Signs/WMG: Difference between revisions

Everyone always assumes that just because a species is capable of interstellar travel, that means they must have unimaginably superior intellects. But this is a ''drastic'' case of [[You Fail Logic Forever]]. Human beings have been improving our inventions for eons and throughout all the thousands and thousands of years of constant technological advancements our brains have not evolved in intelligence to a very significant degree. In the amount of time it would probably take us to make it all the way to the point where we can travel to another galaxy--saygalaxy—say, another few hundred years--weyears—we certainly still won't have reached that point. Probably not even in another few thousand. ''Especially'' not now that we're evolving ''less'' than before. An alien species analogous to our own in advancement would presumably be the same. That's how evolution works. When you get to a certain point, your brain doesn't ''need'' to evolve much more. Evolution is about survival in the wild, not technological convenience. You can't just automatically equate technological prowess with intelligence like it's an automatic given. ''Think'', people. THINK. Don't assume. Think. These creatures are, if anything, ''less'' bright than humans--orhumans—or at least than some of the smarter humans. The way they're hard wired, they seem to be better at long term planning than short term problem solving. They can set up tricks and traps and invasions well enough, but when confronted with something they didn't expect they always seem to miss the frickin' obvious and they don't know how to deal with it. If they were as brilliant as everyone thinks being capable of interstellar travel magically automatically qualifies you as being then they wouldn't act in such a way. This isn't an inconsistency: rather, it is a more or less ''realistic'' depiction of how such a species may be on a strange new planet.

Their homeworld underwent some catastrophe that nearly wiped them out. What few survivors there were packed themselves into ships and wandered to the nearest inhabited world. They only picked a planet with oceans of poison because they were desperate. They clearly announced their presence and came unarmed and unarmored. The crop circles were universal signs of "Help us, we're starving. Can you spare some food?" Humans, [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|bastards that we are]], tried to kill the people who need us! Sure, it ''looked'' like they were gassing and abducting humans, but they were just trying to hug us and share their alien cocaine.

Whatever they were doing, the aliens intentionally handicapped themselves--choosingthemselves—choosing a planet two-thirds covered in water and limiting themselves to hand-to-hand combat--tocombat—to show off how tough they were.

Think about it. If the aliens are vulnerable to water, then they likely did not evolve on a planet with water. Water isn't exactly a common molecule in space. They want the water as a deadly weapon they can use against their kin. The Signs were business proposals to obtain the water peacefully: They wouldn't want to divert resources from fighting their enemies. (That's also why the invasion force is so small.) When that failed -- wellfailed—well, humans are mostly water, so they'll separate us into water and human jerky.

** They are mining comets, but comets are a lot smaller than Earth is. They can't mine Europa because there's no way for them to get leverage -- thereleverage—there's no place on the surface of that moon that ''isn't'' outright water. We can walk on black Hawaiian lava if we're willing to melt our sneakers, but we can't touch the red lava. For someone who can't touch water, the difference between farm fields and ice balls is similar.