Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

If you have to use something that's recognizable to the viewer as a machine, you're not Sufficiently Advanced. If you can just wave your hand and things happen, you probably are (visual machines are allowed for really ''big'' effects, like making galaxies explode or transporting a planet from one side of the galaxy to another). If you ''[[Mechanical Lifeforms|are]]'' [[Mechanical Lifeforms|a machine]], there's some wiggle room (and some overlap with [[Deus Est Machina]]).

 

 

 

 

Compare to [[Higher-Tech Species]], when the aliens are more advanced, but not quite Sufficiently Advanced ''enough'' to count as this. Contrast with [[God Guise]] and [[Ancient Astronauts]]. See also [[Physical God]], for an approach from the other side of the spectrum. Naturally, they are nothing like the [[Insufficiently Advanced Alien]].

 

{{examples}}

== [[Advertising]] ==

* In a UK advert for Carling beer, a group of astronauts have a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7AM49svaGQ rather amusing encounter] with one of these chaps. Overlaps with [[Energy Beings]] as well by the looks of it.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The Earthlings from ''[[Vandread]]''. They grow humans like crops, have giant, self sustaining battleships, can copy the shape and powers of the Vandreads, and live by replacing their body parts with the body parts of the aforementioned humans. Their [[Enfante Terrible]] leader can communicate telepathically and crush things/people with telekinetic powers.

* Nagato Yuki of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' is a prime example of this. By ''chanting computer code'', she can manipulate matter and space with great precision and scope.

** Also includes a bit of a [[Starfish Aliens]] touch, in that they had to create humans in order to try to understand them (the "alien" characters would be more accurately described as [[Artificial Human|artificial humans]]) and are rather interested in the fact that mere matter can apparently have intelligence.

* The [[Precursors|Golden Tribe]] of ''[[Heroic Age]]''. They were reputed to be able to create planets and predict the future (though whether these tasks required the use of machines or not is never explained), and are treated as gods by the Silver Tribe.

* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', the giant monsters attacking Tokyo-3 are called Angels and seem ''akin'' to gods, but are actually ([[All There in the Manual|according to one of the supplementary sources]]) expressions of one of a pair of competing "world seeds" launched eons ago by unknown [[Precursors]]. {{spoiler|What Shinji does at the end also seems to lean towards religion, although it may be interpreted as just science, putting the right objects in the right place and having the desired reaction.}}

** ''One'' interpretation. This Universe itself is fundamentally a mirror of Hideaki Anno's Pysche, and the Unknown Precursors themselves are not guaranteed to be part of his Canon.

** We refer you to Clarke's third law for debate.

 

== Comic Books ==

* The [[Marvel Universe]] has ''tons'' of these; probably the most famous is Galactus, [[Planet Eater|planet-eating]] antagonist of the [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]].

** Runners-up would be the Watchers and the Celestials, who hate each other's guts, interestingly.

** The Impossible Man is quite powerful, but mostly just spends his time annoying people.

*** In the ''Earth X'' trilogy (Earth X, Universe X, Paradise X), all the gods are sufficiently advanced aliens (evolution wise), it's a long story.

** Subverted in the Ultimate Galactus trilogy of books in the Ultimate Marvel continuity. The Ultimate Version of Galactus is a consciousness spread over a colony of ships spread thousands of miles across.

** The inhabitants of the Fifth Dimension, like Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite, whose reality-warping powers put them five tiers above everything else. Their interest in DCU is mainly limited to mischief.

* [[Jack Kirby]] personally created the Celestials and the New Gods and had a hand in creating the Watchers and Galactus. This trope seems to really have appealed to him.

* In the most controversial ''[[Tintin]]'' comic, ''Tintin in the Congo'' (rife with [[Unfortunate Implications]] and [[Values Dissonance]]), the Congolese natives end up worshiping idols of Tintin and Snowy because of the extreme [[Mighty Whitey]] factor in Tintin's visit.

 

== Fan Works ==

* Shag and Varx in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' are of some “lizardy, birdy” race with technology sufficiently advanced to shuffle people from one dimension to another for an undergraduate class project, to bestow people with considerable power, and to maneuver those people into annoying situations. Jeft, who is a [[The Greys|Grey]], pretends he's a god, but the others are quick to distance themselves from that definition.

 

== Film ==

* In John Carpenter's ''[[Prince of Darkness]]'' it is revealed that the {{spoiler|Church}} has hidden the truth for 2,000 years -- {{spoiler|that Jesus was an alien}}.

** And there are apparently some who believe this to be [[Truth in Television]].

* The Asgardians in ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'', though their power actually seems to be a mix of this and genuine [[Magitek]].

* In ''[[Contact (film)|Contact]]'', a central theme is science versus religion. The main character is an atheist who looks down on her lover's blind faith, and in the end {{spoiler|she is the one who has an essentially religious experience with an advanced alien that everyone else can only take on faith.}} Makes you wonder, if there really is a God, is he perhaps just a really advanced alien?

** In the original, Klaatu claims the awkward, lumbering robot Gort could "destroy the universe", and he likewise brought Klaatu back to life (with the help of some technology).

* {{spoiler|The Strangers (who even [[Rule of Symbolism|resemble angels]] in their true form!)}} in ''[[Knowing]]'';

 

== Literature ==

** The Techno core: They created an exact replica of the Earth. {{spoiler|Later it's revealed that the Earth was actually teleported instead of being swallowed by the black hole on its core.}} Also, they created the Death rods, the farcasting system, and a device to give immortality to humans. {{spoiler|The cruciform parasite.}}

** The "others" {{spoiler|(the ones who actually teleported Earth when the Techno core entities were freaking out in fear)}}.

** ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey|2001]]'', ''[[2010: The Year We Make Contact|2010]]'', and their sequels explore this in great detail, starting with the aliens' [[Uplifted Animal]] of proto-humans in the African savannah, and progressing to the modern era when it's discovered that they've seeded the solar system with [[The Monolith|monoliths]] designed to alert them when humans start to venture into space. They then deliberately capture one (David Bowman) and forcibly [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|ascend him]] in order to create an intermediary. In ''2010'', they turn Jupiter into a star to protect the evolution of life on Europa, and allow {{spoiler|HAL to join Bowman}}.

** Also the Overmind of his ''[[Childhood's End]]''.

* The idea of the Christian God being a Sufficiently Advanced Alien appears in probably more SF stories than can be easily enumerated, but this verges more upon the territory covered by [[Ancient Astronauts]].

** Though in a sense, they actually ''became'' gods.

** Also the briefly mentioned being who drove Crayak from his home galaxy (and is implied to be even worse than he is!).

* Uriel from Clive Barker's ''[[Weaveworld]]'' is probably one of these, although it's bought into its own hype and thinks it's an angel.

* [[The Culture]]. And more than the vastly-advanced Culture themselves are the [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|Sublimed]].

* The ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series by [[Alan Dean Foster]] features a vast array of alien species of varying technology levels, but this particular trope belongs solely to the Xunca. Living a billion years ago, they dominated the entire galaxy and regularly converted entire planets into machines for various projects. They fled to [[Another Dimension]] after encountering an [[Eldritch Abomination|unstoppable galaxy-devouring horror]], but not before leaving behind a superweapon ''built out of'' the [[wikipedia:Great attractor|Great Attractor]], to which the main protagonist, Flinx, is the key. That's galactic-scale engineering for you.

* The Gods (or "Ymirian Guards") in ''[[Nerh Ã]]»n'' are actually highly advanced aliens from the nearby planet Ymir who used [[En Ã]]´r as an experimental location for genetic modification. [[It Got Worse|It got slightly out of hand, though...]]

* The eponymous aliens of S. M. Stirling's ''[[The Lords of Creation]]'' series alter environments on a planetary scale and create interdimensional gateways with ease.

* The Priest-Kings of ''[[Gor]]'', who for some reason, kidnap human from Earth, [[Fantasy Gun Control|remove any type of firearm]], dump them on the eponymous planet and have them create a society that would [[Unfortunate Implications|make the Dark Ages look feminist]]. Their reasons are unknown, maybe they're just [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|really bored]], [[Rule 34|or just that into human porn]].

** It's implied in ''Priest-Kings of Gor'' that they're motivated by a largely by intense boredom (Misk has to be physically restrained from committing suicide when the opportunity arises) and that they just [[Humans Are Special|think people are interesting]].

* The Jenoine of ''[[Dragaera]]''. It takes the full attention and utmost efforts of Sethra Lavode, the most powerful sorcerer on the planet {{spoiler|due to being a two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-year-old vampire}} to kill a single Jenoine scout. They are so powerful that the gods of this world, {{spoiler|who are actually former slaves of the Jenoine who rebelled with magic learned from their masters}}, are scared of them.

* In [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s ''[[The Cyberiad]]'', a scientist called Klapaucius theorizes that there must exist a civilization that is on the highest possible level of development. He eventually finds it, but he's shocked to see that they do absolutely nothing. This is because they think doing anything when you're perfect is pointless; "You climb to reach the sum­mit, but once there, discover that all roads lead down!"

* In [[Peter F. Hamilton]]'s ''[[Commonwealth Saga]]'' and ''[[Void Trilogy]]'', you get the Silfen, who are elves that can travel between planets by walking the Silfen Paths. Even though humans are pretty sure the paths are actually disguised wormholes, they aren't able to understand how they work, or even to detect the paths. In the ''Void Trilogy'' some of their "magic" was reverse-engineered by Ozzie Fernandez Isaacs to create the gaïafield, which allow humans equipped with gaïamotes to share emotions and dreams. The Firstlifes who built the void could also qualify, as no one understand its purpose or how it works.

* [[Michael Moorcock]]'s ''Dancers at the End of Time'' are [[Reality Warper|reality warping]] sufficiently advanced ''humans''. They reached godhood one million years before the beginning of the story, which, ironically, caused humanity to fall into decadence by boredom (omnipotence can do that apparently) and by the beginning of the first book, only a few hundreds of them still exist on earth, yet, even diminished as they are, they are still by far the most powerful race in the universe (well, the fact that their technology is so costly in energy that it is dramatically speeding up the heath death of the universe means that there are not that many potential rivals anymore) and are still able to understand their own technology, the problem is that they use it to built [[Great Gazoo|pink suns on a whim]] or tinker with the space-time continuum to [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pass time]] instead of trying to fix the mess they created. It is even implied that some of them actually {{spoiler|go to [[Canon Welding|other universes]] and start insanely destructive wars against gods}} because they have nothing better to do.

* Tuffy in [[John Ringo]]'s ''[[Into the Looking Glass]]'' series. Unless, as hinted, [[Our Angels Are Different|he's something even stranger]].

** It's actually a bit debatable whether they're truly [[Sufficiently Advanced]], because while they're even more godlike in achievement than many others on this list, they ''do'' use recognizable tech... With the exception of the Anti-Xelee's [[Deus Est Machina]] schtick, at any rate. Thus they shade between this and being more a hyper-extreme case of [[Higher-Tech Species]].

* Langhorne and the other founders of ''[[Safehold]]'' are this to the unwitting colonists. Shan-Wei, a founder who resists the idea of setting themselves up as "Archangels" is defeated and becomes the planetary religion's equivalent of Satan.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** ''[[Star Trek V: The Final Frontier|What does God need with a starship?]]''

** The Metrons, from the famous ''TOS'' episode where Kirk fought the Gorn.

** Also the Guardian of Forever (or alternately, the ancient race that created said Guardian).

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' had the First Ones. The Vorlons and the Shadows were almost but not quite [[Sufficiently Advanced]]. (If you have to travel through space in a ship, you're probably not ''Sufficiently'' Advanced. After all, what does a God need with a starship?)

** Somewhat lampshaded by the fact that despite being looked upon as technologically transcendent beings the Vorlons are often treated as if they were ordinary schmoes. A couple of miscellaneous aliens accost him with a medical ethics quandary in "Believers" only for an (irritated?) Kosh to dismiss them, saying "the avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote."

** And then there's Lorien, ''the'' first one, and who can essentially ''become'' his own spaceship.

**** To put this in context: Vorlons in the ''Babylon 5'' card game have a 'military' score, which is a stat normally reserved for planets and fleets capable of military action. A Vorlon (singular) [[One-Man Army|can take on anything up to the third human battlefleet and win]].

** The Ori fit more closely: they are immaterial, pretty close to all-knowing, and have near absolute control over natural forces. Their followers point out that there's really a fair argument to be made that the Ori ''are'' gods. To which SG-1 usually retorts that even if their power and knowledge are real, [[Abusive Precursors|their actions]] make them unworthy of devotion.

* In the [[Stargate Verse]], the Ancients, the "good guy" counterpart to the Ori, are also [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|"ascended"]] human-like beings. Though they have a strict policy of [[Neglectful Precursors|not interfering in mortal matters]], the Ancients left all sorts of neat tech lying around when they ascended (including the eponymous stargates and [[Stargate Atlantis|city of Atlantis]]). The Ancients are often said to have re-created human life across the galaxy when they started ascending.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' is a rare example of a show that works with a Sufficiently Advanced Alien as the main character, primarily because of the liberal use of [[The Watson]].

** Although other aliens are more advanced than ''that''. The Eternals, for instance, who dismiss the Time Lords with "Are there Lords of such a small domain?" In the [[Expanded Universe]] novels, a group of Eternals are the seldom-mentioned [[Ancient Astronauts|gods of Gallifrey]]. And then it turns out that The Eternals themselves greatly respect creatures known as the Black and White Guardians, who are as far above them as they are above Time Lords.

* In ''[[Stargate Universe]]'', when the Destiny comes across a planet that shouldn't be there that looks as if it was built for them, they theorize all-powerful aliens must've built it, especially because of a huge monolith with strange writing. A theory that gains more credence when {{spoiler|a group of people left behind on that planet suddenly and inexplicably show up a galaxy away... after freezing to death.}} Also the "all-powerful aliens" bit is not too outlandish in the Stargate verse, what with the Ascended (it would be well within the power of the Ascended to create a perfectly habitable planet).

* In ''[[Smallville]]'', a Kryptonian man visited Earth about 500 years ago, where he was worshiped by a Native American tribe.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** The Necrons themselves also would fall into the category of being Sufficiently Advanced Aliens. Necron technology is capable of the following:

*** Lasting over 60 million years buried and neglected all over the galaxy, yet still capable of being reactivated without a hitch.

*** Merely looking at complex Necron circuitry has caused epileptic fits.

*** Immortality via [[Brain Uploading|patterning of a biological brain into a machine]], though with an admittedly variable success rate (Necron Lord self awareness vs your average Warrior or Flayed One).

*** Handheld weapons of the necron army have been seen penetrating both faces of opposing factions' heaviest supervehicles.

** The Old Ones were Sufficiently Advanced Aliens long before the C'tan decided to stop ignoring sentient races and start eating them. They seeded worlds with life, created safe realms within the Warp, and created the Eldar (who later ascended to this position themselves) and the Orks.

** Karn the Silver Golem was a sufficiently advanced ''robot'', an assembly of artifacts indistinguishable from an old-style [[Physical God|Planeswalker]]. He even created his own world.

* The {{spoiler|ETI}} from ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'', for a more [[Eldritch Abomination]] style advanced alien, there's.

 

== Video Games ==

* [[Precursors|Forerunners]] and ''their'' forerunners, [[Abusive Precursors|The Precursors]] fit the bill neatly. A list of the Forerunner's works include:

** The ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' Array: 7 (originally 12) ring habitats that act as fortresses and weapons of a kill-all-life-in-the-Galaxy-bigger-than-a-microbe scale. Had the original 12 been activated all at once, the kill-effect would have gone ''far out into the Local Cluster''. The rings themselves have almost the radius of the ''Earth''.

*** The Ark itself comes with its own small star that moves around it.

** [[Halo Cryptum]] describes other structures as well. ''Fortress''-Class warships, and The Capital station, just to name a few.

*** The way they're described, it's highly probable that the Covenant capitol ''High Charity'' was a Fortress-class. The Forerunners had ''fleets'' of the things.

* Some theories have the G-Man in the ''[[Half-Life (series)|Half-Life]]'' series be one of these. He clearly fits the description as he is able to manipulate reality, stop time and teleport people into bizarre alien realms, all without twitching a muscle. He also appears completely unconcerned by the carnage going on around him.

** At one point in the series, the Vortigaunts are shown to at least have ''some'' kind of power over the G-Man when they manage to successfully hold him off and keep him away from Gordon for some stretch of time. But what exact implications this has on the limits of the G-Man's power is never explained.

* The Val-Fasq in the ''[[Galaxy Angel (video game)|Galaxy Angel]]'' Gameverse.

** In Mother, he is also [[Contractual Boss Immunity|completely immune to harm]].

* The Mother of ''[[La-Mulana]]'', who descended to our planet aeons ago and {{spoiler|begat all mortal life as helpers to aid her in returning to the stars. [[Tear Jerker|She cannot return]]; the human [[Player Character]] has to [[Mercy Kill]] her as the [[Final Boss]].}}

* The final boss of the first ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'', Meta-God, is explicitly described as an alien so powerful humanity is on the level of ants compared to it. The purpose of [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] is to call it to Earth so that it will lay waste to the planet.

* The Ancients from ''[[Might and Magic]]''; they create worlds for ''fun''.

* The Cuotl from the game ''[[Rise of Legends]]'' appear [[Sufficiently Advanced]], since their alien technology is light years ahead of the steampunk Vinci and the magical Alin.

** Somehow Cuotl are still [[Rock Beats Laser|not any stronger]] than the Vinci.

* The [[Eldritch Abomination|Rea]][[Sapient Ship|pers]] from ''[[Mass Effect]]''. {{spoiler|They built the Mass Relays and the Citadel.}}

** Averted and subverted with every other race. In ''Revelations'', the turians just before the First Contact War described as being on roughly the same technological level as us. Most other races also dance on that line, and then there are some races like the krogan, vorcha, and drell that "hitchhiked" into space for one reason or another.

* The Entity from ''[[Nexus the Jupiter Incident]]'', an ancient AI capable of reshaping reality.

* The Wave Existence from ''[[Xenogears]]'', an energy being from another dimension that somehow created our own. It believes it is what the inhabitants of this dimension would regard as "God" but doesn't think of itself as such. Probably because it spent billions of years trapped in the Zohar Modifier.

* [[Eldritch Abomination|Lavos]] from ''[[Chrono Trigger]]''.

* The Titans from ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. They travel across the universe, shaping worlds to fit their idea of order.

** And to a certain degree, the Draenei.

* Tuatha De Dunaan from ''[[Metal Slug]] 3D''.

* ''[[Asura's Wrath]]'' has the Shinkoku Trastrium civilization, which are actually super-powered human cyborgs descended from Genetically altered humans, have a lot in common with this trope, with a [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]] twist.

* ''[[Galactic Civilizations]]'' has the {{spoiler|Mythralar, who existed long before any other sentient life and one of whom created the Precursors: Arnor and Dread Lords. One of them is also indirectly responsible for the Altarians being [[Human Aliens]]. What happened to them is not known.}} Two different Victory Conditions result in your species becoming Sufficiently Advanced: either by absorbing enough Ascension Crystal energy or by doing so much research that you learn the secrets of the universe and ascend naturally.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Galatea expresses profound disappointment that Fructose Riboflavin [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20091205.html isn't one of these.]

* ''[[Troops of Doom]]'' has the Legonians, masters of the nigh-magical, [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]-fueled [[Built With Lego|Legotech]].

 

== Web Original ==

** Inverted for a period of time as well. Once humanity organizes a counterstrike against the demons and absolutely slaughters them, some of the demons begin to believe that humans have figured out how to use impossibly powerful magic and cannot be defeated.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series]]''

** "Bem" has probably the only instance in the entire franchise of a powerful alien looking after a planet of primitives, who appears to be genuinely wise and benevolent enough that Kirk ''doesn't'' automatically object to the situation on principle. Bonus points because the alien was voiced by Nichelle Nichols (Uhura).

 

== Real Life ==

** Just to make sure you fully understand the implications, before the Arabic numerals (which actually were invented in India, but never mind) came along, the Europeans had no concept of zero or positional notation.

** This is also, funnily enough, the origin of some of the ideas concerning the [[Ancient Astronauts]] trope. I.e. supposely "advanced" Western people who can't figure how something sometimes as simple as a stone pyramid was built come with the "obvious" explanation that it had to be the work of superior beings from outer space rather than, say, fellow humans with Bronze Age tools. While we could make something like the pyramids today, it wasn't always known how the builders did it at their generally lower technology level. For example, rather than bringing in surveying equipment to get the foundation level, they flooded the foundation and then moved dirt around until the depth was consistent; rather than using cranes to lift multi-ton stone blocks to the higher levels, they dragged them up earth ramps which were dismantled after construction finished.

* Physicist Frank J. Tipler advocates Omega Point theory, in which it is ''necessary'' that Sufficiently Advanced Aliens (or Sufficiently Advanced Humans) are not merely indistinguishable from gods, but become/create (it's complicated) God.

* [[Stephen Hawking]] himself has suggested that aliens may have already become immortal, live in fast spaceship colonies and suck up entire suns for fuel.

 

* Mormonism teaches that God at one time existed in a mortal form similar to that of humans but was eventually "exalted" and now possesses a physical body similar to that of humans, but immortal and invulnerable to injury or disease. In the Book of Abraham, Kolob is described as a star that is "near unto [God]" and that has been set to govern all celestial bodies similar to Earth. (See [http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/abr/3.3?lang=eng#2 Abraham 3:3]) God is the literal father of our spirits and of those on all the other worlds that he created, which are described as being "without number" ([http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/moses/1.33,35?lang=eng#32 Moses 1:33,35]). After the second coming of Jesus Christ, everyone who has ever lived or died will be resurrected with perfect, immortal physical bodies similar to God's, but only those who have fulfilled all of the requirements of the Gospel and faithfully endured to the end will obtain "exaltation", entering into the highest degree of Celestial Glory (i.e., the kingdom of God, or "the glory of the sun") and in effect become "gods" themselves, possessing all of God's wisdom and power and becoming able to create their own worlds. ([http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/76.50-70?lang=eng#49 D&C 76:50-70], [http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/76.92-96?lang=eng#49 92-96]) This doctrine, known as "eternal progression", was summarized by former President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Mormon prophet Lorenzo Snow as: "As man is, God once was; and as God is, man may become."

 

[[Category:Alien Tropes]]

[[Category:Sufficiently Advanced Alien]]