Re: Crowbars

G'day,

 >I was thinking along the lines of racial
 >survival, though.  A race is eventually going to die out unless it can
get
 >to another solar system with habitable planets.  So their high tech
enough
 >to have FTL and realize that a single star system is a dead end,  but
not so
 >high tech that they can build self contained space habits for large
numbers
 >of individuals without some type of planetary support.

Reminds me of a show I watched a bit about a decade or so ago (which
means 
its a bit fuzzy) now, where a ship of refugees or something end up on
Earth 
(they're aliens who are all spotty with bald heads and the its the males

who get pregnant or something) and one of them ends up as a cop or 
something....(I think it was so they could do lots of stories with
racism 
as the them, without the partner being black) sorry like I said a bit 
fuzzy. But it does present the germ of an idea, maybe planets such as
ours 
aren't that common after all or at least not in this part of the galaxy
(I 
take it you're not using the GZGverse and so we don't have to worry
about 
keeping to all that stuff right?). Thus these guys had to find a new
home 
and this is it and even though they don't want to cause harm (they just 
want a place to live), if they don't get a toe hold here they're in big 
trouble because there's no where else and/or they running low on 
essentials. Its fine for them to be transported for a while packed like 
sardines but its not something even they can manage for any great length
of 
time and definitely not forever.

 > Or maybe they have a
 >"spiritual" or biological need to have their feet on the ground from
time to
 >time.

Beyond the need for gravity for correct growth and maintenance of organs

(though I'm not sure if your aliens have developed artificial grav yet),

many native peoples of today feel this way. In fact many of us must feel

this way in some way otherwise camping and nature holidays wouldn't be
so 
popular.

 >Is their any way such a need would evolve or could be engineered into
 >an organism?	Say the aliens can only reproduced where they go through
their
 >"puberty" metamorphosis or something.

That's another issue entirely, though quite possible. If they need some 
sort of visual, thermal, gravitational or other environmental cue for 
reproduction or some significant life history transformations 
(metamorphosis, moulting etc) then it may well be imperative for them to

all pile out once in a while so what needs to happen can happen. They 
needn't even stay around then, maybe they just need to borrow the back 
woods for a few decades so they can get the next generation going and
then 
they'll be off again (that in itself could be considered an unreasonable

enough request by some quarters of human society and so cause a 
conflict.... then again maybe I'm being too cynical).

 >Or you could just have them land and start shooting, and never open
any kind
 >of communications (ala War of the Worlds).  They are alien after all,
who
 >knows what they are thinking.  I'm not too partial to that idea
though.

That's OK with all the creative minds around here you shouldn't have to 
fall back on that one ;)

Cheers

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax 03 6232 5053 International +61 3 6232 5053

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au