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[Ultimuh]

Alien invasions MIGHT make sense, if they have a serious overpopulation problem,
and just want to throw armies at whatever planets they can find.

[wierd]

While related to our biosphere, another good reason for an alien invasion goes hand in hand with the fermi paradox:

They see other intelligent life as an existential threat, and are compelled to exterminate it, before it exterminates them-- Dalek style.

[Neonivek]

Alien invasions MIGHT make sense, if they have a serious overpopulation problem,
and just want to throw armies at whatever planets they can find.

Maybe if earth is perfect for them I guess.

I know people might object with Teraforming... but yeah... have you seen how tough that is? Space Faring Aliens aren't gonna pull it off any easier.

THAT and I want to avoid forcing certain techs onto Space Faring Races (like Forcefields). We can assume Space Travel is still expensive for them.

While related to our biosphere, another good reason for an alien invasion goes hand in hand with the fermi paradox:

They see other intelligent life as an existential threat, and are compelled to exterminate it, before it exterminates them-- Dalek style.

I wanted to avoid the metaphysical. While I doubt they would genuinely consider humanity a threat (because... come on... it would be like expecting Iraq to suddenly build a functional enterprise and take out the USA)... It isn't that I couldn't picture some sort of irrational hatred.

---

Ok another reason Aliens might invade is... Because we already have a civilization that can help them... and they are not quite populous or full of resources themselves.

I mean one website countered that they might want us for our energy by suggesting they build solar panels on Mercury... but that suggests they can do it.

[martinuzz]

Alien Captain: "Look at those poor sods. They're killing each other everywhere, and at the same time breeding so explosively that they're dooming themselves to rescource collapse and starvation. It is horrible. What can we do?"
Alien Science Officer: "The most compassionate thing to do would be to invade them for a few of their 'centuries', so my colleagues and I can bio-engineer their reproductive drive to less destructive levels, while your landing team culls the overpopulation. I think their planet can handle about 2 billion of them"

[TempAcc]

Even in the case of overpopulation, an alien invasion by a species capable of interstellar travel doesn't make much sense, for several reasons, of which I'll only list 4 cause I'm lazy:

1-By all we know of exoplanets, there's likely huge numbers of habitable worlds out there with no technologically advanced species on it. One would think that a species capable of interstellar travel would prefer to target a world without having to worry about a war seasoned species capable of limited space travel and possessing nukes;

2-Any species capable of interstellar travel en masse has likely has solved all the problems that would force it to raid a planet like earth for resources. Also, there are far better sources of pretty much any earthly resource out there in space;

3-Any species capable of interstellar travel likely has weapons at its disposal that would allow them to wipe out all of humanity. There would be no invasion, just a single, calculated strike;

4-Its highly unlikely that the aliens would invade out of interest in humanity itself, as we don't really have much to offer them, and our biology isn't exactly extraordinary either;

The only somewhat believable reason for an alien species to actualy bother to invade are religious or cultural reasons. Maybe their god demand them to invade worlds inhabited by advanced civilizations for whatever reason, or their culture is built around probing anal cavities or somesuch.

[Neonivek]

-Any species capable of interstellar travel likely has weapons at its disposal that would allow them to wipe out all of humanity. There would be no invasion, just a single, calculated strike

This is assuming VERY specific situations. Namely that these aliens are part of a task group to invade/destroy the Earth and thus have all the equipment and abilities to do so... AND can do what they need against an earth that has been glassed or rendered completely inhospitable.

One Scenario that might limit things is that this is a colony ship, exploration ship, science ship, or something that isn't really meant to be heavily armed that stumbled upon the earth.

Even in our drawn up ideas of space faring it doesn't necessarily include asteroid hurling on every ship.

[Frumple]

As Neo said, the only resource on this planet that could really attract a spacefaring species is our biosphere. Anything of that sort would ruin it, so they couldn't do it.

Not necessarily! There's some parts of our biosphere (deep ocean, extreme temp stuff, so on) that could quite possibly survive a few (dozen) KKVs slamming into the planet -- and considering they're more or less the most exotic part of our biological portfolio, it could make sense that's what an extrasolar entity is looking for, with everything else on the planet being an obstacle. There's also some particularities to our biosphere that would basically require killing off most of the rest of it to create, ala methane utilizing bacteria en masse.

[Neonivek]

As Neo said, the only resource on this planet that could really attract a spacefaring species is our biosphere. Anything of that sort would ruin it, so they couldn't do it.

Not necessarily! There's some parts of our biosphere (deep ocean, extreme temp stuff, so on) that could quite possibly survive a few (dozen) KKVs slamming into the planet -- and considering they're more or less the most exotic part of our biological portfolio, it could make sense that's what an extrasolar entity is looking for, with everything else on the planet being an obstacle. There's also some particularities to our biosphere that would basically require killing off most of the rest of it to create, ala methane utilizing bacteria en masse.

Well that is particularly amoral and short sighted...

Must be an alien corporation.

[TempAcc]

I dont think the fermi paradox is taken very seriously anymore at this point. There are loads of answers for it, and we have actualy detected a whole lot of signals that could maybe come from alien civlizations (fast radio bursts and whatnot), we just have no way to confirm it.

Isaac Arthur made a video about several different answers to the fermi "paradox". Quite the interesting watch if you've got time for it.

[wierd]

Alternative to the "Aww, poor humans cant control their urges yet! Let's self impose ourselves as overprotective parental figures-- for their safety of course!"

"OMG! Look at these things! They breed out of control, destroy whatever habitat they come into contact with, and show wanton disregard for other forms of life! They must never leave this world!"

[smjjames]

I dont think the fermi paradox is taken very seriously anymore at this point. There are loads of answers for it, and we have actualy detected a whole lot of signals that could maybe come from alien civlizations (fast radio bursts and whatnot), we just have no way to confirm it.

Isaac Arthur made a video about several different answers to the fermi "paradox". Quite the interesting watch if you've got time for it.

It's also entirely possible that we are simply one of the first species to achieve sapience. Like if WE are the forerunners. Then again, the Universe was already roughly 9 billion years old when the Solar System formed, so, it's not implausible that life MIGHT have started as soon as there was a place for it to start.

[wierd]

You have to consider how long it takes to produce the needed raw materials.  Things heavier than iron take awhile for the universe to cook up, as it takes AT LEAST 3rd generation stellar bodies to produce those.

[smjjames]

Life doesn't require iron though (well, we require some NOW, but it's arguable that life didn't need it to start here on Earth), and it could very well have been 'life, not as we know it'.

Also, our Sun isn't the first 3rd gen. star, there's other 3rd gen stars much older than ours.

[AzyWng]

I dont think the fermi paradox is taken very seriously anymore at this point. There are loads of answers for it, and we have actualy detected a whole lot of signals that could maybe come from alien civlizations (fast radio bursts and whatnot), we just have no way to confirm it.

Isaac Arthur made a video about several different answers to the fermi "paradox". Quite the interesting watch if you've got time for it.

It's also entirely possible that we are simply one of the first species to achieve sapience. Like if WE are the forerunners.

That's kind of a terrifying thought.

[wierd]

Scary huh?

Smjjames:
Some trasferric elements are very useful for life, like cobalt (b12 needs this), copper, and zinc. Others may have roles as catalytic agents in a biogenesis.