Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rtp47.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw From: throopw@rtp47.UUCP (Wayne Throop) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: What an advanced race would come far to get.... Message-ID: <91@rtp47.UUCP> Date: Fri, 19-Jul-85 17:23:56 EDT Article-I.D.: rtp47.91 Posted: Fri Jul 19 17:23:56 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jul-85 21:35:26 EDT References: <2763@topaz.ARPA> Organization: Data General, RTP, NC Lines: 43 > Is anyone familiar with any novels or stories in which the taking of human > (or other sentient) slaves by an advanced race is treated with some degree > of depth? I can't recall any right off-hand. If so, what reasons are presented > for such activities? Well, it wasn't *very* deep, bit I'll recommend Jack Lovejoy's "The Hunters". It is a novel about an alien invasion of the earth by superior aliens. They essentially convert earth into a game preserve, and use humans both as game and as "hunting dogs". I'll also recommend David Gerrold's The War with the Cthorr series. It is about an alien invasion which (a character conjectures) is due to the invader's planet becoming uninhabitable. I think that there are essentially two plausible categories for alien invasion of the earth. Recreation (or insanity) (a-la "The Hunters") and refuge from disaster (a-la The War with the Cthorr series). Earlier articles point out that we have no material wealth to offer an advanced technology, and slave labor seems ridiculously expensive to a technically advanced society. Living space might be a reason, but would require an unreasonably advanced transport technology to make it feasible and at the same time have the technology level low enough to preclude easier solutions to population pressure (such as Ringworlds). (The exception is when cost is no object, eg, the aliens need to escape from a supernova or the like.) The notion of humans as pets, game, or objects of sadism or fanaticism is, of course, old hat in the sf field, with innumerable examples. A somewhat less common related notion (that doesn't directly imply subjugation) is humankind as objects of tourism (which might be worse than subjugation :-). (Note that by "insanity" above, I simply mean behavior that is radically non-optimal for survival or efficency. (I realize that with this broad a classification of insanity, I myself am insane, and recreation can be considered a subset of insanity.)) -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC !mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw