One Sci-Fi Universe To Become Real

[Darth Lucifer]

Battlestar Galactica (reimagined) is definitely out...no change to Earth whatsoever except that there's an invisible Baltar and Six now running around in NYC.

Out of all the choices here, I'd probably have to lean towards the Stargate Universe. While I would probably not benefit personally, humanity would gain the knowledge and technology of the Asgard as well as all the other things the Stargate Program has collected over time (including the City of Atlantis itself, now that it's on Earth). Their weapons seem to be more powerful than Star Trek weapons and the ships are definitely faster.

We can feed the fuckwits transhumanists to the Cybermen.

Or we can let Todd have his way with them. A Wraith's gotta eat, yo!

[Skywalker_T-65]

Well, the nukes are certainly more powerful than even the highest end photorp calcs (this is a case where 'LOL Gigatons!!' actually is indisputably canon). The beam weapons are debatable. Though yes, with all the Asgard/Ancient knowledge Earth has...it can become quite the advantage assuming the Wraith don't get off their current tech base and eat us all.

[ryacko]

Pandora's Star.
IMO it was terribly written and somehow managed, after hundreds of pages, to not have an ending, but that universe seems like the sort I want to live in. immortality, cloning, etc.

[Lonestar]

Battlestar Galactica (reimagined) is definitely out...no change to Earth whatsoever except that there's an invisible Baltar and Six now running around in NYC.

Out of all the choices here, I'd probably have to lean towards the Stargate Universe. While I would probably not benefit personally, humanity would gain the knowledge and technology of the Asgard as well as all the other things the Stargate Program has collected over time (including the City of Atlantis itself, now that it's on Earth). Their weapons seem to be more powerful than Star Trek weapons and the ships are definitely faster.

Atlantis is back in the Pegasus Galaxy, according to the "Season 6" books. There were too many political and security problems with it being on Earth, especially since it landed in the American EEZ.

[CaptJodan]

The Culture.

This all assumes that the events of the State of the Art don't invalidate Earth being allowed to be tweaked by the Culture, of course. Earth was considered a "control" planet by the end of that one, to watch what happened.

The Culture gives me near unlimited options. I can sit on my ass and be lazy, or I can try and work towards something to better myself and others around me and everything in between. And yes, in those books, there are ways to better those around you. The most obvious are through Contact and SC. Bravery, sacrifice, and suffering occur all the time there, as well as generally trying to do the right thing. You may not be making your own society measurably better, but if you're with either of those groups chances are you're working to make whole less advanced societies better.

[Irbis]

Just clarifying why Havok stated that Star Wars wouldn't make any difference if it was rolled into our reality:

Star Wars takes place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away", thus even if it wasn't that long ago, it's probably in a galaxy at the far end of our supercluster at the very least. Thus, if our reality was rolled in with theirs, we wouldn't even notice because we're too far away and we have no spatial overlap with them. They wouldn't notice us either.

How is that in any way different to RL?

The Centauri? You sure you're thinking of the right species? Plus there aren't really all THAT many aggressive species, at least in our immediate neighborhood.

Well, IIRC, Centauri tried to scam Earth into thinking we're just their lost colony, and at their peak occupied dozens of worlds, including Narn, no?

Actually, Hapes only struggled with the (at the time) recently developed quick-recharge turbolasers. They worked around it with the Battle Dragon design and combat tactics to compensate.

And for reference, Naboo only assembled the fighters. The sublight engines and hyperdrive came from contractors on other worlds.

Yes, and as noted, once their first alpha strike exhausted their gun load, Hapes ships became sitting ducks to vessels many times smaller, not to mention ability to only attack one ship at a time. As for Quick-rechare being new/advanced tech, well, Phantom Menace shown such guns on Trade Federation vessels, IIRC, so not really.

As for assembly, by that standard Lockheed Martin doesn't produce F-22 as engines are made by Pratt & Whitney

[Eternal_Freedom]

Actually, Hapes only struggled with the (at the time) recently developed quick-recharge turbolasers. They worked around it with the Battle Dragon design and combat tactics to compensate.

And for reference, Naboo only assembled the fighters. The sublight engines and hyperdrive came from contractors on other worlds.

Yes, and as noted, once their first alpha strike exhausted their gun load, Hapes ships became sitting ducks to vessels many times smaller, not to mention ability to only attack one ship at a time. As for Quick-rechare being new/advanced tech, well, Phantom Menace shown such guns on Trade Federation vessels, IIRC, so not really.

Actually, the guns on the TradeFed ships were quad laser cannons not turbolasers.

As for Hapan ships, well, I'm not going to bother elaborating on that, especially as they explictitly captured "dozens" of ISD's from the Empire (enough so that they could give Leia 12 as a pre-wedding gift) and I fail to see why they can't figure the guns out from that. It's a conceit needed to justify the unique design. Although they also carry quite heavy ion cannon loads, presumably to disrupt enemy ships to counter the slower recharge times of their own turbolasers.

As for assembly, by that standard Lockheed Martin doesn't produce F-22 as engines are made by Pratt & Whitney

Very true, but the point was that Naboo, advanced as it was, wasn't actually building the more advanced technology.

[Blayne]

The setting for Bodacious Space Pirates looks pretty good, relatively peaceful and free and non-dystopian. Plus, real space pirates! Though they mostly run around paid to commit insurance fraud.

A lot of Scifi settings by their nature seem to imply some level of unfortunate implications or dystopia, as otherwise whats the narrative point? So the challenge is to find one with plenty of groovy fun content like cat girls or indistinguishable from humans (female) cyborgs/androids. Along with FTL travel but without the inevitable bug war or a 'forever war' with some inscrutable alien race that results in the whole thing being grim dark/dystopian but more "fun"?

From what little I've seen Ghost in the Shell isn't that bad, Apple Seed had some hope in it, Space Brothers, heck the same world as SAO & Accel World is basically us 20 years from now but that's cheating.

Xenosaga looked alright, Madoka Magica is clearly scifi and fun post season finale after....

fake edit: Right so I can't seem to get spoiler tags to work, so suffice it to say there's some War40k Memes regarding the ending for Madoka Magica after the season finale among the Western fanbase making it pure awesome.

Unfortunately not being a girl means I don't get the groovy powers, so reincarnation into a girl would be a prereq to choosing it.

In terms of more classic space opera though Banner of the Stars looked intriguing but has the whole "what's Earth?" amnesia a lot of far future imperfect works have and that pissed me off in Andromeda and annoys me everywhere else. Earth is either the center of my proverbial universe or bust :colbert:

I'm willing to make an exception for the "Forerunner" series by Andre Norton, Our Dark Elves Are Different The Novel intrigues me quite a bit. You have like The Federation from Star Trek but with a more relaxed version of the Prime Directive, people from space faring planets trade for ancient precursor artifacts from more backwards pre industrial civilizations, I'm intrigued.

Oh, Haloverse I like, Earth does okay ish?

1. Haloverse, closest to my pre existing perception of "How Stuff Works".
2. Moretsu Space Pirates.
3. If I'm reincarnated as girl the Madokaverse why not?
4. Banner of the Stars.
5. Ghost in the Shell.

6. Honorable mention to "No. 06" for having the same vibes of Logan's Run without being nearly as dystopian.

7. Oh and maybe the Whuverse, but stuff can get pretty grim there so its the rock bottom of the barrel for me.

Yes they are all more or less Anime's except maybe Halo, but they got that whole Animatrix treatment a few years back and Red vs Blue being canon... So who knows anymore?

[The Imperator]

I second the Whoverse.
We can feed the fuckwits transhumanists to the Cybermen.

No, no, no, you feed us to the Daleks! I want to be a Dalek, not a Cyberman. Though I can accept Mondasian Cyberman, but I will never stoop to becoming a Cybus cyberman.

[Irbis]

In terms of more classic space opera though Banner of the Stars looked intriguing but has the whole "what's Earth?" amnesia a lot of far future imperfect works have and that pissed me off in Andromeda and annoys me everywhere else. Earth is either the center of my proverbial universe or bust :colbert:

Isn't Banner of the Stars anime about "Elves" in Space who, despite numerical inferiority casually defeat and enslave multiple human nations in feudalism?

All I remember from it is smugness, that you somehow can command starfleet by not speaking but waving sword around, and that Elves have absolutely unpronounceable names without vowels like Lamhrh and plot armour that would make Wolverine green with envy.

[Blayne]

It's much better than you make sound and that's actually largely the point of the series, here I quote from the relevant wiki:

One of the most interesting conceits of the franchise is that, in basically any other kind of space opera, the imperialistic, militaristic Abh would be the unquestionable villains; and, indeed, at times when the bigger picture is put on prominent display it can be a bit uncomfortable to realize just what Jinto and Lafiel are a part of. In the latter Banner series, even the residents of Jinto's home planet want to know just why the hell he's loyal to the all-conquering Abh at all. A large part of the point of the show is a refusal to fall into easy stereotypes, however, and no side of the great conflict is black-and-white pantomime evil.

[Me2005]

While I love the Foundation, I realized that it definitely has to be the universe created in the short-story "The Road Not Taken" by Harry Turtledove.
Spoiler

In short, one of the most advanced alien races in the galaxy comes to earth to conquer us, only to find out that almost all of our technology is better than theirs. They don't have electricity, they use muskets, and their ships are made of a softer material than modern tank armor. The reason given is that the FTL/gravity manipulation tech used in the alien stuff is a technological "road not taken," that causes all technological discovery to stop after it's discovered. Humanity, having developed hundreds of years beyond the furthest point at which any other race discovered this technology, has weapons and technology far surpassing anyone else in the galaxy, even with fairly mundane stuff like semi-automatic weapons and electric lights. Human conquest of the galaxy after the initial story would be a curb stomp.

[Jub]

While I love the Foundation, I realized that it definitely has to be the universe created in the short-story "The Road Not Taken" by Harry Turtledove.
Spoiler

In short, one of the most advanced alien races in the galaxy comes to earth to conquer us, only to find out that almost all of our technology is better than theirs. They don't have electricity, they use muskets, and their ships are made of a softer material than modern tank armor. The reason given is that the FTL/gravity manipulation tech used in the alien stuff is a technological "road not taken," that causes all technological discovery to stop after it's discovered. Humanity, having developed hundreds of years beyond the furthest point at which any other race discovered this technology, has weapons and technology far surpassing anyone else in the galaxy, even with fairly mundane stuff like semi-automatic weapons and electric lights. Human conquest of the galaxy after the initial story would be a curb stomp.

How is that any different than what we have now? We've have yet to discover a race that can harm us more than we can harm ourselves. If I'm going scifi by making a wish I want magitech in spades that will turn my life into something I can scarcely imagine now.

[Borgholio]

Well, IIRC, Centauri tried to scam Earth into thinking we're just their lost colony, and at their peak occupied dozens of worlds, including Narn, no?

They were aggressive expansionists sure, but they weren't mindless conquerors. I think the Narn were pretty much the exception, since there's no mention of anybody else being enslaved. Yeah they did try to pull a con on us...but that's a far cry from bombing us from orbit with mass drivers. Once we saw through their ploy they started doing business with us on a large scale.

[Me2005]

While I love the Foundation, I realized that it definitely has to be the universe created in the short-story "The Road Not Taken" by Harry Turtledove.

How is that any different than what we have now? We've have yet to discover a race that can harm us more than we can harm ourselves. If I'm going scifi by making a wish I want magitech in spades that will turn my life into something I can scarcely imagine now.

We suddenly get FTL & anti-gravity technology in addition to all that we have now? Then, our entire world goes on a galactic conquest with our vastly superior technology? I mean, as long as we don't make some of the same mistakes the various races in the story made (not advancing once FTL was discovered), we can use some of their stuff to make huge improvements to our stuff - they couldn't even conceive of generating electricity, but we can use their tech to create unlimited power; or at least, power generated by another method that makes sense now that didn't before (No idea how their anti-gravity stuff works, if there is a disadvantage it isn't power consumption, so it can be used to make power). Since our science is hundreds of years in advance (and what important years for technology!) of theirs in the story, we can surely use their tech to create some tech we don't have now, even if we do suffer from the "FTL-discovery tech-lock" in the story.

Sure it's not so ridiculously advanced as some other stories, but at least we're far and away the dominant race for the foreseeable future, we get to explore the galaxy, and we (as in you and I and everyone) get to have a shot at being involved in that and not just by being peasants or what have you.

[Borgholio]

I personally don't buy the idea of tech advancement stopping once you develop a certain tech. It makes no sense. Any species that is curious and inquisitive enough to develop any kind of technology doesn't just stop, they always will experiment and keep trying new things.

[Me2005]

I personally don't buy the idea of tech advancement stopping once you develop a certain tech. It makes no sense. Any species that is curious and inquisitive enough to develop any kind of technology doesn't just stop, they always will experiment and keep trying new things.

The story doesn't go into details about the tech-freeze, but it could be that once they developed the FTL capacity, they went into the stars and spent all their time conquering/exploring, rather than developing new tech. Since all the other races are much less developed they haven't explored everything yet and are still distracted by doing that, rather than significantly advancing technology. At the start of the story it does mention some discoveries, if not advancements - some kind of glow bugs kept as lights, for example. So perhaps the 'tech-freeze' that the races in the story experience might not be a law of the universe so much as a side effect of the discovery of FTL combined with the desire to expand.

[Scrib]

I personally don't buy the idea of tech advancement stopping once you develop a certain tech. It makes no sense. Any species that is curious and inquisitive enough to develop any kind of technology doesn't just stop, they always will experiment and keep trying new things.

The story doesn't go into details about the tech-freeze, but it could be that once they developed the FTL capacity, they went into the stars and spent all their time conquering/exploring, rather than developing new tech. Since all the other races are much less developed they haven't explored everything yet and are still distracted by doing that, rather than significantly advancing technology. At the start of the story it does mention some discoveries, if not advancements - some kind of glow bugs kept as lights, for example. So perhaps the 'tech-freeze' that the races in the story experience might not be a law of the universe so much as a side effect of the discovery of FTL combined with the desire to expand.

I'd wager that the people who had the money to pay for research simply didn't want to bother. But that's my blind impression.

[Borgholio]

It could be a function of just how different the species are. We tinker and build things not just because we need to, but because it's fun. We're always competing with each other and seeing how big or strong we can build things. Another species could just make stuff "good enough" and not bother for that one extra step that would lead to the next great technology. So i guess it could work, but I doubt there's any one key technology that automatically stops everything else from advancing...what single tech could do such a thing?

[Imperial528]

I'd imagine that it's because the tech in question (some type of gravity manipulation, according to Wiki) is just so simple* to use that suddenly, there was no need for internal competition in terms of technology or power. It's just like how it's easier to build out than up. When a species discovers this tech and their scouts reveal that everyone around them is stuck in the medieval ages and lower, when they have explosives and guns, it's a much easier route to power to go conquering than to stay at home improving what you have. Especially so since much of our advancement has come from arms or technology races between two or more competing nations. Why bother to invade your neighbor when the primitives on planet Y are much easier prey and an entire planet will give you far more resources than a neighboring nation.

There have been plenty of humans and human civilizations throughout history that once they feel they've hit the top, they stagnate. It's especially convincing for this to happen with a species that had not yet developed a scientific approach to the unknown, so even if there is advancement slowly over time, there may not be any centralized effort to make what they've got better.

*According to Wikipedia's summary, when our scientists and engineers looked at it, they all went "Duh" and figured it out in no time. Apparently to a greater depth than the aliens did, too, since after the aliens figured out how to make it work, they didn't care about the underlying natural mechanisms, only that they could build machines to bring them to fresh conquests with little effort.

[Blayne]

I personally don't buy the idea of tech advancement stopping once you develop a certain tech. It makes no sense. Any species that is curious and inquisitive enough to develop any kind of technology doesn't just stop, they always will experiment and keep trying new things.

Ever read Guns, Germs and Steel? It kinda posits that not only they can stop but its actually happened based on geography, climate, vegetation and so on.

[Irbis]

It's much better than you make sound and that's actually largely the point of the series, here I quote from the relevant wiki:

One of the most interesting conceits of the franchise is that, in basically any other kind of space opera, the imperialistic, militaristic Abh would be the unquestionable villains; and, indeed, at times when the bigger picture is put on prominent display it can be a bit uncomfortable to realize just what Jinto and Lafiel are a part of. In the latter Banner series, even the residents of Jinto's home planet want to know just why the hell he's loyal to the all-conquering Abh at all. A large part of the point of the show is a refusal to fall into easy stereotypes, however, and no side of the great conflict is black-and-white pantomime evil.

That was my problem, I think. I can root for bad guys. I know I did it many times, especially if good guys' side was uninteresting/stupid. But when protagonists are all smug Mary Sues with plot armor the size of Texas, opponents are cardboard cutouts only existing to be shot/explode, and we follow the adventures of 2 kids that not only detracts from grand picture going on elsewhere but said kids have little in common with their "side"... The whole thing just sort of fells apart. The premise was good, yes, it just needed serious shift in focus and some actual depth to side characters and nations.

Plus, going back to OP, being conquered by smug elves that would make Mitt Romney king of the Earth as long as he would pay them ruining taxes and stop tech advancement/freedom wouldn't be much fun.

[sirocco]

I'd say the anime Planetes (to wikipedia).

It's the near future with Earth having exactly the same problems as today, except space conquest finally took off. So regular space travel to the orbital stations or to the moon. And the premise involves even a mission to Jupiter. It would be easier for us to adapt to this world than to any other I know.

Second choice would be Dan Simmon's Hyperion but the 2 or 3 centuries before the books. There are stargates connecting every important human world. And spaceships for the most remote ones. And A.I., transhumans and cybrids. Earth would be completely outclassed bu hey! it would be a fun ride.

[Chirios]

What about Deus Ex?

[Simon_Jester]

I personally don't buy the idea of tech advancement stopping once you develop a certain tech. It makes no sense. Any species that is curious and inquisitive enough to develop any kind of technology doesn't just stop, they always will experiment and keep trying new things.

The story doesn't go into details about the tech-freeze, but it could be that once they developed the FTL capacity, they went into the stars and spent all their time conquering/exploring, rather than developing new tech. Since all the other races are much less developed they haven't explored everything yet and are still distracted by doing that, rather than significantly advancing technology. At the start of the story it does mention some discoveries, if not advancements - some kind of glow bugs kept as lights, for example. So perhaps the 'tech-freeze' that the races in the story experience might not be a law of the universe so much as a side effect of the discovery of FTL combined with the desire to expand.

Yeah, I read that one. It's not a universal law. It's that the discovery of FTL/antigravity at such a primitive state of technology tends to throw the philosophy of science as we know it into disarray.

On Earth, it took a very long time for the 'scientific revolution' to happen. Conditions had to be just right for it to take hold.

Turtledove's story, I think, posits that that the chaos caused by developing FTL travel and frequent contact between primitive 'civilized' alien species tends to disrupt those conditions.