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Sep. 26th, 2010 06:26 pmContact with Europeans, with their different tech level, is such a sci fi scenario.
These weird aliens show up and frankly their stuff is just that much better than what you have, and forget how they're loaded with weird new diseases, these guys seem to have no clue of how to behave.
Do the rulers stage initial hostilities with the newcomers to pacify opposition before gleefully trying to trade with them (possibly what happened in Virginia)? Does the winning side of local wars use this as an opportunity to try and unload some of the losers on the newcomers (West Africa)? Do locals immediately try and buy up as much of the aliens' weapons as possible to try and settle decades-old clan feuds (New Zealand)? Do they suspect that these aliens are going to try to take over the whole place, and start re-working their military along alien lines to withstand that assault (Sikhs)? Do they grimly dig in their heels, adapting a little bit but largely figuring that when the time comes, they'll just have to suffer huge losses to achieve military victory (Zulus)? Or do they immediately ally themselves with the aliens against old enemies (Mexico)? Could people just be so completely decimated by recent warfare that the idea of immediately trying to fight some alien is too much to even consider (Peru)? Is adoption of alien tech a key factor in whatever political maneuvering is taking place on-planet, where the outsiders have little idea that's what's going on (Japan)?
This is potentially rich stuff and it always seems like it gets passed up in favor of assuming some sort of united humanity, or perhaps an Earth where the USA comes out as the big winners.
Of course another model I can think of is going into European history. Centaurs are rooted in not being able to figure out that a Scythian on a horse is not the same thing as a half-horse half-human. What sort of tech could be mistaken for cyberware, bioware, or simply the alien itself? What equivalent might there be to the Vikings who sacked coastal Italian towns, dead sure that the size of their target meant that they were raiding Byzantium itself? Could a war with an alien species wind up petering out in the same way as the Crusades, where aliens eager for acclaim and new land would choose to go after political or religious targets close to home, and largely leave humanity to stew on its own?
(Weird addendum about Virginia. Pocahontas' son, Thomas Rolfe, returned to Virginia in 1635, but his daughter Anna stayed in England, married, and had children. There might very well be Brits whose completely-English families have always had a tendency towards straight black hair and prominent cheekbones.)
These weird aliens show up and frankly their stuff is just that much better than what you have, and forget how they're loaded with weird new diseases, these guys seem to have no clue of how to behave.
Do the rulers stage initial hostilities with the newcomers to pacify opposition before gleefully trying to trade with them (possibly what happened in Virginia)? Does the winning side of local wars use this as an opportunity to try and unload some of the losers on the newcomers (West Africa)? Do locals immediately try and buy up as much of the aliens' weapons as possible to try and settle decades-old clan feuds (New Zealand)? Do they suspect that these aliens are going to try to take over the whole place, and start re-working their military along alien lines to withstand that assault (Sikhs)? Do they grimly dig in their heels, adapting a little bit but largely figuring that when the time comes, they'll just have to suffer huge losses to achieve military victory (Zulus)? Or do they immediately ally themselves with the aliens against old enemies (Mexico)? Could people just be so completely decimated by recent warfare that the idea of immediately trying to fight some alien is too much to even consider (Peru)? Is adoption of alien tech a key factor in whatever political maneuvering is taking place on-planet, where the outsiders have little idea that's what's going on (Japan)?
This is potentially rich stuff and it always seems like it gets passed up in favor of assuming some sort of united humanity, or perhaps an Earth where the USA comes out as the big winners.
Of course another model I can think of is going into European history. Centaurs are rooted in not being able to figure out that a Scythian on a horse is not the same thing as a half-horse half-human. What sort of tech could be mistaken for cyberware, bioware, or simply the alien itself? What equivalent might there be to the Vikings who sacked coastal Italian towns, dead sure that the size of their target meant that they were raiding Byzantium itself? Could a war with an alien species wind up petering out in the same way as the Crusades, where aliens eager for acclaim and new land would choose to go after political or religious targets close to home, and largely leave humanity to stew on its own?
(Weird addendum about Virginia. Pocahontas' son, Thomas Rolfe, returned to Virginia in 1635, but his daughter Anna stayed in England, married, and had children. There might very well be Brits whose completely-English families have always had a tendency towards straight black hair and prominent cheekbones.)