Aliens vs Authors - Ep. 106 of Intentionally Blank

[@danieltilley]

“Everything looks like a nail when you have a nuclear warhead” - Dan Freakin’ Wells 😂

[@Amanda_D]

Follow that up with "I love annihilation" at 43:40 😆

[@Crow.Author]

Scruffy Brandon looks significantly more like an author.

[@briangal71]

I agree - Jacket cover photo due for a refresh, I think

[@joeybelasco]

Also significantly more like a total babe

[@3choblast3r4]

A beard is basically a +2 wisdom, 2+ charisma for any man

[@NuttyMongrel]

He looks really good with facial hair. I always assumed he stayed clean-shaven because it wouldn't grow in well, but it makes sense that it's because of his university job.

[@Colaman112]

We have a worrying precedent for "authors" with magnificent beards.

[@randomdude4505]

I am a mid-level bureau listening to this on my lunch break. In order for the conspiracy theories to be true there would have to be far more competency within the government than I've ever witnessed. And to be clear, most of the people I work with are very competent and hardworking, but not all of them.

[@sd5919]

Ever find out who killed Epstein? Let’s not act like it’s impossible.

[@thegodofalldragons]

The only real credible "conspiracies" tend to be the criminal ones where everyone knows it's happening, but no one will prosecute. For a non-controversial example, everybody knew Al Capone was a crook, it's just he'd bought off everyone who'd do anything about it, aside from a particular Prohibition agent and the Tax Man.

[@Eval999]

Yeah 99.9% of conspiracies are disproven by the simple fact of how many people would have to be in on it, and all of them both willing and competent to keep it under wraps.

[@WiscoDrinks]

​@@Eval999it's called compartmentalization. 😏

[@One_Bar]

You don’t have to be exceptionally competent if you just kill off your opposition.

[@myabi]

The solid 10 seconds of quiet giggling after the Ben comment. I love you both and I don't even (really) know you.

[@Hellohellonada]

The fact you brought up Monsters and Attack the Block has me so fraking happy. Absolutely wonderful scifi films.

[@majortachyon]

Brandon Beard Arc has started. I am ready to see how far it goes!

[@dukegoltana6654]

I was screaming Edge of Tomorrow the whole time. I’m glad it made it to Brandon’s top three

[@matthewtaylor5288]

War of the Worlds starts with flashes on Mars. The ships are shaped like bullets and the back screws off. The tripod rises out of the impact crater. The first encounter is set near to an observatory.

[@kyrroti]

Brandon isn’t showing the coma story idea the respect it deserves. It’s no Great British Fake Off, but it’s a concept I really love.

[@parkernoyce4295]

Adam is absolutely earning his keep this episode

[@kephalai]

poor guy was probably juggling like 50 other tasks haha

[@koboldmartian4063]

They say that Sanderson, Rothfuss and R.R. Martin have a deal to shave their beards whenever a new book of theirs gets published.

[@TheSRBgamer63]

So Rothfuss have mile long beard ?.

[@koboldmartian4063]

@@TheSRBgamer63 I mean... Have you seen it lately?

[@TheAmyrlinSeat]

oh no... what does this mean. I'm scared. WHEN IS STORMLIGHT FIVE!

[@robbybevard8034]

@@TheAmyrlinSeat Brandon has two more books publishing this year. And Stormlight 5 is scheduled for fall of 2024. Brandon needs to be done with the first draft by the end of December for that to happen.

[@sanjithechef]

The way they have parameters and definitions for things makes their discussions so interesting and smart without being too complicated or annoying. I love this podcast

[@lacys340]

Hi. Just finished the war of the worlds a few weeks ago and Dan is right. The book begins with flashes over Mars and then they land on earth. Incidentally that's why the end is creepy because they could always try again. The astronomers in book see them invading a different planet so for now earth is off the hook.

[@PetrSojnek]

Wasn't there something about they landing on earth and burrowing below ground and raising from there?

[@lacys340]

@@PetrSojnek Vaguely....they make themselves a pit and like build a sphere over it to build they're machines in. The main character gets stuck in one when the last pod hits earth.

[@Kishmond]

@@PetrSojnek Initially, they are unable to climb out of the crater themselves due to Earth's higher gravity. Until they get out (build?) the tripods.

[@LassMineko]

Fermi's Paradox, the Great Filter etc. are incredibly interesting ideas, I never get tired of thinking about this stuff. Really enjoyed this episode.

[@AllTheArtsy]

I think I like the Dark Forest idea the most. It makes space even more daunting, awesome and scary than it already is.

[@sadee4175]

I am hoping that the The Edelstahlkugel goes all the way because that one is my personal favorite

[@ophiliex]

I‘m voting for it because as a german I just LOVE how Dan pronounces Edelstahlkugel. It‘s perfect.

[@hiltrud2001]

​@@ophiliexthat's one of my reasons as well ❣

[@ouroboros_1355]

I mean, I think the description did it no justice, the story idea was amazing in my opinion xD would love to see that as a tv show probably

[@ctom42]

So far I've voted for the lower seed bad story idea both times because those lower seed ideas legitimately interest me more. And boy did this week's lower seed get shafted in the pitch.

[@harveyweir8061]

to be fair, nothing beats a giant orb of gin stolen from the bottom of a lake

[@hiltrud2001]

​@@harveyweir8061 exactly!

[@CP-pz9vw]

I really need to know, do we count Space Jam as an invasion movie?

[@masonwheeler6536]

I'd say no. To me, what makes an invasion is *scale,* and it's a bit disappointing that neither of them mentioned it. One person sneaking across the border to steal our kumquats is not an invasion, but when it's millions upon millions of people doing so, the term becomes a lot more justified. One Predator isn't an invasion, but an _Independence Day_ fleet clearly is, and so on. It becomes an invasion when the scale is such that 1) society in general notices it's happening and 2) it requires a sizeable, coordinated response to deal with.

[@briancaster2876]

Now there's the proper question! I think we have to, don't we?

[@YoJesusMorales]

Alien kidnapping and slaving, I don't think they were invading; at least not earth, but loony town, was it?

[@johnrich7414]

Great discussion! A few more that I think deserve mention: Star Trek: First Contact, The End of the World, and Signs.

[@MrJethroha]

In 1950, Fermi and his buddies who came up with the paradox didn't really know much about other solar systems or what makes a planet suitable for life or what makes life develop civilization or what makes civilizations develop technology. We don't know that much about these things now, but there is just as much reason to believe that the answer to the Fermi paradox is based on the earlier factors as the later. Possibly the Earth is rare or early, possibly multicellular life is rare, possibly intelligent life is rare, possibly civilization is rare, and possibly radio technology is the rarest of them all. The Galatic Zoo, Great Filter, and Dark Forest theories make for good sci-fi, but they are bad solutions to the paradox.

[@BritReadsBritAuthors]

Gotta admit, kinda surprised Star Trek: First Contact didn't get a mention, even in passing. Alien race time-travels and invades Earth in the past, and the crew has to go back in time to make certain history stays on the right path?

[@johnscott9089]

Does not apply we never see them invade earth. We only see them on the enterprise.

[@DqwertyC]

Headings for Food Heists/Bad Story Ideas are swapped in the episode description (unless there's an in-joke from later in the episode I'm missing XD)

[@bimalgarg95]

Brandon looks exactly like Stephen Root from some movie 💯. Rooting for you to keep a stubble like this.

[@JesseAmano]

If we’re saying Ender’s Game counts as an invasion movie because it’s humans (counter-)invading, then James Cameron’s Avatar has to count too, right?

[@aenea22980]

Oh you're totally right! Humans invading to take over the planet.

[@YoJesusMorales]

Definitely. Are people from other dimensions aliens, even if human? Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th dimension should count.

[@scottjasper5424]

Love the beard, Brandon. Also, gin heist from the bottom of a German lake has to be the best food heist.

[@johnmartin9846]

Will Brandon be uploading his lectures again this year? They’re always in my rotation of great background noise to listen to

[@adrianslodki914]

Best invasion and Fermi paradox solution is in Three body problem book series. Highly recommend.

[@annmaries9084]

Thank you for changing the voting to a Google Form! Also, definitely have to agree with Brandon's 1) Edge of Tomorrow 2) Avengers ranking. 👌

[@peaceofcrap]

I was also under the impression that the general consensus is that MiB3 is better than 2

[@peaceofcrap]

I'm wondering if maybe you and Dan are thinking of MiB International which is not well-liked

[@thegodofalldragons]

I'm pretty sure MiB2 is universally considered the worst of the Will Smith trilogy.

[@armybrat1976]

I'm kinda surprised "They Live" wasn't mentioned. I was about 13 or 14 when I saw this. Seeing aliens through glasses was a genius idea!

[@JenniferFuss]

The original "The Thing From Another World" movie came out in 1951. It has an Alien, it apparently stays and it is very invasive.

[@TacticusPrime]

True, if you're going to limit it to movies. Obviously, War of the Worlds was a book before movies existed.

[@JenniferFuss]

@@TacticusPrime From my understanding they were going for movies?

[@TacticusPrime]

@@JenniferFuss Yeah, I was just pointing out how unfair it would be count other sources. War of the Worlds, the original story, is crazy old. The Thing from Another World is like an advanced scout for a coming alien invasion right? It's pretty obvious the Cold War implications of all those 50s alien invasion movies.

[@JenniferFuss]

@@TacticusPrime The Thing from Another World veers more into horror. It is based on a story of 1938 and at least in the movie I don't think we get any motivation from the Alien.

[@tsturkie]

I think the big thing missing from this discussion is V. Alien invasion and subtlety. Well worth adding to the list.

[@judyimlay3072]

V was one of my favorite TV experiences when I was young.

[@voidsabre_]

The Great British Fake-Off would be fantastic merch that even non-Sanderson fans might appreciate a bit even just as a pun

[@ArifRWinandar]

My favorite explanation for Fermi paradox, especially the part about the lack of radio signals, is that aliens has gotten so good at encrypting their signals that it became indistinguishable from background noise. The part where they send audible signals is just a brief part of their history before they understood the need for security, and this isn't even out of fear of the predator in the dark forest scenario, it's them wanting privacy for and from themselves.

[@edwinsuijkerbuijk5106]

One hypothesis I heared is that the impact that created the moon led to more easily accessible surface metals on earth. Making the step from a stone age to a metal age harder. This might lead to technology developing differently with more focus on pottery and glass, their first long range communications being trough fiber optic cable instead of the copper ones we used. If your early communication is light based they might have kept going down that path so we should be looking for photon burst instead of radio waves.

[@Altian00]

Beardon Sanderson is best Sanderson. In the politest way possible, please keep the beard. Looks great.

[@Staticclism]

My favorite Fermi paradox pet theory is that the aliens have seen how we regularly treat each other / the earth & have decided that our solar system is "that neighborhood" where you don't stop, roll your windows down, ask for directions, and altogether attempt to avoid at all costs.

[@jamestandy8594]

Have to mention the Jeff Wayne War of the Worlds rock opera from 1978. It's a little slow in places but it holds up. The opening theme gives me chills.

[@JustinHalliday]

YES!!! How could they not know the story of War of the Worlds from this....

[@jchinckley]

I was 17 at that time and I have never heard of Jeff Wayne or his version of War of the Worlds until this comment. That's how they might not know about or mention it.

[@paulbrooks4395]

Many elements of alien theorization are similar to magical thinking, where the logical leap is: "because X seems like it could be possible, Y should be a reality". But this, like all magical thinking, is the opposite of a proper truth seeking methodology: "I have an idea that has no evidence, that I can test, and I seek only to disprove it". Occam's Razor also flies in the face of wild theories, where the most likely explanation is more often the truth than extreme explanations.

[@madisonhays696]

22:15 immediately thinks of Monsters Vs. Aliens when talking about alien invasions

[@myrojyn]

Dan setting up Brando "Jody Whittaker as Doctor..." Brando *silence*

[@plusmanikantanr]

Attack the blok!!!😅

[@raizin4908]

The tone with which Dan said the word "Doctor" sounded to me like he intended to say "Doctor Who", and then wanted to correct to "the Doctor", but was too late to add the "the".

[@quikbeam03]

There's also the idea that there is only a very narrow window between the invention of radio communication and the use of encryption which turns the signal into something which appears basically random.

[@travishancock9120]

Very glad to be voting now.

[@datmarshy]

Can we sign Jeff Goldblum to a 20 movie Cosmere deal as Hoid? I would love to see that dude dress up as a different goofy person in every movie and also tell people stories and annoy them with songs. Dude could also do the few heartstrings moments really good too

[@pseudopod]

I think that Fermi's Paradox is somewhat flawed from its base concept. The paradox tells us that there should be so much life out there that it should be easy to see, but that is based off several variables that we have literally no data on. For example lets say we have an alien plant that has developed life, how likely is it that that live will eventually develop intelligence. Is it 9/10 odds? Maybe its 1 in a trillion odds? Furthermore maybe strong intelligence does develop on this hypothetical planet, but it takes 30 billion years to do so. We lack so much information that any assumption are near meaningless, so I'd say a pretty plausible answer to the Fermi Paradox is that viable life out in the universe is in fact very rare.

[@sundaycomicssection]

On the Fermi paradox thing, I am of the, just because there are lots of planets out there, someone still has to be first. Overall, great episode.

[@samwise8565]

Love the jetsons reference at the beginning 😂

[@LoganGalt8810]

Blindsight by Peter Watts is absolutely my favourite take on alien "intelligence". Without spoiling plot, the premise is that intelligence doesn't neccesitate consciousness, and so any alien lifeform would be so alien to our mode of thinking and interaction as to be neccessarily hostile. For my own answer to Fermi's Paradox, I simply don't think that our kind of technological advancement and intelligence is an absolute given for an evolutionary pathway. We may find life on many other planets, but what neccessitates that they must have evolved intelligence?

[@Kevin-hq5ne]

Battlefield LA and Edge of Tomorrow are my favs. The Great Filter is not just atomic power. Endosymbiosis is thought to be one of the first filters, with most life extant through the universe to be stuck at the archea/bacteria stage. It is argued if the emergence of consciousness could be a filter (would life need to be conscious to be advanced?). The start of the industrial age is thought to be a filter, with sudden climate change an extinction level event. Then blowing ourselves up with ridiculously powerful weapons. I imagine that developing a power source to fuel close to light speed (or maybe even warp 🤞) travel could be another one- like a black hole powered ship could wipe out a planet/solar system.

[@HoofOffTheTop]

My favorite part of this podcast is the half of every episode where they argue about the parameters for their topics loll

[@richardviguurs5488]

Mars Attacks is a real fun one!

[@masonwheeler6536]

Agreeing with Brandon and Dan on the _Men In Black_ sequels. I'm not sure where these alleged fans of #2 who hated #3 are, but I haven't met any. The genius of _Men In Black_ is the way it's a parody of sci-fi tropes and conspiracy theories that takes itself entirely seriously. 2 didn't work because it forgot that and crossed _deep_ into self-parody territory. (Beatboxing as an alien language, the flushing, "Agent M," etc.) It had some good material but it was overwhelmed by all the absurdity. But 3 really got back on track and did everything right. Amazing movie and definitely a fitting conclusion to the trilogy.

[@Rennies-World]

Thanks to Dan, I finally saw Jaws. It was great. I'm a fan of John Williams, but for me, some of the music -like when they have harpoons in the shark and barrels attached, and the shark is on the run - is actually very inappropriate. Much too "adventure" instead of reflecting the grim chore they are doing. I love the beach scene where the child gets killed. Not because the child got killed, but because of the way Spielberg adds all these individual targets, ramping up the tension. So good.

[@destinationz4866]

Guys, Brandon, Dan, please, we need an upside on the spider verse, because the new movie is a beauty I need you guys to talk about

[@csummer3594]

great episode

[@Aigra]

According to IMDB War of the Worlds (1953) was filmed in Technicolor and contains archive imagery in black and white.

[@alexm-e4910]

I really like John Carpenter’s The Thing. Since the Thing is desperately trying to escape and conquer the Earth. It’s my favourite

[@scott_the_engineer]

OK. Regarding the radio waves question, I have an answer. For radio waves to make it across the galaxy (or only 100-ish lightyears) we have to pump SO much energy into the signals. When we communicate by radio waves (or any other form of communication) we only use as much energy as needed to get the message across. It would be a complete waste of energy to send a signal with the energy to reach other star systems when your destination is only a couple hundred miles away. I'm assuming the alien civilizations are smart and not using galactic levels of energy to stream the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Xaglargan-4 A quick note on signal dispersion, if you double the distance from thr source to the reciever, the intensity of the signal gets cut by 4x.

[@samm8190]

We are here for Brandon’s Rothfuss beard.

[@mndrew1]

My vote goes for the 'classic' "Puppet masters" with Donald Southerland based on the Heinlein novel. :)

[@WarpsmithAdam]

My personal answer to Fermi's Paradox is simply that most life doesn't develop the level of intelligence that humans do. Its basically the time answer. There has been life on Earth for 100s of millions of years, and we've only had the intelligence to build & make use of complex tools in the last few thousand. Evolution is about finding adaptations for everchanging niches, there's no end point. We chanced into our intelligence, but something could have millions of years ago, or it could have taken us millions more. Other planets that harbour life might generate intelligence on our level, but maybe something about our niche has compelled us to want to explore. That could be exceedingly rare as well, we can't know.

[@frankjohnson123]

The Fermi Paradox is the most non-paradox since Zeno. The density of life is most likely small, the scale of the universe is unimaginable, and the resource cost you would need to spend colonizing 3D space is prohibitively impractical. Also, from what I've seen people tend to assume these aliens would bounce between planets like pinballs instead of taking time to establish infrastructure and use up resources until there's an actual need to expand.

[@BoosterGoldRL]

Having listened to the War of the Worlds radio play by Orson Welles several times, I can say with certainty that the aliens were buried in the ground in that version -- predating either movie. I don't know about the book, though.

[@keepperspective]

Edge of tomorrow is genius. Attack The block is innovative and full of feels.

[@coreystedwell4762]

Sweet, no Reddit! Now I can vote!

[@MarkEichin]

The problem with the ranking board is - do you do it by how much damage done, or how much the heist crew got away with?

[@hupenpeter]

Hugh Jackman as Kelsier... interesting. 😅

[@billyclabough9835]

Predator vs Aliens! They held ground. Was like a hunting retreat, but they built a nice cabin.

[@godminnette2]

I think we're all aware of Brandon's thoughts on beards; it felt like he was speaking directly to the audience with Kaladin's early inner monologue on how beards are itchy and irritating. It reminded me of Anakin with sand, hah.

[@DespairBear]

Isn't it a Mormon thing to not grow a beard?

[@kaimcdragonfist4803]

@@DespairBear Kind of...people in leadership positions are either required or at the very least strongly encouraged to keep clean shaven. Outside of that and the dress and grooming standards at church school's, though, it's a lot more lax. And even then, I feel like it's less of a theological thing and more just "professionalism", probably just a holdover from old business dress standards.

[@Josh-ze6xo]

Iirc, the idea with the martians coming up through the ground in the spielberg versions was that they had buried ships under ground millenia earlier in case the planet was ever worth invading and the lightning strikes are the martians beaming down into the tripods. I don't think its from the original book. The ships just get semi buried on impact.

[@ItsAvarus]

Wait you're telling me this table has had Hugh Jackman sitting at it?

[@seringale]

What!? I watched the podcast but I guess I missed that. What was the context?

[@Duiker36]

@@seringale It's a joke about a joke from a previous episode which was a joke about an article. It's not even worth explaining.

[@althechicken9597]

Millions of dollars in chicken is pretty cool, but the *thing-i -cant-pronounce-dispite-taking 2-years-of-german* is way too legendary.

[@Subzer82]

I am surprised Battleship was not mentioned in the alien invasion portion. I'll be the first to admit its a not a good film but that is probably why I enjoy it.

[@FirstOfTheMagi]

I was similarly surprised to see Arrival wasn't mentioned. I personally didn't like it but everyone seems to love it

[@TheLordofMetroids]

Personally, I don't think we have enough expletory data to be able to use the Fermi paradox as a real metric. If there was a civilization at our level on Pluto (I know it's impossible, just bear with me) we wouldn't have been able to tell till 2018. It still possible that don't even know how many planets there are in our solar system. How can we expect to see a space faring civilization at our tech level? The main method we use is radio communications, but this assumes that the other civilization developed radio, and didn't make it obsolete.

[@barold403]

Coma, Coma Who's in a Coma sounds like an amazing movie.

[@arturocuya7578]

man. i was not expecting to see daddy sanderson today

[@SirKn1ght47]

At present, the r/sanderson subreddit is locked down as private, presumably to stand with the whole Reddit protest I've heard about in some places; is there any time that will be unlocked so we can still vote on these shirts? Edit: lol, just needed to wait 30 seconds for an explanation

[@jacobcrown7707]

The Purple Monster Strikes 1945 was the first alien invasion movie.

[@wazzap898]

the answer to the paradox for me is just the distance. radio signals just dont have the strength to broadcast wide and strong enough to be seen. and maybe FTL really is just impossible

[@stevie9632]

Scruffy Brandon is best Brandon

[@WotFanar]

i feel rocky horror pictureshow and star trek first contact both count for this list. i feel they should both be mentioned

[@judithp6257]

I agree about Rocky Horror, also ALF 😊

[@TheAmyrlinSeat]

Reddit doesn't exist anymore so it's a very good thing they switched the polling locations. I bet Brandon and Dan from the future didn't know that.

[@hiltrud2001]

I have the radio show on vinyl!

[@pyredynasty]

I count the Day the Earth Stood Still as an invasion movie. GORT stayed on earth. The visitor's message was, "you are now a member of galactic civilization and GORT does not allow war." Benevolent invasion is still invasion. And if we're counting "humans as alien invaders" then A Trip to the Moon, 1902 might count as the first alien invasion film.

[@fishingfitness]

A Quiet Place is easily my favorite

[@jamcdonald120]

oh my goodness! I just figured it out! Brandon Owns a time machine! That is how he grew his hair back so quickly and his beard too! That also explains how he writes so fast! He is secretly a Slider!

[@TennesseeRisen]

My personal favorite alien movie was Signs with Mel Gibson. Not sure if it meets their definition of an alien invasion though

[@One_Bar]

It does. They were attempting a seize of land.

[@mattygstax4584]

Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells should have a beard off✅☑️✅✔️🏁

[@gottalottabones]

Hell yeah an entire episode about Alien movies Edit: It was not, in fact, capital A Alien movies as in Ripley and Xenomorphs, but it was still great nonetheless. I'll just have to wait for when they spend an episode ranking all of the Alien movies.

[@gloom_slug]

On the Coma coma story, there's already a novel by PKD with the same plot point. I'll not say which one so as to not spoil anything.

[@evanslineweaver954]

Speaking of the lack of signs of alien life, have you ever read the short story The Crystal Spheres by David Brin? Has an interesting take on the subject.

[@larsencale1]

The Great British Fake-off link is not correct. Also can you add the link to the entire bracket that was mentioned at the beginning?

[@robinarmstrong685]

The food heist reminds me of the recent story I saw of a worker at a Popeye's (I think) that trashed all the food in the restaurant because he hadn't been paid for two weeks.

[@warbrothers7745]

The answer to fermi’s paradox is also a simulation. That we all live in a simulation.

[@Arpurin]

Xeno: "you can divide distance into infinity so motion is an illusion" Sir maybe measurement is an illusion

[@connerbrown4995]

Little Shop of Horrors meets the criteria, right?! 😂

[@riku3716]

Great filter isn't just about sentient civilizations nuking themselves. It just suggests one or more filters between no life and life we could detect are so significant no life on that level existed at time and distance we could detect. That filter could just mean the formation of first cells is very rare or transition from single cellugal to multi cellural, or conditions for either needed on a planet we don't know mean there are even fewer places that could happen etc.

[@4Dmmies]

Battle: Los Angeles has to be the worst one that comes to mind 25:47

[@tonyzuma93]

Oblivion! Another fairly good (with a great twist) Tom Cruise alien invasion movie.

[@elizabethdavis5661]

I'm curious if you have read the Annihilation book series (Southern Reach trilogy). It's a little more "invasiony" than the movie.

[@One_Bar]

Brando is wrong on this one. In the novel the Martians come with their machines in cylinders and assemble them in the craters after landing. I believe the end of the book shows they were working to construct flying machines but hadn't gotten one assembled by the time they perished.