xog the Emperor needs to win. Plus with some key advancements they might increase the quantities and improve the quality of output.

Just be wary of those duplicitous humans, who simply don't understand all that Xog has done for them.

Intellectual Property

Art, music, architecture, engineering, science, history, etc. Aliens mine the databases of other races and use the information for advancing themselves. They may have stolen star drives from another race and simply don't have the background to understand what it is that they have. They raid or conquer other races to collect yet more technology and information.

Or pirate music mp3s for selling on the galactic market.

Human understanding of physics and engineering might be woefully inadequate on the Galactic stage, but perhaps Humans are the Galaxies experts at spinning entertaining stories.

Still most intellectual property can be far more easily transmitted to other places, so it's usually better to trade for this than to attempt to capture it.

From a hard science perspective, there is very little that's available on Earth that they could not get cheaper and easier from somewhere else. Invading Earth for water, food, minerals, mates, or just about anything else is stupid, ludicrous, or crazy.

What can find on Earth that might be rare in the Universe (and therefore worth the cost of invasion) is:

Life

Earth has a unique biosphere which originated here based upon all the evidence we can find. It is likely (but not certain) to be different from life elsewhere in the Universe.

An alien civilization may want the treasure trove of biology found here on Earth or just not like how we're doing as caretakers of that treasure trove.

Sapience

This one is more difficult. Members of other species possess some traits of sapience that we generally assume are unique to humans (some dogs show self-awareness, many animals use tools, Octopi learned out to open mason jars *on their own*, etc.). So alien life may view human levels of intelligence a very valuable commodity and may view our own self-destructive tendencies as ample reason to take over administration of this planet - peacefully if possible, forcefully if necessary (see Arthur C. Clarke's **Childhood's End**).

Industrialization

You're an alien invader in a war of survival against a deadly foe. Your own productive capacity is pushed to its limit. Luckily, you found a backwater planet in an isolated place in space with 7 billion people and lots of excess capacity to produce your war fighting materials.

There's just the simple matter of quickly and unequivocally convincing them to turn that productive capacity to your needs.

If intelligence is rare, then an industrialized society is even rarer. The alien's could produce things more efficiently than we could. It might be like our modern society utilizing the manufacturing output from the 1600s. It'd be crude and the quantities wouldn't be very impressive compared to what we can do now, but that extra 1% added to the war effort might be just what Xog the Emperor needs to win. Plus with some key advancements they might increase the quantities and improve the quality of output.

Just be wary of those duplicitous humans, who simply don't understand all that Xog has done for them.

Intellectual Property

Art, music, architecture, engineering, science, history, etc. Aliens mine the databases of other races and use the information for advancing themselves. They may have stolen star drives from another race and simply don't have the background to understand what it is that they have. They raid or conquer other races to collect yet more technology and information.

Or pirate music mp3s for selling on the galactic market.

Human understanding of physics and engineering might be woefully inadequate on the Galactic stage, but perhaps Humans are the Galaxy's experts at spinning entertaining stories or writing computer viruses.

Still most intellectual property can be far more easily transmitted to other places, so it's usually better to trade for this than to attempt to capture it.

From a hard science perspective, there is very little that's available on Earth that they could not get cheaper and easier from somewhere else. Invading Earth for water, food, minerals, mates, or just about anything else is stupid, ludicrous, or crazy.

What can find on Earth that might be rare in the Universe (and therefore worth the cost of invasion) is:

Life

Earth has a unique biosphere which originated here based upon all the evidence we can find. It is likely (but not certain) to be different from life elsewhere in the Universe. An alien civilization may want the treasure trove of biology found here on Earth.

Sapience

This one is more difficult. Members of other species possess some traits of sapience that we generally assume are unique to humans (some dogs show self-awareness, many animals use tools, Octopi learned out to open mason jars *on their own*, etc.). So alien life may view human levels of intelligence a very valuable commodity and may view our own self-destructive tendencies as ample reason to take over administration of this planet - peacefully if possible, forcefully if necessary (see Arthur C. Clarke's **Childhood's End**).

Industrialization

You're an alien invader in a war of survival against a deadly foe. Your own productive capacity is pushed to its limit. Luckily, you found a backwater planet in an isolated place in space with 7 billion people and lots of excess capacity to produce your war fighting materials.

There's just the simple matter of quickly and unequivocally convincing them to turn that productive capacity to your needs.

If intelligence is rare, then an industrialized society is even rarer. The alien's could produce things more efficiently than we could. It might be like our modern society utilizing the manufacturing output from the 1600s. It'd be crude and the quantities wouldn't be very impressive compared to what we can do now, but that extra 1% added to the war effort might be just what Xog the Emperor needs to win. Plus with some key advancements they might increase the quantities and improve the quality of output.

Just be wary of those duplicitous humans, who simply don't understand all that Xog has done for them.

Intellectual Property

Art, music, architecture, engineering, science, history, etc. Aliens mine the databases of other races and use the information for advancing themselves. They may have stolen star drives from another race and simply don't have the background to understand what it is that they have. They raid or conquer other races to collect yet more technology and information.

Or pirate music mp3s for selling on the galactic market.

Human understanding of physics and engineering might be woefully inadequate on the Galactic stage, but perhaps Humans are the Galaxies experts at spinning entertaining stories.

Still most intellectual property can be far more easily transmitted to other places, so it's usually better to trade for this than to attempt to capture it.

From a hard science perspective, there is very little that's available on Earth that they could not get cheaper and easier from somewhere else. Invading Earth for water, food, minerals, mates, or just about anything else is stupid, ludicrous, or crazy.

What can find on Earth that might be rare in the Universe (and therefore worth the cost of invasion) is:

Life

Earth has a unique biosphere which originated here based upon all the evidence we can find. It is likely (but not certain) to be different from life elsewhere in the Universe.

An alien civilization may want the treasure trove of biology found here on Earth or just not like how we're doing as caretakers of that treasure trove.

Sapience

This one is more difficult. Members of other species possess some traits of sapience that we generally assume are unique to humans (some dogs show self-awareness, many animals use tools, Octopi learned out to open mason jars *on their own*, etc.). So alien life may view human levels of intelligence a very valuable commodity and may view our own self-destructive tendencies as ample reason to take over administration of this planet - peacefully if possible, forcefully if necessary (see Arthur C. Clarke's **Childhood's End**).

Industrialization

You're an alien invader in a war of survival against a deadly foe. Your own productive capacity is pushed to its limit. Luckily, you found a backwater planet in an isolated place in space with 7 billion people and lots of excess capacity to produce your war fighting materials.

There's just the simple matter of quickly and unequivocally convincing them to turn that productive capacity to your needs.

If intelligence is rare, then an industrialized society is even rarer. The alien's could produce things more efficiently than we could. It might be like our modern society utilizing the manufacturing output from the 1600s. It'd be crude and the quantities wouldn't be very impressive compared to what we can do now, but that extra 1% added to the war effort might be just what Xog the Emperor needs to win. Plus with some key advancements they might increase the quantities and improve the quality of output.

Just be wary of those duplicitous humans, who simply don't understand all that Xog has done for them.

Intellectual Property

Art, music, architecture, engineering, science, history, etc. Aliens mine the databases of other races and use the information for advancing themselves. They may have stolen star drives from another race and simply don't have the background to understand what it is that they have. They raid or conquer other races to collect yet more technology and information.

Or pirate music mp3s for selling on the galactic market.

Human understanding of physics and engineering might be woefully inadequate on the Galactic stage, but perhaps Humans are the Galaxies experts at spinning entertaining stories.

Still most intellectual property can be far more easily transmitted to other places, so it's usually better to trade for this than to attempt to capture it.