Battle of Los Angeles is a 2011 major studio military science fiction/alien invasion movie set in contemporary America, that tells the invasion of LA by hostile alien forces from the POV of a US Marine Corps unit, as they battle to prevent the aliens' from establishing a beachhead. The film was generally well received, and made a decent amount of money in its theatrical run, despite not being in 3-D (like everything frakking least these days!). The genesis of the film as been said linked to the rumor shootdown of an UFO over Los Angeles in February of 1942, and Youtube videos of Marines fighting in Fallujah. The overall style was summed up its led star, Aaron Eckhart: "The goal was: this is a war movie, a documentary style war movie—with aliens in it."The GOOD
One of the most common themes in science fiction is the invasion of Earth from outer space, including one of the founding classics of sci-fi literature in general: War of the Worlds. Most of these are done very badly, and unlike 99.99% of all sci-fi alien invasion movies, this one hits on all cylinders, with the right amount of action, heart, and dialog.The Marines in the film are played in a realistic manner, with Aaron Eckhart putting a good performance as their commander that is haunted by his past actions. Adding to this realism is the simply amazing job done with the alien design, behavior, and their military tactics. In most alien invasion films, the enemy invasion force is not shown engaging in brutal infantry combat, mostly, in these other films, they use tripods or fighters to destroy Earth's defences.
Not in Battle: Los Angeles, these alien invaders go head-to-head with human soldiers in the streets, then after they establish a beachhead, they deploy heavier forces. Another fine point that this movie makes over other alien invasion films, is that often human weapons do not phase the alien on their path of destruction, however, in Battle: Los Angeles, the enemy can be killed.
This concept, coupled with the aliens' own kinetic-based weaponry allows for the combat scenes to be much more engaging due to their similarity to reality, increasing the air of tension, than if they were super-troopers with rayguns, and in some ways enhanced the overall emotional feel of the film. In terms of the impact of the film, it is very similar to my fitst time experiences of seeing Blackhawk Down and War of the Worlds (2005), where you become caught up the visceral action, the hard-hitting emotions, and the tapping into those feelings of September 11th. I read a few reviews critical of the filmmarkers' choice to pay attention to one small Marine unit the massive defensive action to prevent deeper alien penetration into LA. I, for one, am grateful for the attention to one unit. If the film jumped from one group to another (like Blackhawk Down), the action would lessened, and confused the audience during the chaotic street-battles. The element these critics missed about Battle: Los Angeles is the balance in the film, violent street battles are contrasted with soldiers turning to take care of one another and civilians, news reports, and epic visual scenes of alien military units marching in the ruins of LA. Bottom line, Battle: Los Angeles is THE alien invasion film we have been waiting on...
The BAD
Like most movies, Battle: Los Angeles is made to have that special initial experience, where the emotions of the viewer of raw and intense from the madness unfolding on-screen, my hope is that Battle: Los Angeles is like Blackhawk Down, worthy of repeat views, my fear is that flaws in the film will become more apparent with many viewings. The only real flaw of Battle: Los Angeles, is that it was made to have the "shock and awe" effect, and some elements of logic are paved over to make the story flow...like the Marines having massive amounts of C4, and that the alien troopers become easier to kill, just because they discovered the location of their heart. I am also, convinced that the scene at the end of the film, where the Marines use a laser designator to guide Copperhead missiles into the enemy, maybe incorrect...have to watch it again.
The UGLY
Should you buy/rent Battle:LA?
By the Lords of Kobol, YES! This is a rare gem of alien invasion sci-fi films, that combines hard-hitting, realistic war movie in current times with believably aliens that response realistically to the Marines and their battle tactics. Do yourself a favor, watch and experience the chaotic beauty of Battle: Los Angeles!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletea very good review i agree p.s. your the best history teacher i've ever had
ReplyDeleteI have not seen Battle: Los Angeles yet, but maybe I will. Most alien invasion movies don't deal with the concept of ETI very plausibly, or even have realistic cosmic warfare. To work at Hollywood, you have to leave your brain at the door. At least, the many inaccurate and implausible scenarios that are presented in Hollywood movies suggest that they left their brains at the door!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do have some comments on the concept of hostile ETI and alien invasions. A lot of the reasons for invasion given in SF don't make sense. Aliens would not come here to find water. It is one of the most common substance in the universe!! The comets are made of water, the Jovian satellites are cover in a crust of ice, which on Europa might hide a liquid ocean, and water exists all through the universe. It would make about as much sense for Eskimos to invade South America for its ice. Aliens would not come to mine earth for minerals. All of the minerals they would need are available closer to home, on asteroids and planetoids. A single nickel-iron asteroid contains more iron than humanity has used in our entire history. Asteroids contain gold, platinum group metals, nickel.... Rocks are very much available closer to home, without any pesky human resistance fighters or high costs to bring the rocks home. Even if the alien planet was becoming unlivable, it would be easier to build habitats or terraform nearby planets than invade and conquer another solar system, unless their whole star was dying.... Sufficed to say, most of the reasons given for an invasion are weak if not downright impractical or impossible.
See this web page for a more in-depth discussion: http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=14754
Ironically, the methods a hostile alien could use to wipe us out (or us them) are far more efficient and deadly than what Hollywood shows us. They could use kinetic bombardment, flattening us with rocks they dropped from orbit. The most terrifying weapon of all would be using a starship as a weapon. If an object moving at a good percent of light-speed hit us, it would release more energy than every nuclear device ever made by human-kind in the cold war. See the Atomic Rockets page on aliens for a discussion on this.
On the other hand, I suspect that if aliens wanted to simply destroy our civilization but not destroy the planet, they would have to put infantry on the ground. Doomsday weapons are all well and good, but it might be like dropping nuclear warheads on Iraq in the Iraq war. They'd probably splatter us all over the windshield of their spacecraft anyway.
If hostile aliens ever come to Earth, the amount of energy and technological sophistication they would have to have at their command would suggest that it would not go well for us.
theres no such thing as aliens or ET, as with any hypothesis wheres the proof ? the so called "trillions of planets therefore there must be someone out there " is not a proof.
Deleteyou are confusing movie and science fiction with real world science , your analysis are based on fiction and fantasy work , not based on reality.
Battle for LA is entertaining movie but it is not a work of science.
I saw a very fun episode on Sci Fi Science- Michio Kaku's tv show. He came up with a plan to defend the Earth from an alien invasion. I love Sci Fi Science, and his book, Physics of the Impossible is very fun and useful, even though it tries to keep the physics simple and accessible to a wide audience. I first heard the term nano-battery in his book- well actually I had heard of using nanotech to create power packs for ray-guns a long time ago in Science of Star Wars, but I wasn't told how they were going to do it.
ReplyDeleteMost scientists and astrophysicists believe that if hostile aliens ever come to Earth, we are doomed. Michio Kaku, however, has designed a system of some advanced intelligence-gathering devices and serious alien-busting weaponry to stop the aliens from ever getting to our little blue planet, and if they do, he has a plan to liberate the Earth.
If the aliens attack us now, we wouldn't stand a chance. We have to make preparations now. To successfully defend our planet, we need three things.
We need INTELLIGENCE, means of gathering data on the aliens and probing their weaknesses. Next we need LINES OF DEFENSE to protect our home territory. Finally, if they do penetrate our lines of defense and land on the Earth, we need an ATTACK STRATEGY. We need the weapons and strategy for a counter-attack.
If the alien attack force is on its way, we need to see them coming. Radar systems on the Earth work well, but they can't watch the whole solar system. The radius of our solar system is about 6 trillion miles. That makes the total area we will have to watch 6*10 to the 26th power square miles. Radar systems on the Earth can't cut it.
If you head out to the outer reaches of our solar system, you will find a massive cloud of comets and icy planetoids circling our solar system called the Oort cloud. These comets are like readymade space stations. Michio will put his radar dishes on these objects, so invading alien motherships would be easily detected. However, aliens will be smart, and they will probably send trillions of tiny probes, perhaps no larger than a computer chip or coke can. These could slip through our radar net, so Michio will have small robots with sensitive X-ray scanners buzzing through the Oort cloud looking for small alien probes. Since X-rays have a smaller wave-length, they could detect objects as small as a grain of sand. With this system, we can keep an eye on the whole solar system and detect any large alien motherships or small probes.
However, spotting the aliens before they arrive is not enough. We need to stop them, and that calls for some serious fire-power. To be continued...
Christopher Phoenix
I checked out that link...wow...now my blog draft of Alien Invasions seems...bad. I am working on a blog post on alien invasion and planetary invasions in general...in additional, I am working on the possibility of the aliens already are here...and the Serpo Project. It's called What if they are here already?
ReplyDeleteThree of the best books on alien invasion are: Footfall, Orphanage, and the Killing Star...
I know... that link kind of changed my perception of alien invasions too. Given the high cost of star travel and how common resources are in the universe, there really isn't any reason for an alien species to cross the gap between stars just to pick a fight on warlike Earthlings... or should that be Terrans?
ReplyDeleteHowever, if aliens do have a reason to invade, Michio's early warning system will tell us when they come. Now we have to stop them!! Our ordinary weapons are of no use against them. Guns, tanks, bombs... they're like toys against them!! What weapons could stand a chance of defeating the aliens, and where shall we make our stand?
We don't want the aliens to reach our home planet, so we shall set up a line of defense around it. Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter are thousands of asteroids, and some known as near-earth objects (NEO's) come close to Earth. This is where Michio suggests we make our stand. These asteroids are like ready-made orbital forts. From here, we shall make our stand.
But what weapons shall we use? We shall need more than a little gunpowder to stop the alien invasion force. Guns and missiles travel far to slowly- guns are literally useless as the target will move a great distance before the projectile even leaves the barrel, and while missiles can chase a target, they are far to slow. The answer is LASERS.
Lasers move at 299,792,458 metres per second, or 186,000 miles per second- leaving missiles in the dust. They can't be dodged or shot down. Ordinary guns use the energy from a small explosive charge to propel a bullet down a tube, and lasers are used only as sighting devices, not the source of firepower for the weapon. If you could put enough power behind the laser, you would have a super-powered laser cannon capable of vaporizing an alien starship.
We will position powerful laser cannons powered by nuclear fusion reactors on the asteroids. To fuel the fusion reactors, we will melt ice locked in the asteroids and use the hydrogen contained in the water. When the aliens are detected, the laser cannons will open fire, obliterating alien craft as they pass by. However, even the laser cannons might not be enough to destroy the mothership...
Michio's second line of defense is a bit crazy. To destroy the mothership, most people would suggest detonating nuclear warheads near it. However, in space their is no blast from the nuclear explosion- it is just like a very big flash-bulb going off, wasting all its energy in all directions. So, Michio suggests setting off nuclear devices above the atmosphere to create an EMP. This will knock out any electronic devices on the craft (as well a creating an artificial radiation belt!) and hopefully paralyze the alien fleet if it gets past the laser cannons. I hate to point this out, but such a devastating EMP will also destroy every satellite, electronic device on the ground, and communications line... sending us 150 years in the past on the eve of an alien invasion. I suppose if it stopped the aliens it might be worth the risk...
Unfortunately, a race of star-faring aliens would probably be so advanced they would just mow over our defenses. The laser cannons might destroy the smaller craft, but the bulk of the alien fleet might get through. The aliens might be so advanced they don't even use electronics susceptible to EMP. The aliens would then descend through the upper atmosphere and land on the Earth, destroying everything in their way... a very scary prospect!! Can Earth Military hope to mount a counter-attack?
To be continued...
The aliens have succeeded in penetrating Earth's first two lines of defense. They have now descended through the atmosphere and landed, guns blazing, flooding the Earth with their weapons. Is it all over for the Earthlings (or Terrans)?
ReplyDeleteThe alien soldiers are covered with advanced armor that renders ordinary projectile weapons useless. Our soldiers need weapons capable of killing the aliens, but guns don't work. We need to find a way to target the alien soldiers themselves, not their technology. We need to find the alien soldiers' weakness.
All living things share one thing in common, even alien ones. Water!! Water is the solvent that makes life possible. However strange alien life-forms make look, they will share this key characteristic. Water is what allows the molecules and energy to come together to form cells- it is the basic medium of life. The alien soldiers contain water, just as all life on Earth does do. How can we exploit this fact?
The weapon of choice to defeat an alien foe is the RAY-GUN. Ray-guns and phasers are a staple of SF, but they have solid science behind them. Projectile weapons just bounce off of alien armor, but a microwave weapon will jiggle the water molecules within the alien, just like a microwave oven does to food in a microwave oven. Eventually, the water will vaporize and the alien will explode.
To vaporize the aliens in one blast, we need ray-guns. The ray-gun will be powerful, light-weight and hand-held. Inside the ray-gun, layers of nano-batteries will store incredible charge. The ray-gun will generate a beam of micro-waves that can easily vaporize an alien. We will equip our soldiers with this fiendish device, capable of boiling the internal fluids of any living thing hit until it explodes- nasty!!
However, no matter how many energy beam weapons we issue our troops, this still won't be enough. A ray-gun is good for vaporizing individual aliens, but to convince the whole invading army that attacking Earth is not worth the effort, we will need something more.
To be continued...
Christopher Phoenix
michio kaku is good for pushing ppl to think outside the box , yet he is not infalliable and his comments on alien existence is just a wishful thinking. again , talking science fiction and talking real science is different ball game.
DeleteMichio will cover the battle-fields with tiny sensors to gather data about the aliens. All our ray-gun toting troops will wear clothing covered in smart skin a molecule thick, covered in sensors. These sensors will gather data on the aliens.
ReplyDeleteEvery time the aliens use a beam weapon to kill a soldier, the sensors will gather data about it. If they use a particle beam, the sensors will gather data so we can find out what kind of beam it is. If they use explosives, we will analyze the chemical compounds they use. All this data will be sent to analysts in underground bunkers who will process the data using quantum computers. Despite the aliens having more advanced technology, we will find their weak spots and exploit them in a counter-attack. Michio's plan will give us the time and data needed to defend our home planet and liberate us from the aliens.
Eventually, the aliens may decide that attacking Earth isn't worth it... the pesky humans put up too much of a fight!! Even though we didn't destroy the aliens, we can drive them off. Perhaps they'll go somewhere where the native species has only sticks and stones.
Michio's plan has some very good science. The early-warning system is a great idea, and it would work. Mounting laser cannons on an asteroid is a very good idea. Lasers tend not to be very efficient, and all the energy that doesn't go into the beam becomes waste heat. Future laser cannons will be much more efficient, but they'll still produce waste heat. The asteroid will make a very good heat sink. The ray-gun is an extremely cool idea- that is the weapon I would want if aliens were trying to kill me. Directed microwave weapons could be used to cook enemy soldiers.
Future militaries will indeed us smart dust and clothing studded with sensors. The military wants to release thousands of tiny chip-sized sensors onto future battlefields to gather data about the enemy. Future soldiers will have sensors embedded in their armor. Quantum computers are another hot research topic at military labs. A quantum computer the size of a lap-top would contain more power than an ordinary computer made using all the atoms of the universe- more than enough to analyze all that data. With this data, we will find the aliens weakness, and victory will be ours!
Check out the episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zg6UI4oR1A and the second part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDSRFRm_5EA&feature=related By the way, I forgot to sign of few comments up there... those were me.
Christopher Phoenix
Project Serpo and What If They are Here Already... that is UFO lore. I happen to have had a lot of exposure to UFO lore. I live in Sedona, Arizona, and there are a lot of UFO books in the bookstores and a history of UFO sightings in the area. Most of that stuff is bad conspiracy theory, people who don't know what Venus looks like, and New Age alien religions. I've known some people who believed they were abducted or had elaborate conspiracy theories, and they are a little strange...
ReplyDeleteI don't believe these UFO tales and conspiracy theories. I've had too much contact with people who believe them, and believe me they can believe all sort of strange nonsense. People are convinced that they were targeted by ray-guns or implanted or whatever... These stories reflect an innate fear of the unknown, and tell us more about humans than they do about aliens. In reality, we do not know if intelligent life exists elsewhere in the cosmos or if any species have developed the capability for star travel.
There are some interesting, hard-to-dismiss UFO sightings, and I do like to study them. The fact the air force has studied these UFO's very seriously encourages this. Of course, UFO's need not be aliens. They could be classified military aircraft. Most respectable physicists won't admit to studying UFO's seriously because they would be ridiculed and drummed out of the scientific community. To be honest, I was always wondering how these objects were propelled if they did exist. I got a lot of my interest in exotic space propulsion reading about flying disks.
I have to point out the UFO's are just that- Unidentified!! To say they must all be alien spacecraft is just silly. I would suspect aliens couldn't even approach the Earth without being detected- stealth in space is impossible, and the heat from their engines and life support would be easy to see. If aliens did come, they'd probably make far more significant contact than just flying around in the desert. Quite a few arguments have been made against the idea that aliens travel to Earth, and I can't list them all here. Isaac Asimov argued against flying saucers traveling to Earth. It probably is a good idea to stay away from UFO stories as a SF writer.
If you want to read a very good book on this subject, try Flying Saucers and Science by Stanton Friedman. Friedman is not your usual UFO nut. He is a nuclear physicist who worked on nuclear propulsion for aircraft and space vehicles, and he has a unique view on flying saucers. He counters the people who say "Star travel is impossible forever because the laws of physics say so", and he does so with ordinary physics- Relativity and Newtonian Mechanics. He covers flying saucer propulsion questions and UFO why? questions- why don't the aliens land on the White House lawn, for instance. They don't because the President does not speak for the whole world and Washington is heavily guarded airspace. Stanton makes some very good arguments, and while he hasn't convinced me flying saucers have visited this planet, his propulsion concepts got me thinking. I could see some of the info in his book being useful. I really liked how he didn't mention FTL travel and instead pointed out any real, practical star-ship would travel near the speed of light and take advantage of relativistic time- dilation. Another good resource is Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible. He has a section on UFO's where he discusses an exotic magnetic monopole propulsion system.
You know, those conspiracy theories could be deliberate disinformation by the government to hide a secret project like the Aurora spaceplane. They probably take advantage of human fascination with aliens by releasing a rumor like Project Serpo, and then deny Project Serpo, thus drawing attention away from a crashed test craft etc.
In the end, I say "Keep your mind open, but not so open your brain falls out!!"
Christopher Phoenix
why you think the ufo hucksters and liars a source of information ? they sell lies and fiction to promote their books.. Serpo , Aurora ,Roswell , Aztec, DUMB , all just fantasies for the masses..
DeleteYou know, William, most of these UFO theories sound to much like a Hollywood Sci-Fi movie from the 50's. Aliens probably wouldn't go cruising around the universe in a huge mothership, picking people up and probing their nether regions. If they wanted to get some real exploration done, they would probably send Von Neumann probe- a type of self-replicating spacecraft that could be no larger than a coke can.
ReplyDeleteOne of the concepts we often pick up from SF movies is that too explore the galaxy, we have to send huge manned starships. This is not necessarily true. If you make many tiny spacecraft, their propulsion needs will be much more modest, and you can send millions of tiny, cheap probes. You could send them around a Jovian planet, where they can be accelerated to near the speed of light in the magnetic field and flung outward. These probes would communicate with each other, warning each other about obstacles and gathering data. This technology is being developed right now, for use on the battlefield, searches for injured disaster victims, science, etc. Someday, they will be sent into space to explore the planets- researchers right now are working on this. You might notice this technology was a vital part of the Alien Invasion Defense Plan- along with huge laser cannons and microwave death rays!!
Someday we might send smart dust to explore the exoplanets. But what of Von Neumann probes? These are self-replicating spacecraft that cruise at sublight speeds through the galaxy, consuming resources they find to create more copies of themselves. The goal is to explore the whole galaxy, however, these self-replicating probes could be dangerous. Over thousands of generations, they might mutate- and become dangerous. It has been suggested that extraterrestrial civilizations will attempt to destroy these probes wherever they are found. Check out the Wikipedia article on self replication spacecraft.
To gather data, you can use tiny spacecraft- so those expecting manned motherships might be mislead. The manned star-ships may be going to star systems of "greater interest". Maybe we are billions of light years from any star-faring intelligence, self-replicating probes are banned by intergalactic law, and most star-farers busy themselves by exploring the nearby star-systems. Maybe we are in a region of space where extraterrestrials don't expect to find life. Who knows? The debate goes far beyond the usual UFO conspiracy theory... don't be mislead by Hollywood Sci-Fi and Ufo conspiracy to accept the standard concept of aliens. They may indeed be out there, and they aren't flying across a dozen light-years to probe someone's nether regions.
Christopher Phoenix
I believe that UFO tales are another way for the ordinary public to try to shield themselves from the size of the cosmos, and how unimportant their day-to-day life is compared to the grand scale of the universe. Once, we thought we were the center of the universe. Nowadays, we know better, and faced with a cosmos of millions of stars in billions of galaxies across time scales we can barely imagine, the public fails to grasp the scale of the cosmos, or what a technology that could penetrate deep space would be like. Astrology is so popular because it allows people to think the cosmos revolves around their love life or what their day at work will be like. UFO theories are so popular because people like to think aliens fly across the universe just to look at us... aren't we so special, the center of the cosmos in public perception of UFO theories? I know better. People just can't handle how big the universe really is. The ironic fact is that in trying to shrink the universe down to something they can handle, with UFO theories or astrology etc., they miss the real aspects of life on Earth that are special.
ReplyDeleteCheck out this section on the Scale of the Universe at Orbital Vector.
http://orbitalvector.com/The%20Scale%20of%20the%20Universe.html
This essay is really good, and may provide some insight into why the public likes astrology and UFO's so much.
http://orbital-vector.blogspot.com/2009/07/public-vs-scale-of-universe.html
Perhaps you should do a post on the scale of the universe. A lot of SF gets the scale all wrong. Nuclear weapons can't change the orbit of the moon any more than detonating a firecracker could move an aircraft carrier- but the public has a hard time imagining scales where our most powerful weapons are like firecrackers. People tend to think of space travel being just like ocean travel, but that is wrong, considering the scale. It is 238,000 miles to the Moon, 93 million miles to the sun, 4.3 light years to Alpha Centauri etc. In a lot of space opera, they shrink the universe down. It takes a few weeks to reach another star. Planets are represented by over-simplified sets of cities and environments. Wars wouldn't be like wars on Earth- they could take decades to play out, if not longer. Vast energies would be harnessed, huge distances crossed, returning soldiers could get a case of future shock when they return if star travel includes time dilation- which realistic space travel will, barring wormholes and warp drive. With an FTL propulsion system, you could arrive back home before you set out, to carry information back to avoid a future disadvantageous to your civilization. Things are a lot more interesting when you consider the scale of the universe!!
Christopher Phoenix
I'm of two minds about UFOs...my parents grew up in New Mexico, and I've been out there hundreds of times...been to Roswell, but never saw a damn thing, and I agree with you, most alien stories are like bad sci-fi
ReplyDeleteI tend to believe that something is out there out there in the universe besides us. Are they visiting us...that I go back and forth on, but I believe firmly that something is being video'ed and photographic up in the skies, and those strangle rock art for ancient times. I am not a religious man, far from it. Aliens are not my gods...but I get a sense that there is something out there. I agree with your assigment that writers, especially Star Wars/Star Trek downsize the galaxy and/or universe...it all looks so easy on Star Trek. I remeber the first time I read the Forever War...the horror of Time Dilation and the vast gulfs between stars could make travel between the stars a sci-fi dream. It could be like Leto II said in the God Emperor of Dune...without the spice and navigators humanity would be scattered and islanded on distance worlds sperated by lifetimes.
I am of two minds about UFO's as well. Most alien stories read like bad SF, and I have never personally seen anything. On the other hand, I am fascinated by the unexplained flying saucer sightings. I've always tried to figure out what manner of propulsion these objects use (and what weapons they might carry!!). Most UFO religion people don't want the alien technology to be understood and replicated, since the aliens are their salvation from death and taxes. I, however, read books that told of anti-gravity technology and attempted to understand UFO propulsion.
ReplyDeleteThe odd thing about UFO's is that they have no apparent means of propulsion like propellers, jets, or rockets. That suggests some kind of gravity control or electromagnetic propulsion- what science terms "field propulsion". Field propulsion is a concept of spacecraft propulsion which doesn't use propellent but instead the momentum of the spacecraft is changed by an interaction of the spacecraft with external force fields. The term "field propulsion" can cover everything from a gravitational slingshot to "frontier physics" like the warp drive. One of the reasons I like Flying Saucers and Science is because of Stanton Friedman's flying saucer propulsion theory. He suggests they use a magneto-areodynamic system, where the entire flying saucer acts as the armature of an electric motor and the external environment acts as the stator. Scientists have actually made submarine propelled by a MHD drive.
I firmly believe alien lifeforms exist somewhere else in the universe. There are so many stars in the galaxy, and so many galaxies that it is in-exusably egocentric to think otherwise. As for intelligent aliens visiting us- well, that is a hard one. They might have come at some point in the earth's history. Of course, humans have not been around to long, and aliens could have visited numerous times over the ages before humans even existed. Maybe they did visit when humans were much less advanced and appeared to be gods to the ancient humans- inspiring ancient religions. At a certain point humans stopped worshipping nature spirits and worshipped deities that lived in the sky- could they have been extraterrestrials, like the movie Stargate? These gods are sometimes credited with teaching agriculture, mathematics, and the arts to ancient cultures.
There is no conclusive evidence that ancient astronauts ever visited the Earth, but it is possible that they did. It is possible all life on Earth was seeded by algae from a starship- the concept known as Panspermia. Scientists have suggested this, not UFO freaks. We just don't have any conclusive evidence. I believe that alien life-forms exist elsewhere. I also believe that advances in propulsion will one day allow star travel, so I do think it is possible aliens might have visited us once- and perhaps do so again. At this point were are talking about ancient astronauts and contact with ETI- not UFO lore. This is certainly respectable territory for SF writers. In their 1966 book Intelligent Life in the Universe astrophysicists I.S. Shklovski and Carl Sagan devote a chapter to arguments that scientists and historians should seriously consider the possibility that extraterrestrial contact occurred during recorded history. However, Shklovski and Sagan stressed that these ideas were speculative and unproven.
It is true- without FTL drives or stargates, human worlds will be separated from each other by life-times. However, if starships can travel at near-light speed, the travelers will experience time passing much more slowly than observers back home do, so they could travel great distances. Not the same as warp drive, I know, but better than nothing. If FTL travel ever does become feasible, than the future of space colonization will change forever.
Christopher Phoenix
time travel is impossible , FTL also impossible , stargates is a movie not science..
Deleteyou need to focus and separate facts and fiction , you are rambling and jumping around without focus
The rocket ship science site says that aliens would be either "Apes or Angels" by the time we would come into contact...so much for the Federation!
ReplyDeleteI think aliens trying to take our world from us would be extremely difficult, look at us trying to secure Iraq. That;s why I thought the POV on alien invasion shown in the X-FILES was seemly more realistic. I always thought that the concept behind Stargate, especially the movie were very interesting, but how they did the movie and the TV shows was lackluster.
This blog is really good. It includes lot of information regarding the military related issues and their work involved in it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Best Military Stories! When we started FWS a year ago, I wanted this blog, and maybe a website/publishing company in the future, to be a place for good MSF, and NOT to be Baen. This site, and our approach was to talking about real military topics, to be a resource for MSF fans and writers. However, without William S. Frisbee Jr.'s Tips on Writing MSF website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.military-sf.com/index.htm
there wouldn't be the FWS you see here.
This story seems to be really excellent. Its really a good post which is really very much interesting to look into these information.
ReplyDeleteActos | Tricor | Avalide | Accupril
This is what I have been searching in many websites and I finally found it here. Amazing article. I am so impressed.
ReplyDeleteCosplay Costume
Assassin's Creed Costumes
Thank you are the reading of the blog, and taking the time to response back. We try to do things alittle different here at FWS...glad you liekd it.
ReplyDeleteI really wish I hadn't seen this as I really want one now! 9.This is all very new to me and this article really opened my eyes.Thanks for sharing with us your wisdom.
ReplyDeleteBeen reading this and that, including the reviews and I had to comment on this one. To me it was meh. Honestly, I think like an officer not a grunt, so to speak freely I give two shits about the little guys. Hell, giving a shit about them makes it harder to spend them which I must do to effectively defend LA & maybe the whole damned human species. Where's my staff level alien invasion movie damnit? :)
ReplyDeleteBut then I have ALIENS for my squad level sci-fi movie, so I am sort of biased.
DeleteI enjoyed this movie quite a bit; Enough to buy it.
ReplyDeleteSo Battle LA is on Netflix. I saw it in theaters, I see it on TV, and its still great.
ReplyDelete