Timeline for Why Would Aliens Enslave Humans?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
30 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 21, 2020 at 10:19 | comment | added | LukasExemplar | Would they not just automate any of that work with robots? OP doesn't say how many humans are being enslaved, but if it is in the millions or billions the aliens would have to be pretty advsmced, right? | |
| May 23, 2018 at 11:40 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| May 23, 2018 at 12:35 | |||||
| Mar 20, 2018 at 19:00 | comment | added | Engineer Toast | This may or may not be intentional, but is Species 9462 any relation to Species 8472? If so, I think whoever s̶t̶o̶l̶e̶ purchased ships from them might be in for a q̶u̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶t̶h̶ surprise. | |
| Apr 18, 2017 at 15:02 | comment | added | Shane | @Pharap The big thing for manual labour isn't AI. Its machines and robots. Think about tractors and pulverizers. Machinery is directly transferable from building spaceships to building mines. We can't build pumps rugged enough and of high enough quality to last the whole trip. If they can -- and they obviously can if they are here to enslave us -- then they can build pumps rugged enough and good enough to surviving the rigours of mining. To get here, their machines have to be so much better than ours that it is hard to imagine needing us to do manual labour. | |
| Apr 18, 2017 at 14:51 | comment | added | Shane | @Pharap I didn't say anything about human level AIs. You don't need human level intelligence to do the manual labour described in this answer. You don't even need the intelligence of a particularly dumb child. Think about a better Watson, or a much better Siri. Not Data or HAL. Sure, it is possible to contrive a set of scenario where they don't even have that level of computers. But it is kind of difficult to be believable. OTOH, those olden day stories where they are calculating interstellar jumps with trig tables and slide rules are always a ton of fun. | |
| Apr 16, 2017 at 14:55 | comment | added | beppe9000 |
If those species were intelligent, how might they use us? They arleady are: being domesticated made them become parasites of mankind. They depend on us for everything, so no work. They won species perpetuation...
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| Apr 16, 2017 at 9:46 | comment | added | Rahul | 100th upvote, yay :) | |
| Apr 16, 2017 at 2:19 | comment | added | Pharap | @Shane Having the power to traverse Galaxies and having Human-level AIs are two completely different things. Or perhaps there was an incident and all research into AI was abolished or something. | |
| Apr 15, 2017 at 10:04 | comment | added | aroth | Even if the aliens haven't quite reached "mind in a jar" status, centuries and millennia of reliance upon advanced space-faring technology may have seen them physically atrophy to the point where they need some brutish, primitive slaves to handle physical labor outside of their spaceships. "We've had 50 generations that never had to do more than push a button on the synthesizer whenever they wanted some food, but now we've arrived at a habitable planet that we want to colonize. That's a lot of work; thankfully the natives will help, whether they want to or not". | |
| Apr 14, 2017 at 19:09 | comment | added | Solanacea | We used to use those animals for hunting, riding, burdens etc. We now use cars, rifles, and trucks. We fight vermin with chemicals. We mostly entertain ourselves with electronics. We are starting to look down upon keeping orcas captive. Keeping pets is still popular but a tiny percentage of intelligent animals are considered suitable as pets. I have a suspicion humans may not be happy, loyal pets in captivity. Basically, this answer boils down to "We are able to build/buy/steal/operate interstellar spaceships but we are unable to build/buy/steal/operate robots." (which I find unrealistic) | |
| Apr 14, 2017 at 13:39 | comment | added | celtschk | @Asher: The species does not need to be blind. They might just see at a different part of the spectrum. Or maybe the species is colour blind, and our colour vision just gives us a superior ability to distinguish certain chemicals/find certain minerals, as we can easily spot the red spots in a blue surrounding, while the aliens would just see some grey mess. | |
| Apr 14, 2017 at 13:32 | comment | added | John Dvorak | "As methane-breathers" -> "For us methane-breathers". Otherwise you're implying it's the vibranium that breathes methane. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 19:27 | comment | added | PoloHoleSet | @Shane - or, given the common trope of our automation figuring out they are superior to us and trying to exterminate us, more advanced alien automation might reach that conclusion faster and be more capable of carrying out such actions, so an alien life form might be smart enough to avoid that pitfall by enslaving stupid humans, instead. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 18:13 | comment | added | BradC | I don't actually disagree, @Shane. Robots are so ubiquitous in scifi that you'd have to justify to the reader why they wouldn't suffice in your universe. Metal-corroding atmosphere that doesn't bother our skin? A.I. never actually came to fruition like it was expected to? Bots are still bad at fuzzy logic? Alien Corp Co. has a monopoly on bots, don't want to pay their prices? Shortage of unobtanium for Robo-brains or robo-bones or robo-servos? Unable to program robots for something the aliens can't understand? Could be a throwaway line, or a bigger part of the story. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 16:47 | comment | added | Shane | Its very hard to imagine that a technologically superior race would also not have automation more advanced than ours. That has to be part of the answer. For some reason, these aliens don't have very good robotics and/or AIs. If you have robots that are even halfway marginally competent, it is never cheaper to have slaves over robots. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 16:44 | comment | added | Asher | @BradC even just things like "humans can see," period. Not sure how a blind race would know to attempt space travel to begin with, sure, but perhaps a deaf race would take us to use as guards (since we can hear approaching threats that they can't) or for wartime communication. Hard to spy on the enemy's missives if their spies use a medium your species has no sense for. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 16:37 | comment | added | BradC | Good thoughts, @Asher. Maybe aliens could somehow utilize our ability to see and distinguish color or notice motion, or easily identify faces, if they can't do so. Or maybe the sensitivity of our fingertips to tiny flaws on smooth surfaces, or the speed of our reflexes, or our refined taste palate to identify spices or other ingredients. Maybe they're crap at learning other alien languages, but we can learn both and translate. The possibilities are truly endless. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 16:14 | comment | added | Asher | To add to your final list: we use dogs to sniff for drugs and to find tornado/avalanche/bombing survivors. We can build technological sniffers but none that are as cheap, reliable, versatile, accurate or as easily trained as a canine. Even advanced technology often falls short of basic biological functions, so an alien race being good at spaceships doesn't necessarily mean humans are worthless or worth little just because we're bad at spaceships. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 15:24 | comment | added | BradC | Thanks, @C.S.Wright, glad it was helpful. Just gotta think like an alien about all the things that might make humans useful or interesting: we are bipedal; we have grasping hands and dexterous fingers; our medium size might be useful to races either smaller or larger than us; we are smart enough to follow instructions and to reason for ourselves, but lack the third arm required to hijack their space ships; we have music and art and literature and sport that might be a curiosity to others. Maybe they'd use us for labor, maybe they'd put us in a zoo or a lab to study, maybe they'd just eat us. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 14:06 | vote | accept | C. S. Wright | ||
| Apr 13, 2017 at 10:28 | comment | added | Burki | I particularly like that second part, that puts away with the human-centric view the aliens certainly won't share: most likely we are not people to them, but (hopefully) interesting animals. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 21:17 | comment | added | C. S. Wright | @BradC, great answer. I really appreciate you (as well as a previous poster) putting yourselves in the mindset and voice of the alien species. Probably the best way to answer any question about extraterrestrial intelligence. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 20:40 | comment | added | BradC | @BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft To serve man? Or to serve man?? We also use animals for other non-meat products (milk, eggs, wool, silk, venom), although I'm not sure what good humans would be -- maybe they found a valuable and important use for human hair, which is grown and harvested?? | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 20:20 | comment | added | BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft | Certain parts of us are also considered a delicacy | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 19:28 | history | edited | BradC | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1 character in body
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| Apr 12, 2017 at 19:19 | history | edited | BradC | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added another silly example
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| Apr 12, 2017 at 17:00 | comment | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | Fifty quatloos on the newcomer! | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 16:36 | history | edited | BradC | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
fixed typo
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| Apr 12, 2017 at 15:58 | comment | added | Ghotir | I love this answer. As long as the economics (including time) of interstellar travel can handle it, this will give you all the reasons you would ever need: simply customize to your specific aliens. | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 14:32 | history | answered | BradC | CC BY-SA 3.0 |