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[Rolan7]

Earth: I read a short story linked here by someone however long ago which had the premise that our section of universe is actually home to some kind of strange radiation which makes every race go completely batshit and kill themselves off. We're apparently the sole exception to the rule, but every other 'benevolent' race refuses to trade with us because we defy their science. So we end up getting goth-metal power armor and become 'corsairs' because we can only really do diplomacy through fear.

Earth:  I really enjoyed a very short short-story where humans become a galactic nuclear deterrent.

If that's not the same story, I would love a link.

It wasn't that.  It was some old Asimov magazine or pulp paperback...  I used to read those a lot growing up, this was a long time ago (and the story itself was likely significantly even older, like 80's).
And to be perfectly honest, I made up filled in at least half of that story.  All I remember solidly is that they were impressed with our savage rebelliousness, and offered us a job.  The lifespan justification and MAD stuff probably weren't in the original - it was *very* short, like a few pages.

[pisskop]

electroswing is decent.

some of its good.

[Tack]

Yeah, very true.
Even among of my favorite artists I find them really hit-and-miss.

This one is pretty popular (BSFW)

[ChairmanPoo]

I've always found the "humanity f*** yeah" fapfest to border racism in a disturbing manner. Take for instance Colonel Quaritch fanboys - he's a clear expy of Custer. The only reason his exploits are borderline "pallatable" to these people is that his exploits are against "blue skinned aliens".  But mind you, these people are clearly sentient and civilized. "They look different so they aren't really sentient" is the justification of every racist ever.

[Rolan7]

He's *supposed* to be Custer (so obviously that it's rather embarrassing), that's why we're supposed to hate him.  But the actual situation isn't equivalent, which is (I hope) why so many people take his side - the Na'vi are actually being unreasonable.  So people rebel against the rather patronising message of the movie.  Hey, turns out protagonist was wrong to choose an alien babe over his own people!

Also just to clarify, my story was less "Humanity fuck yeah" and more "Humanity OH GOD"

[Tack]

I like the 'humanity fuckyeah' stories because they usually have a 'Our flaws make us strong!' angle, which for some reason appeals to me.

That being said, we don't generally have humans being the technological top-dog in most, other than say Avatar (Which absolutely did play up the racism angle)

[ChairmanPoo]

He's *supposed* to be Custer (so obviously that it's rather embarrassing), that's why we're supposed to hate him.  But the actual situation isn't equivalent, which is (I hope) why so many people take his side - the Na'vi are actually being unreasonable. 

Yeah, Custer probably thought the same about the indians. If they only had gone quietly to their reservations, alas...

[pisskop]

Humanity fuck yea is about humanity coming together to do what humanity does best.

When we take for ourselves we make ourselves strong
When we become strong we form governments, enclaves, senates, etc
When we form overseeing bodies we develop culture, civility, and science
When we develop higher aims, we learn compassion


Its a cycle.  And I tend to see it like would American Migrants.  Or anything else.  We slowly learn to cope with new things.

Humans are built for the long game, after all.

[Draignean]

He's *supposed* to be Custer (so obviously that it's rather embarrassing), that's why we're supposed to hate him.  But the actual situation isn't equivalent, which is (I hope) why so many people take his side - the Na'vi are actually being unreasonable.  So people rebel against the rather patronising message of the movie.  Hey, turns out protagonist was wrong to choose an alien babe over his own people!

Also just to clarify, my story was less "Humanity fuck yeah" and more "Humanity OH GOD"

I never could commit to liking the Avatar movie. The motivation of the humans was, literally, "WE'VE STRUCK UNOBTANIUM" and the motive of the Na'Vi was "Wait, who are these feckers on our planet?"

Of the two, the Na'Vi are the more reasonable in base motivation, but they're even more xenophobic than the humans are. What was Unobtanium? Why do we need it? That was always the question that burned me.


The ending of Avatar always seemed so very sad to me. Not because humanity lost, but because the Na'Vi did. This was the chance for a peaceful reconciliation, for a blending of ways. You didn't defeat them, you just took out their ground base. They came in a space ship, and they don't want your trees, or your animals, or you. They want your rocks.

They're not going to land next time, they're just going to put a battleship in LO and burn you from space. Your rocks will survive a planetary strike. Not much else will.

[Tack]

I'd like to think it was a political victory for the Na'vi and now the military has to step off.

[Baffler]

There's this short fiction thing called Deathworlders that I was linked a few days ago. Basically humans are scary as fuck because everyone else in the universe evolved on pansy ass garden worlds. Cool premise and all that, seriously. Too bad the author/s are complete and utter hacks who wrote it into the ground and then some by, oh, the tenth chapter or so.

Don't think I've ever actually dropped a story because it went to shit like this, the premise hooks you in but the moment you take a step back you realise that it's little more than writing 101 mistakes coupled with stuff taken from other fiction and butchered to push whatever sociopolitical stance the author felt like doing that day.

Oh boy, time for some self-flagellation, I love bad fiction!

its not that bad especially since it was started off a hole on bad sci-fi, and the author does starting turning down the political stuff later on when he realizes how he sounds.

I'm late but I'm kinda surprised other people here followed this. I quit a couple months ago when it devolved into blatant fanservice. Dunno if it's still like that but it was more than I was willing to deal with. It had problems before, but until then the setting at least was interesting enough for me to keep trying with it.

[Teneb]

I'd like to think it was a political victory for the Na'vi and now the military has to step off.

Thing is... that wasn't the military. The human forces in Avatar are just corporate mercs.

The problem with HFY is that it often too fast devolves into (or just skips the devolving part by already starting as) "humans are perfect and godlike". What HFY was supposed to be was humans somehow prevailing against overwhelming odds through sheer stubbornness. Yet we have stories where humans show up and the universe itself bends backwards to elevate them.

[overseer05-15]

I recall one short story, I can't remember the name, but aliens attempt to invade earth after failing to detect any gravity drive technology. They proceed to get their arse handed to them.

Turns out the reason is that gravity drive technology is simple, but defies science in such an extreme way that any species that discovered it wound up abandoning the scientific method after a while. Somehow, we never actually discovered it, so we went on to create things like nuclear weapons and fully automated guns, while they were stuck in technology roughly equivalent to the age of sail.

'The Path Not Taken,' iirc. Gotta get me them Frost references.

EDIT: It's 'The Road Not Taken', by Harry Turtledove.

[Dunamisdeos]

I remember one book where the aliens were used to intelligence that had evolved from herd animals, and humans were so psychologically different that they could not fathom our motives or predict our actions and we defeated them in a ground war on earth even though they had orbital bombardment.

Also vampires flew into space to kill all their ships at the end.

It was a silly book.

[TheBiggerFish]

@O5-15:That link crashes my browser...