Exactly, as long as nobody has more than 50% of all the power, as soon as somebody claims it, the others make an alliance against him. Or at least, people believe that this would happen, and that's enough :)

@DavidK Santa need not be that fat in all dimensions, also fireplace chimneys usually have rectangular profile. And the gift does not fit in the chimney, but we can assume that it's only in 1 dimension.

@Innovine Indeed, but c'mon, 22nd centurey is 22nd century :)

A slightly different question comes to my mind: Could aliens be such a form of life that is "tangent" to us? Something that can exist on a planet regardless of whether there is some species that considers itself the governor of the planet? I think of telepathic bacteria/fungi, or even a form of life that is not bond to physical word (something that survives by modifying the space's properties in such a way that the modifications can "intelligently" continue to modify the space further. Do you consider these things as answers?

@ErinThursby upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Samuel_Vimes.jpg

Actually, I miss one thing: Technology. While they are advanced, it's possible that we have some technology they never discovered. If they destroyed us, they would never learn about it properly.

@AarthewIII Note that beavers and otters are hardly "fully aquatic", and all the other ones have very short hair. I don't really buy this.

@AngeloFuchs You can use powered ammo to correct the course, and as I say, you need to be very precise. However, if you travel between stars, you probably know all the bodies in the solar system and their trajectories, so you can compute the correct shooting direction.

@HDE226868 But God is outside the system that is controlled by the Hamilton's equations, so it's not entirely clear that this is a contradiction.

@chaslyfromUK It probably can't stop the fluctuations, but it depends whether you consider them as interactions. If we are stopped, we would have some hard times measuring quantum fluctuations that happen during that time, but it could be possible. Well, surely this solution has flaws and modern physics would say that it is impossible. But we (current science) assume it is impossible, right? :-)

@HDE226868 It does, but if it's really a "universe in a box", then he can touch it this way, can't he?

@chaslyfromUK No, he doesn't stop time, he just stops everything else: particles, photons, and most importantly, the gravity (or interactions in general). Time is moving, but since everything is stopped (well, for interactions, maybe the good word would be "blocked"), we can't know that the time is moving.

@Brythan however, you have much more efficient ways how to extract the precious materials than cremation. Without any intention to sound cynic, one of the most efficient ways is to turn everything into liquid food.