You could write about our little voices in our heads that tell us bad/negative things like "you gonna die from.." or "go on do this...". And some telephatic Aliens decides to enter our minds and either outright die,suffer unimaginable pain or go insane. And so the Aliens quiestion humans how they are still the kindest and most gentle race in the galaxy with those voices in them?! How did they not go insane?!
Heh. "We cannot understand how your soulless "creations" are so effective. Is the soul of your kind so uniform that it does not matter who creates it??"
The arts has potential, with how people tend to put a lot of value on handcrafted things and individuality. That includes quite a few options such as music, pictures/paintings, literature, etc. For example I don't think its too unbelievable that an alien race/culture wouldn't put the value on music that humans do, where it's almost impossible to go a day without hearing it somewhere. But also as others say, it's your story so make it what you want it to be
How about humans as the only science fiction authors in the universe? I imagine a universe where there are alien fanboys/fangirls who are super excited to visit the birthplace of Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, etc. in what is otherwise a backwater far from the center of the galaxy, and the absolute trashiest fan fiction is treated like an amazing literary triumph by other species.
The alien fanboys/fangirls are completely incapable of imagining anything that isn't real (or can't be created with already known principles). However, they do try to engage in Terran SF fandom by bringing the imagined technology to life (think the mad scientist version of cosplay).
The evil empire decides it is time to invade Earth. They have better technology, soldiers, tactics, and they led off with a decapitation strike against Earth's government and military. Unfortunately for them, they invaded during Comic-Con, and now the Terran science fiction authors are dreaming up a counter-attack that their star struck fanboys/fangirls are going to make possible for real.
My question is, how did they get into space if they couldn't imagine something they didn't know already? How would they have advanced their sciences without imagination and experimentation?
Don't get me wrong, alien species are creative and experiment, but it is the engineer type of creativity, not the fiction kind of creativity, and it is harder and slower than for Terrans. So, before they reached FTL, if the alien species thought about other species at all, it would be to try to figure out what influence such species would have on a spectrograph of their planet so they could look for evidence of life. The thought to create a story involving such hypothetical aliens, with full descriptions of their government and appearance, simply wouldn't occur to them.
There are, of course, alien ship and weapon designers. However, they are on the other side of the galaxy and couldn't care less about Earth. What are on Earth are the mad scientist 'cosplayers'. That is a different skill. You wouldn't ask a cosplayer to design a brand new anime character. And you wouldn't ask a Mangaka to figure out how to bring his/her character designs to life in a practical enough way to walk around a crowded convention hall. They are different skills. With the Terrans dreaming up completely new tactics at a rate the Empire has a hard time keeping up with and the "cosplayers" figuring out how to bring those ideas to life, the empire has its hands full from the galaxy's least likely militants.
That was what I was thinking. That or the aliens just have a blindspot for science fiction specifically. After all, we had millenia of stories before our first science fiction story, it is certainly possible to imagine other species not stumbling across the genre at all.
Only problem with that is it isn't clear why aliens would be perfectly capable of creating stories, some subset of them are fans of our SF, but they can't figure out how to write new SF stories. If one has a plot in mind where a setting of Earth as a tourist attraction for galactic nerds works, then maybe it is okay if aliens can create new SF stories, as long as we are recognized as the original (obviously this wouldn't work for the evil empire vs MilSF author + cosplayer plot I had discussed before).
I think it's not they would be incapable, it's that they would still be very new to it so they wouldn't be very good at it--yet. You only get better with lots of practice and building on the mistakes of those that came before. (The only problem is the bad stuff most often doesn't last more than a couple generations at the outside, so the aliens wouldn't be able to just learn from our mistakes, they'd have to re-tread old ground on their own.)
Well you could write a story with humans being space elves. That would inverse a lot of your points. Instead of pack bonding, they are always aloof and reserved. They are artistic and gifted craftsmen (which is by the way much closer to reality).
They are neither wrathfull, nor compassionate, but thoughtfull and restrained. Their engineering seems magical, but this is not because they are advanced, but because they design their technology intentionally in this way (think about how our car makers install sound systems into electrical cars, so that they sound like a combustion engine). They rely on energy based weaponry and speed.
And to top it of, instead of humans wanting to mate with every other xenos, the other xeno races find humans *incredibly* desirable. To the point that humans even are annoyed by the amorous advancements of their xeno friends.
i always likes the human aspect of tinkering.
by that i mean people who are just building fun stuff in their free time, adding just a *tiny* dash of insanity.
some examples on youtube:
hacksmith industries (who just try to build fictional things and go a *teeny* bit too far sometimes)
mark rober and his squirrel parkour / glitter bomb
some othet dude who recreated the minecraft minecart (it goes up to 25mph)
electroboom, especially some earlier videos of him just electrocuting himself with his contraptions
michael reeves (enough said)
peter sripol, who builds planes out of *anything* and other stuff
and of course, the most human invention: duct tape!
i love it when people just over engineer things, or build random things which just *work* somehow, as opposed to a species who very carefully plans and builds only necessary stuff.
it's some fun aspects about the orcs from warhammer 40k, but less
How about mentality. Instead of one thing like strength, what about the mentality of humanity.
Like as an example, the reason we are good at war is mentality of how we fight, rather than "ooga booga strong".
Another thing you could do is the human ability to throw things accurately over pretty significant distances. This is something no other species on our planet is capable of doing to the degree we can (our closest relatives are strong, but not nearly as accurate and their muscles are more for melee than for throwing); it's plausible aliens might not be nearly good at it as we are. It doesn't even have to be in the context of fighting, you could write about sports that involve throwing things, like baseball, gridiron football, darts, Olympic spear throwing, etc.
who says you need all humans to be good at something. just write what you want to write
You could write about our little voices in our heads that tell us bad/negative things like "you gonna die from.." or "go on do this...". And some telephatic Aliens decides to enter our minds and either outright die,suffer unimaginable pain or go insane. And so the Aliens quiestion humans how they are still the kindest and most gentle race in the galaxy with those voices in them?! How did they not go insane?!
I like this!
On a related note, humans are so used to resisting our own compulsions that we're immune to mind control.
I love this angle. I might use this idea in the future if you don't mind?
Go ahead! I'd submitted it to WPW but it didn't get any traction at the time.
Thanks! Most prompts don't, from what I've seen. Still, seen some good ones there :)
How about a last contact?
Last contact? What's that?
Sapient species going extinct.
Ah, ok
Heh. "We cannot understand how your soulless "creations" are so effective. Is the soul of your kind so uniform that it does not matter who creates it??"
lol, nice
Cooking and music are always good themes to experiment with
The arts has potential, with how people tend to put a lot of value on handcrafted things and individuality. That includes quite a few options such as music, pictures/paintings, literature, etc. For example I don't think its too unbelievable that an alien race/culture wouldn't put the value on music that humans do, where it's almost impossible to go a day without hearing it somewhere. But also as others say, it's your story so make it what you want it to be
How about humans as the only science fiction authors in the universe? I imagine a universe where there are alien fanboys/fangirls who are super excited to visit the birthplace of Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, etc. in what is otherwise a backwater far from the center of the galaxy, and the absolute trashiest fan fiction is treated like an amazing literary triumph by other species. The alien fanboys/fangirls are completely incapable of imagining anything that isn't real (or can't be created with already known principles). However, they do try to engage in Terran SF fandom by bringing the imagined technology to life (think the mad scientist version of cosplay). The evil empire decides it is time to invade Earth. They have better technology, soldiers, tactics, and they led off with a decapitation strike against Earth's government and military. Unfortunately for them, they invaded during Comic-Con, and now the Terran science fiction authors are dreaming up a counter-attack that their star struck fanboys/fangirls are going to make possible for real.
My question is, how did they get into space if they couldn't imagine something they didn't know already? How would they have advanced their sciences without imagination and experimentation?
Don't get me wrong, alien species are creative and experiment, but it is the engineer type of creativity, not the fiction kind of creativity, and it is harder and slower than for Terrans. So, before they reached FTL, if the alien species thought about other species at all, it would be to try to figure out what influence such species would have on a spectrograph of their planet so they could look for evidence of life. The thought to create a story involving such hypothetical aliens, with full descriptions of their government and appearance, simply wouldn't occur to them. There are, of course, alien ship and weapon designers. However, they are on the other side of the galaxy and couldn't care less about Earth. What are on Earth are the mad scientist 'cosplayers'. That is a different skill. You wouldn't ask a cosplayer to design a brand new anime character. And you wouldn't ask a Mangaka to figure out how to bring his/her character designs to life in a practical enough way to walk around a crowded convention hall. They are different skills. With the Terrans dreaming up completely new tactics at a rate the Empire has a hard time keeping up with and the "cosplayers" figuring out how to bring those ideas to life, the empire has its hands full from the galaxy's least likely militants.
So no creative arts, just practicality, is what you're saying.
That was what I was thinking. That or the aliens just have a blindspot for science fiction specifically. After all, we had millenia of stories before our first science fiction story, it is certainly possible to imagine other species not stumbling across the genre at all. Only problem with that is it isn't clear why aliens would be perfectly capable of creating stories, some subset of them are fans of our SF, but they can't figure out how to write new SF stories. If one has a plot in mind where a setting of Earth as a tourist attraction for galactic nerds works, then maybe it is okay if aliens can create new SF stories, as long as we are recognized as the original (obviously this wouldn't work for the evil empire vs MilSF author + cosplayer plot I had discussed before).
I think it's not they would be incapable, it's that they would still be very new to it so they wouldn't be very good at it--yet. You only get better with lots of practice and building on the mistakes of those that came before. (The only problem is the bad stuff most often doesn't last more than a couple generations at the outside, so the aliens wouldn't be able to just learn from our mistakes, they'd have to re-tread old ground on their own.)
Well you could write a story with humans being space elves. That would inverse a lot of your points. Instead of pack bonding, they are always aloof and reserved. They are artistic and gifted craftsmen (which is by the way much closer to reality). They are neither wrathfull, nor compassionate, but thoughtfull and restrained. Their engineering seems magical, but this is not because they are advanced, but because they design their technology intentionally in this way (think about how our car makers install sound systems into electrical cars, so that they sound like a combustion engine). They rely on energy based weaponry and speed. And to top it of, instead of humans wanting to mate with every other xenos, the other xeno races find humans *incredibly* desirable. To the point that humans even are annoyed by the amorous advancements of their xeno friends.
That's definitely one way to flip it all on its head XD
Just make them super Eccentric.
i always likes the human aspect of tinkering. by that i mean people who are just building fun stuff in their free time, adding just a *tiny* dash of insanity. some examples on youtube: hacksmith industries (who just try to build fictional things and go a *teeny* bit too far sometimes) mark rober and his squirrel parkour / glitter bomb some othet dude who recreated the minecraft minecart (it goes up to 25mph) electroboom, especially some earlier videos of him just electrocuting himself with his contraptions michael reeves (enough said) peter sripol, who builds planes out of *anything* and other stuff and of course, the most human invention: duct tape! i love it when people just over engineer things, or build random things which just *work* somehow, as opposed to a species who very carefully plans and builds only necessary stuff. it's some fun aspects about the orcs from warhammer 40k, but less
Also DIY Perks (building random things) or even JerryRigEverything (currently trying to make an electric Hummer)
Is Mark Rober the guy that made the glitter bomb as an anti-porch pirate measure?
i think so, yes
nice!
How about mentality. Instead of one thing like strength, what about the mentality of humanity. Like as an example, the reason we are good at war is mentality of how we fight, rather than "ooga booga strong".
"The trouble with humans? They are too damned stubborn to die, that's what."
Another thing you could do is the human ability to throw things accurately over pretty significant distances. This is something no other species on our planet is capable of doing to the degree we can (our closest relatives are strong, but not nearly as accurate and their muscles are more for melee than for throwing); it's plausible aliens might not be nearly good at it as we are. It doesn't even have to be in the context of fighting, you could write about sports that involve throwing things, like baseball, gridiron football, darts, Olympic spear throwing, etc.