What of Earth's Defences?

all i know is that earth hase laser sattelites for defences,and maybe we have developed a fighter that can leave earth's athmosphere a little.so what defences the earth hase if we were to be invaded?

we could also upload a virus into the mainframe of the invader's mothership, (Independence Day) there's also bacteria on this planet out invaders might not be immune to (War Of The Worlds) for example

Originally posted by Commander Gogeta
all i know is that earth hase laser sattelites for defences,and maybe we have developed a fighter that can leave earth's athmosphere a little.so what defences the earth hase if we were to be invaded?

BWahahahahahAHHAHahhahaHAhahahahah!!!!

(continue laughing for several minutes)

Put it this way. If there were a species of aliens so advanced they could find us AND get to us, their technology is so superior that Earth's defenses wouldn't even qualify as "Stone Age" in comparison.

If you really want to hear more, check out this thread, but as fair warning, it will only depress you.

This is assuming that 'aliens' 'invade'. What if they do something far worse we can't even imagine? What if the concept of 'aliens' fails to describe what they are? What if they already did their thing, whatever it is, and we are already doomed? What if the concepts of 'when' don't apply to what is done?

What if our concepts of reality are so different from theres that our mutual spatiotemporal locality amounts to, from our perspective, nothing more than a painful sequence of distorted sensory failures, followed by death from gamma rays.

This idea of 'aliens' as 'animals from another planet' is too restrictive.
The idea of 'aliens' as 'space priests from Venus' is too restrictive.
The idea of 'aliens' as dino-people with power fetishes is too restrictive.
The idea of 'aliens' as a countable quantity of animated objects is too restrictive.

Contrary to the beliefs of popular culture, all that is alien is not synonomous with a traditional Mask Play.

So if we assume that what you mean is 'invasion of an alien _species_', then the question we must immediately ask is, what can we assume about alien speciation? If you can't answer that question, then assuming how we can defend against does not follow.

[edit on 18-9-2006 by Ectoterrestrial]

Originally posted by Ectoterrestrial
This is assuming that 'aliens' 'invade'. What if they do something far worse we can't even imagine? What if the concept of 'aliens' fails to describe what they are? What if they already did their thing, whatever it is, and we are already doomed? What if the concepts of 'when' don't apply to what is done?

Well, then fortunately it wouldn't matter.

You raise a good point, though, there probably won't be anything like a mothership launching drones to attack us from the atmosphere... it will probably be more like "OOOooo, pretty blue planet.. Poof! Complex life now converted to reusable matter for terraforming. The planet is ours. Yay!"

My personal favorite theory is that the aliens would be so far removed from us that neither of us recognize each other for what each other is, communication is damned near impossible, and we're pretty much brushed aside as a pest.

we could also upload a virus into the mainframe of the invader's mothership

That always cracked my up... We can hardly get Macs to talk to PCs (or at least back when that came out), yet his OS is compatible to an alien OS? That just is one plot hole you can drive a truck through, hehe.... still a decent flick though...

Laser satellites are rumored of course, but HEL tech does seem to have been around for a while.

I don't subscribe to the "oh, they're so advanced, they are godlike" idea...so yeah, why not, hell if the Ewoks could defeat the Empire...

Some good news though... IF one assumes they've been visiting us for a while (aliens, not Ewoks), like since the 40's or prior, then the good news is, if conquest was the goal...it likely would have happened already. I'm not saying they're warm and fuzzy, and all that new age crap, but at least they don't seem bent on invasion.

[edit on 18-9-2006 by Gazrok]

ewoks visiting us LOL(:
so they were either just wanting to learn about our culture(yea right)
or they were just experimenting on us,still without any hostile intencions to the entire planet,so probably they still think were test bugs

Even for those species who may see earth as a resource for the possible taking, has anyone ever thought of the possibility that we may not be as defenceless as you think, and the aliens know this. Why risk an all out invasion when you know that once you have to occupy the place, you're going to get your hide tanned something severely. Even if you try an orbital attack, you risk getting smashed and even if you're successful, why risk survivors escaping (either by our own means or with help). We have more than enough capacity to carry a very long grudge......we come back in a few hundred years or a few decades time and then say...."Guess what bugs, time's up!!!", and send them packing for the next ship out of the Galaxy.

No, overt action is far too risky. You're better off being smart about things and gradually infiltrating, covertly coercing and subduing the society. Get at them from within. Then once you've got the poor idiots eating out of your hands (or tentacles), you drop the clanger on them.

What if the reason they haven't attacked us on a global level is because this planet could have something of great value in the universe? They wouldn't want to risk destroying it, or us destroying it in the process of saving ourselves.

Or maybe they would want to colonize this planet in the future. It might start out as bits and pieces of disclosure to the public, followed by an "official" meeting with representatives of the human race. Then gradual iduction into our society. Kind of like that old show Alien Nation.

Originally posted by GhostITM
No, overt action is far too risky. You're better off being smart about things and gradually infiltrating, covertly coercing and subduing the society. Get at them from within. Then once you've got the poor idiots eating out of your hands (or tentacles), you drop the clanger on them.

Ummm... Someone didn't read the post.

Rocks. Big Frickin' Rocks. Very easy to lob at planets, lots and lots of damage, not a whole lot humanity can do about them. They require zero casualties on the part of the aliens, require no loss of technology (and thus no risk of reverse engineering), and even if they don't completely wipe us off the face of the planet, would cause enough damage to send us back to the stone age.

That's all they have to do.

That's about the most effective, advanced tactic against Earth, with the absolute least loss of risk to the "invading" species that we as Earthlings can think of, with our present day technology... and there's not a single blessed thing we can do about it. Now imagine you're an alien, with far more advanced technology and understanding of science. We're doomed! Doomed, I say!

Yes, I did read the post, and yes I know all about errant asteroids and comets. Yes, it would be possible to use one as a weapon, and whilst we're woefully unprepared for one heading our way, we're not entirely defenceless against one that looks like making an impact. We just need a bit of time to make preparations, and then hope for the best that what we do alleviates the problem.

This "woe is me, we're doomed" attitude is nothing but defeatist BS. No wonder the ET's are probably laughing at us. The biggest problem is not them...... it us!!!!. It's about time we pull our heads from out of our collective rear ends and start working more like a civilised global society than a mob of paranoid, superstitious tribal goons. If we want solutions to be found, then we should make sure that they are. Make these governments and the military industrial complex do the right thing by the planet. These are the people and organisations who want the status quo to continue. It's in their favour. They're the quislings and the ones who'll make sure they survive...... damn the rest of us. Let's change all that, for our collective sakes as a civilisation and as a species.

I dont think Aliens would be much more advanced than us at least in destruction ability and I doubt force fields Independence day style are a possibility. If we saw them coming here the sensible thing to do would be throw nukes at them till we destroyed them or they backed off. Dont let them get close enough to use a virus or something and theres no point even trying to communicate. If we cant understand dolphins and whales we arent understanding Aliens.

The only reason I can see Aliens wanting to come here is to terraform and make a base we would need a decisive first strike.

If aliens invade and want to destroy earth, surely they'd be able to do things like push the moon out of its orbit and crash it into earth, or dump oceans worth of hydrosufluric acid onto our planet, etc.

Originally posted by Paladin327
we could also upload a virus into the mainframe of the invader's mothership, (Independence Day)

WRONG!!! If anything our computer systems would be so completely obsolete that any virus we produce would be immediately wiped out before causing damage.
Did you know that SETI@Home was originally feared to be too risky as people believed it would allow alien intelligences access to the internet?

there's also bacteria on this planet out invaders might not be immune to (War Of The Worlds) for example

Okay, given that WoW is an amazing read, and the film was okay, it was originally written before the idea of me talking to you now was even imagined.
Any kind of invader would come prepared for our germs.
Only a crappy leader would just rush headlong into an unknown environment without any kind of recon.

Well when it comes to Earth's defences, let me put it this way.

If an extinction level event sized asteroid was three days from
hitting us, we'd have no chance.

We don't have any kind of orbiting weapons platforms, Star Wars,
though real, was a failure do to the technology not being at the right
level and the sheer cost of it.


As for aliens, well if they can get here, who's to say they don't have
weapons of causing our sun to go Nova, or atleast cause a devestating
solar flare?

i read about meteoride's method in other forums.
and yes its maybe the easyest way and we probably cant do anything.
if we launch nuke at it it will explode into smaller pieces and thats even more bad.
sg-1 stoped a meteor but hey..theyr sg-1(:
and if aliens are so smart and were observing our planet for so long they would have known that theres a virus thats lethal to them or someting.
but well earth viruses mutate often(: creating new viruses thx to nukes and chem weapons(:
so that part of the movie wasnt realistic.
but it was soo cool.tripods hunting u down and turning u into apple juice(:

Echoing a couple of other posts on this thread, I'll just say that I personally think that if the "aliens" that we're talking about are truly hostile, they've already done what they were planning to do... they did it a long time ago. We have evidence that mankind has at least observed something of these alien/ufo/god archetypes since the beginning of our history... they have been here for as long as us, if not longer. If they wanted to destroy us, they would've by now. If they wanted to take over our planet, they would've. But I'm not at all saying they haven't already done this... the way we're going, it would not be a surprise to find out that these 'aliens' are steering us to our doom... maybe they're covertly influencing us because overtly attacking us directly is either impossible for them or because it's contrary to some sort of universal (or multiversal) law that is unbreakable.

It could be that we've been enslaved for thousands upon thousands of years and that the very development and prosperity of our civilization is directed according to a master-plan in which the ultimate goals and fruits of OUR labor and turmoil are unseen to us.

The original premise of this thread assumes that these 'aliens' are an external threat and that we have not yet experienced the first, full contact... it is quite possible that they're already here... it's possible that they've already taken over... maybe since before our species was even created.

Originally posted by GhostITM
...we're not entirely defenceless against (edit: a big rock) that looks like making an impact. We just need a bit of time to make preparations, and then hope for the best that what we do alleviates the problem.

Really?

Okay. There's a 3-kilometer rock composed almost entirely of iron headed directly towards Earth. Thanks to a one-in a million chance, you have three days to prepare, and all the world's resources at your disposal. What do you do?

Did you figure something out? Me neither. Let's up the ante though, since this is an alien invasion. You have a barrage of 100 3+ kilometer rocks, heading towards Earth, and plenty more waiting in reserve.

Oh, and, by the way, your entire array of sattelite communications has been wiped out by the combined forces of EMPs of the guy below from a different country, and from the Electronic Warfare attacks by the aliens. So your method of communication with anyone other than by hard line has just been removed.

Originally posted by Shamanator
If we saw them coming here the sensible thing to do would be throw nukes at them till we destroyed them or they backed off.

The sensible--do you have any idea what lobbing a bunch of nukes would do?!?! You just wiped out every sattellite around Earth, and a serious portion of any electronic equipment on the ground (which includes most vehicles nowadays as well). We now have no global communication, infrastructure, and very few functioning electronic devices. Not only that, but you've also destroyed the Van-Allen belts, so the sun is going to cook us, but luckily we'll probably die from the giant rocks first. Oh, and even if we live through all that, your fallout, since it was lobbed out into space before blowing up, is going to gravitate back to Earth, circulate the globe, and fall back in a nice even spread across the planet, irradiating what little life is left, and upping cancer rates by an astronomical scale.

Jeezus... I'd rather take my chances with the aliens. Meaning no disrespect, but you both have zero concept of the reality of the situation.

Originally posted by GhostITM
This "woe is me, we're doomed" attitude is nothing but defeatist BS.

There's no "Woe is me, we're doomed." My "Doomed" comment was more of a joke. The fact is, I'm not worried about an alien invasion because the odds of it happening in my lifetime are so infinitestimal as to be an insignificant factor in my life choices, and if it did happen, there would be absolutely nothing I could do about it other than stock up on supplies, guns, grab the family, and head for the caves. Even then, I'm relatively certain we'd die, but I'd be prepared for the obscure chance we didn't. Just because I'm capable of acknowledging the fact we are utterly defenseless against a determined alien invader doesn't mean I'm going to lay down and wait to die.

Originally posted by GhostITM
If we want solutions to be found, then we should make sure that they are. Make these governments and the military industrial complex do the right thing by the planet.

Yeah, why don't you get right on that and let me know how it goes.

"Excuse me, Mr. President, Pentagon, and assorted Generals... I know there's that whole War on Terrorism thing, you've incurred a 500 BILLION dollar deficit, our troops are spread out across the entire globe, mostly in the desert, we have the lowest rate of engineering graduates ever, and our Space Program hasn't even managed to visit the moon again in the last 30 years, due to lack of...well..everything... but what we really need you to do right now is design a planetary defense against alien invaders, cause that's where the real threat is. Wait, don't go..."

Hi there. I can suggest Earth has no defences except devices which would hurt people her as much or more.
However, I had read a couple of things from two different authors years apart. Both who indicated a life within AF - OSI code named Blue or Blue Barrett's. Both which suggested the United States Air force had an Electro magnetic weapon which when used against some EBE/UFO targets while at lower atmospheric levels, had a serious effect on the craft's ability to navigate and could actually bring a certain percentage of them down. Perhaps Mr Lear knows more about this AF-Blue Barret UFO defence measure.

Dallas

Originally posted by thelibra

Originally posted by Shamanator
If we saw them coming here the sensible thing to do would be throw nukes at them till we destroyed them or they backed off.

The sensible--do you have any idea what lobbing a bunch of nukes would do?!?! You just wiped out every sattellite around Earth, and a serious portion of any electronic equipment on the ground (which includes most vehicles nowadays as well). We now have no global communication, infrastructure, and very few functioning electronic devices. Not only that, but you've also destroyed the Van-Allen belts, so the sun is going to cook us, but luckily we'll probably die from the giant rocks first. Oh, and even if we live through all that, your fallout, since it was lobbed out into space before blowing up, is going to gravitate back to Earth, circulate the globe, and fall back in a nice even spread across the planet, irradiating what little life is left, and upping cancer rates by an astronomical scale.

Jeezus... I'd rather take my chances with the aliens. Meaning no disrespect, but you both have zero concept of the reality of the situation.

If we delay or hesitate we wont have them anyway better to make the first strike while the chance is available personally I'd rather go down by taking as many with us as possible and a good offensive might win it anyways especially if we got the mothership before it could launch anything else.

The rules of conduct, the maxims of action, and the tactical instincts that serve to gain small victories may always be expanded into the winning of great ones with suitable opportunity, because in human affairs the sources of success are ever to be found in the fountains of quick resolve and swift stroke, and it seems to be a law inflexible and inexorable that he who will not risk cannot win. -JOHN PAUL JONES

If you would rather be burnt of the earth or killed by a tailored virus without putting up a struggle thats your decision I would hit them hard and fast with everything available and would not stop till one of us was dead.