Alien Embassies

[@johndegroot3124]

Isaac's depictions of aliens usually are very slender for their height. Obviously the aliens are not grabbing a drink and a snack every time they view one of Isaac's videos.

[@professorracc.9780]

he only uploads once every few days so idk what lembas bread ass snacks youve been eating that it would get you fat

[@spyder4201]

Booooooo!

[@spyder4201]

Who am I lying to? That was great.

[@katarishigusimokirochepona6611]

😂

[@Nehmo]

I've always thought Isaac is somewhat inconsiderate with that suggestion. There are plenty of people who can't get a drink and snack, but they still can view the video. Isaac assumes everybody is on a couch with a refrigerator a few feet away.

[@aiautobot]

I can attest to this. As the leader of the Galactic Mechanical Annihilators in Stellaris, I’ve found it very difficult to maintain diplomatic ties with other alien factions. They just don’t wanna work with me.

[@iivin4233]

Let me help you--become a cog in my immortal machine.

[@TheRezro]

They refuse to die for peace?

[@0326jlc]

They scream to loudly while donating spare parts?

[@bengunderson712]

Well, if you would accept my commercial pacts instead of being all "Gestalt," I might keep the embassy open ;)

[@EdT.-xt6yv]

Ahi CARAMBA i

[@SkorjOlafsen]

If an alien landed and revealed its terrifying Ct'hulhu-tentacled form in the modern era, half the world would just say "hey Squidward" or make a Davy Jones joke, and get on with their day. Overexposure to CGI and gaming has made us a bit jaded with the exotic and bizarre.

[@fatweeb1545]

rule34 artists would have a field day too

[@TheRezro]

The irony is that it most likely would look like human. Using robot to do the talking.

[@JackKoff-l8d]

What's bizarre about a squid face squids have it right here on earth no aliens needed

[@CorwynGC]

If you are worried about their appearance rather than their minds, you are likely to be doomed.

[@captsorghum]

They would just think they were Thermians and try to initiate a romantic relationship.

[@tiagotiagot]

A classic example of interspecies social faux-pas, is how humans tend to see smiles as positive expressions, but for many animals species here on Earth, baring teeth in any way is at the very least an "or else..." kinda of statement, if not an outright provocation.

[@Ludawig]

Great point, and we also can't forget that sometimes doggos bare teeth in a cheesy smile to their owner when they know they fucked up

[@tiagotiagot]

@@Ludawig I've seen dogs smile for various reasons. Though from what I understand, in general it's always more about something immediate; if they did mess up, they don't remember, they're just reacting to how their owner is acting at the moment, trying to appease them or something.

[@yourbuddyunit]

I'm commander shepherd, and this is my favorite shop on the citadel.

[@DavidJohnson-mo7fq]

Another clone!?

[@Emolt76]

Ah Yes! REAPERS!!

[@UpliftedCapybara]

International relations and sci-fi, it doesn’t get much better than that! I know it is niche, but I love it

[@MrJay_White]

i hate it. far too often it boils down to victorian-esqe ballroom bullshit. pedo politician costumes included. ian douglas' star carrier covered it the best iv seen. aka, virtually impossible, even if you leave it to ai to do the talking.

[@Nihilistless]

First and foremost, your username is an 11 out 10. Absolutely transcendently good. And I agree. I am more interested in the nitty gritty of scifi than the sweeping stories usually haha

[@Dang_Near_Fed_Up]

Then give Babylon 5 a try, just be forewarned you have to set through season 1 and wait for things to get good in season 2. There is so much background material to set up that it takes a full season to get rolling. But it is absolutely worth the wait. I own a lot of DVD's, and Babylon 5 is the only box set that never gathers dust. In fact it's in my player now. No matter how many times I watch it, I always seem to find something new in this show.

[@UpliftedCapybara]

@@Dang_Near_Fed_Up I think I will give it a try then. Thanks for the recommendation!

[@Dang_Near_Fed_Up]

@@UpliftedCapybara I think part of the reason this series didn't catch on immediately is that they actually THINK their way out, instead of blast their way out, many times in the series. Personally I like it more when brains rules over brawn. And diplomacy is the name of the game when possible in B5. It also gives a master class in spotting propaganda, via the so called news media.

[@reimiyasaka]

Isaac is describing my job as a translator better than just about anyone I've met. The stuff about the "one in a million odds" sounding weirdly specific is true even when translating from Japanese to English. And the decision to use or not to use any seemingly benign idiom or expression is a case-by-case political, psychological and sensory problem that has kept our job secure even up until now with GPT4. Alas, we end up in impossible situations way, way, way more often than people on either side realize.

[@TheHomelessDreamer]

I think we're in good shape, I translated the Alien Ambassador's book's cover, it says "To Serve Man"

[@keirfarnum6811]

“It’s a cookbook!” 😂

[@NarwahlGaming]

Don't blame me! I voted for Kodos.

[@aj-gd2bq]

Maaan I forget where this reference is from and it's killing me 😂😂😂

[@eh1600]

Diplomatic immuniteeeh!

[@pyeitme508]

Then got headshot. :P

[@eh1600]

@@pyeitme508 gets vaporized by ronald raygun*

[@Russo-Delenda-Est]

So Hammer, you can't sue!

[@OneCut1Slash]

-head roll.... it's Just been revoked

[@TempOne-vh4fd]

immuni-ta is the correct way to say it nonhuman.😂

[@Anime10100]

@25:53 When Planet Express from Futurama went to the moon, finding an Bart Simpsons doll saying "Eat my shorts" and Bender saids "OK!" and ate them... HAHA

[@Anime10100]

P.S. Giant Garbage Ball. Not the MOON...

[@adolfodef]

@@Anime10100 [Technically Speaking] Since it was a roundish object big enough to have its own gravity inside the sphere of influence of Earth... it was "a moon" [the actual trajectory does not matter].

[@keirfarnum6811]

🎼”We’re whalers on the moon! We carry a harpoon, but there ain’t no whales, so we tell tall tales, and sing our whaling tune...!”🎼

[@PartigradeCannon]

One additional caveat is that the Minbari had stealth technology that prevented the humans from scanning them effectively, so a bunch of aliens whose ships you can barely discern and can't tell if they are readying to fire, knock out their FTL engines and what little sensor data they can gleam is telling them they've got their gunports open.

[@TheRezro]

TBH that was they fault. Good for narrative, not good for showing someone as smart. IRL exchanging contact protocols is extremely important in diplomacy. For example Russians do not understand diplomacy and it make more sense to do backroom deal with them.

[@JM-mh1pp]

I remember reading a polish book years ago (forgot the title) which was a positive spin on dark forest theory. Because it is hard to measure tech levels and you never know what other guys have entire galaxy was VERY VERY polite. And this politness manifested in avoiding any contact with each other ( as miscomunnication is always a possibility but game theory is universal and " I am not doing anything to you" is the best policy to avoid escalation. If ships encountered each other in deep space they would keep their distance avoid communication and above all NEVER interfere. Story was about earth ship encountering a " friendly" in the sense " we have seen them many times and they never did anything funny" ship which was damaged and moral quandry. If we try to help it might be perceived as attack ( we try to get their tech and measure their power) but if we do not help other ship might assume we had a hand in their death... very riveting stuff

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

"Polite Aliens" might be a tempting topic along those lines :) And I would expect transmission to be pretty formal and courteous, even if some amounted "Dear new friend... welcome to the glorious empire, its so much better than us melting your planet into slag"

[@JM-mh1pp]

@@isaacarthurSFIA True, but think about dificulty of translation. Like a simple word "friend" how much context is behind the word, how difficult it is to translate, so in this story to avoid any chance of saying something wrong they followed game theory as in "I see you, you see me, I do nothing...your move" it is impossible to loose. So essentially being "polite" means "avoid contact at all cost" because unlike in dark forest theory agression is always a bad move. You attack a planet which looks like agricultural world and you discover it was equivalent of a museum/ vacation planet and your planet is being just...obliterated with tech you do not even know was possible. At the same time, since making a dead man's switch is trivially easy in space, universe would be a bunch of very peaceful, very stable, and very silent civilisations which work according to a simple one rule - Do not rock the boat, we do not know who is watching. Thanks for response BTW! You are making great videos!

[@joelkreissman6342]

The gift shop episode with the alien trying on a human mask was hilarious.

[@sulljoh1]

"He insulted our fat queen!" ―Space Bee (Worker) "You try keeping your figure after 10,000 kids!" ―Space Bee Queen

[@crappycomputer77t1]

This is actually hilarious, thank you Isaac Arthur. 👍 As I told my friend yesterday “science can be fun and deadly!”

[@acadiano10]

A twist on Galaxy Quest where the aliens watched Stargate, figured out the technology, and open a stable wormhole around the orbit of Neptune. And the UN pays Richard Dean Anderson handsomely to make initial contact. Let's get him on longevity treatment just in case.

[@TheRezro]

What is interesting, this show actually address perception differences, unlike most serious shows.

[@jimmywrangles]

Thanks for the upload, I just went outside and tried to see the Aurora Australia but alas...no joy. Luckily there's an Isaac upload to keep me happy.

[@TGBurgerGaming]

Same problem. The city of lights isnt all its cracked up to be.

[@greggweber9967]

23:15 There was a short story in which communications with the recently arrived alien could only be in one room. It turned out that the TV on the wall was really a one way mirror with the alien in the next room. They didn't want us to get the wrong impression of them. Shining enough light through the glass and a cup shape muzzle allowed seeing the alien which looked like a medieval drawing of the Devil.

[@Tundra.]

Are you just describing Childhood's End? That's a whole book.

[@arcadiaberger9204]

Your final scenario set in the Pleiades reminded me of my idea for a hard-SF reboot of *_Star Trek,_* in which the *_Enterprise_* would be the first of a new class of high-thrust spacecraft which could reduce travel time around the Solar System to weeks rather than months and allowed for the possibility for the creation of a true federation among the planets. The Vulcans were the genetically-engineered settlers of terraformed Mars, while the Klingons were the settlers of the Jovian moons, and people more closely tied to Earth lived on Luna and various asteroids which the *_Enterprise_* would visit, as well as more remote moons of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, &c., with their own engineered inhabitants.

[@sobertillnoon]

You should come to the station's comedy club. You'll be able to hear my tight 5 about the big five on B5.

[@kavaskous]

Mass Effect's story was amazing. Their fermi paradox solution truly was terrifying.

[@markymark8]

Can you explain what the solution was? I have never played the games.

[@HOLDENPOPE]

@@markymark8 robot space squids harvesting civilizations. No more detail than that.

[@TheRezro]

@@HOLDENPOPE We do not talk about annunaki here.

[@gimzod76]

Up until the third one. After that it's been downhill

[@TheRezro]

@@gimzod76 They from eldritch horror become generic villain in third one already. It is why so many people prefer to believe that Shepard was brainwashed, instead.

[@KentoLeoDragon]

Has Isaac done a video on interspecies dating and possible interspecies cross-breeding? That might be fun.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Yes, cohabitation with aliens

[@TheRezro]

@@isaacarthurSFIA For reminder in Star Wars and Star Trek most species were created by Progenitor specie. It is why they tend to be so similar and even have crossbreed ability. Though in the Trek it demand medical intervention removing genetic conflicts in DNA. Speaking of that one of solutions for this problem is to have aliens to be actually just different races of humans. Either as progenitor civilisation itself. Or species being intentional genetic or cybernetic modifications (rather those later as genetics are unpredictable). With omnipresent implications of cyberpunk, future may be more Furry then people think. Vastly underused solution.

[@xXx_Regulus_xXx]

​@@TheRezronah

[@Boblw56]

It must be difficult figuring out the rest room situation for multiple species.

[@acadiano10]

It's difficult enough for just one species 😅

[@tristanbackup2536]

We get confused because of the trans crap going on. Aliens would just make it difficult.

[@jacoblong756]

What I love about this channel is how Isaac uses science to debunk SciFi classics like Mass Effect, but then show that reality could be even more awesome. Like hey you won't have FTL, but this one little star cluster could have trillions of civilizations bigger than every space opera combined!

[@f1b0nacc1sequence7]

I realize that this isn't an embassy per se, but Niven's tales of The Draco Tavern might be an interesting subject for discussion in this context.

[@BitcoinMoonShot]

I love the Moties. It was a black mirror novel. The "Moties" are us. They were limited by our same space travel limitations and what could happen if we adapted to the solar a system at constant nuclear war after a few million years. Plus the humans in those novels only had 3 real technologies we don't have yet. But we are closer now to a couple of those 😊 That Hell Raiser reference made me giggle too. Great episode.

[@pll3827]

'And the scene comes off like an alien ambassador arriving on Earth and walking down the ramp of his ship and firing a machine gun off wildly in the air...' My fellow American!

[@Dang_Near_Fed_Up]

The exact opposite takes place in "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951 version) he pulled out a communication device and get's shot by a jumpy soldier. And I dare say this is far more likely to happen than the other to happen. Great movie by the way, if you have not seen it. It is worth the time to watch it.

[@Alexander-tu3iv]

A memory called empire actually does a really good take on an alien ambassador story, even though everyone involved is human.

[@section8usmc53]

There's an episode of X Minus One (old time radio show) about this titled "The Embassy."

[@UrdnotChuckles]

There's definitely a lot of storytelling potential here! Heck, I wrote a book about stuff like this a few years back. Maybe I'll even get it published one day, who knows. :) Aliens showing up and wanting to play nice and build embassies would like catch a lot of people off guard to say the least. Especially if they genuinely meant it with little to no ulterior motives.

[@Northerner-Not-A-Doctor]

27:10 Humans can agree on the metric vs imperial issue. It is only one small nation (3,5% of humans) who despite offically adapting it somehow still uses the imperial system on the streets, yet that nation define it using the metric system.

[@MrKIMBO345]

As graduate of the International Relationship, I find this subject as interesting as alien can be different on culture and government.

[@TheRezro]

They are different on literally everything. The term is Eldritch. You would most likely talk with AI anyway. As only it could translate discussion on interpretative tail dance, used by theoretical aliens for communication.

[@Kargoneth]

I can't imagine how intractable diplomatic relations might be. It may be impossible in many circumstances. Diplomacy requires great communication skills (not just verbal, but all other possible ways to communicate), great imagination, great patience, and great research.

[@TheRezro]

I'm 99% sure AI would do most of the job. I don't see Earth Ambasador learning synchronic farting.

[@dagnation9397]

@@TheRezro Beans beans the diplomatic fruit....

[@Dang_Near_Fed_Up]

@@TheRezro I wouldn't trust AI with something so delicate. Case in point, I saw some AI "art" where the dragon rider had fiery breath instead of the dragon, because the instructions had no punctuation. Adding a simple comma fixed it. Would you want to risk the life of everyone on Earth to AI, when it can be messed up so simply by a mere missing comma?

[@jodrakhanthewonderful1642]

I highly recommend Larry Nivens "Draco Tavern" stories. Covers the similar topic of running a multi-species drinking establishment and all the problems that go along with it. Including what to do when a Gligsith(click)optok orders a meat broth soup...

[@dariustiapula]

Lets not name it "Babylon".

[@darrellhagopian9406]

Not even the fifth one?

[@cosmictreason2242]

Or Zion 👀

[@jasonGamesMaster]

​@@darrellhagopian9406All the Centauri said I was daft to build an embassy in the swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show them! It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up until it was stolen by a Human who was going to become a Mimbari so they could take it back in time to fight a war against the Shadows! - The guy trying to sell the Earth Alliance on building Babylon 5, probably.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I think the official in-universe reason is because the station is in the "Euphrates Sector"

[@cosmictreason2242]

@@isaacarthurSFIA as someone who hasn't seen it i truly thought the reference was to many different (alien) languages being spoken there. Huh.

[@marcelgrabowski5939]

Now, persuading aliens in stellaris to name me galactic emperor with thunderous aplause by usage of hilarious ammounts of raw mineral gifts.

[@NarwahlGaming]

Alien: _"These are very valuable on Earth, you say?"_ Marc: _"Extremely."_ Alien 2: _"And what did you call them?"_ Marc: _"Pogs."_

[@OmusKnowsAll]

Thanks Isaac! This informs my diplomatic writings for my galactic Commonwealth saga.

[@johnfairhurstReviews]

Keith Laumer's Retief stories are technically about a pair of diplomats at large, though they aren't set in one location, and Retief himself isn't what one might think of as the perfect diplomat 🙂

[@mrnnhnz]

When you said, "...Interacting with an alien species with completely different social cues is like trying to understand modern internet slang as a Victorian: baffling, slightly horrifying, but profoundly educational." I'd thought, after the word "modern," you were about to say, "art." ...which the same could be said about it!

[@sorcikator993]

I remember in one of the Eragon book, they have a diplomatic meet with an horned specie named urgals. They almost got a diplomatic incident at the start when the urgal representative raised his chin in a seamingly arrogant way toward humans leaders, but it's then revealed that exposing the throat like that was a sign of peace, and that bowing the head was a threat because it indicated the urgal was about to charge horns first. And that's just an humanoid with horns

[@cannonfodder4376]

An excellent sci-fi sunday episode Isaac. I can only hope other sci-fi writers take inspiration from this to make more realistic stories.

[@Preciouspink]

Ambassador Fox: "Diplomacy gentlemen.A thing best handled by diplomats. Engineer Scott: "Aye,the best diplomat i know,is a fully charged phaser bank".

[@mckylecfc]

Love the sci-fi visuals but i tire of the trope of aliens not having invented clothes despite having figured out how to cross the stars

[@DirtyHippy420]

Aliens dont wear clothes duh

[@mckylecfc]

@@DirtyHippy420 must be getting in the way of the schience..🤔

[@DirtyHippy420]

@@mckylecfc scientifically speaking aliens give the best head

[@avishalom2000lm]

Or what looks like naked bodies is an exoskeleton or skin-tight suit. Perfect if you are in a different gravity field or biome than you're used to

[@friendlyone2706]

@@avishalom2000lm Most likely -- loose clothing could cause problems if it snags on the wrong thing or accidentally actuates a surface sensitive control. Plus skin tight would be easier to set for personally preferred temperature/humidity/pressure levels. If humans can disagree if a room is too hot or too cold, why can't aliens?

[@cillianennis9921]

Like 30 minutes ago I was looking for this & bam you release it. Thank you. After watching Babylon 5 it really makes you think about how interesting space diplomacy will be. Like say what you will about the star wars prequels but they definitely show an interesting & corrupt system of a semi-united space alliance.

[@MrJay_White]

both those settings boil down interspecies diplomacy to psudo-victorian apes posturing in barely sentient shit slinging matches.

[@fanOmry]

Hey... had a thought. Inspired by the tethered ring. A cheaper, easier version. Instead of a ring, Use a bunch of airships, they are anchored to the ground with kevlar ropes, and meat at the middle point that in closer by air to all the anchors, than the point it is over... Now make connecting ropes between them. A spider web. And that is your basis for a launch platform. You make that join, base, peak top point at around 10k up, and you are now over 90% of the air mass. You can now have an SSO(Single Stage to Orbit) as an easy possibility.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Load-bearing Buoyancy gets tricky at altitudes high enough to usefully clear the atmosphere

[@fanOmry]

@@isaacarthurSFIA Honestly, the Boyncy here is just so it doesn't need as much fuel... It can drones, too, whatever. They are there to just drag the Kevlar ropes and join them to begin a spiderweb base for a platform.

[@Dang_Near_Fed_Up]

The fact that man can understand each other is nothing short of a miracle based off of common experiences, given the number of languages man speaks. To be able to understand an alien is likely to be impossible. Case in point, think how many ways "animal protector" could be translated. Everything from dog catcher to zoo keeper to exterminator could be inferred, and that's only 2 words.

[@aurigo_tech]

Only now, after so many years, do I realize that Mass Effect is basically an interactive version of Babylon 5 - just slightly renamed and restyled.

[@brianfox771]

Ouch, yeah I figured it out after my first play-through back in 2008. I was and am a huge Babylon 5 fan, so the story seemed very familiar. Mass Effect always seemed an amalgam of Babylon 5 and the newer Battlestar Galactica with a dash of Firefly.

[@juliahenriques210]

Definitely. So much so that they even made a "Sheridan ending".

[@mandogundam5779]

Everybody sounds so smart in the threads. I'm over here in the first few seconds thinking like, 'why does the alien get to be naked but the human has to wear a space suit.?' 😆

[@PorElBienDelGuion]

Perhaps their "skin" is an artificial exoskeleton, like a far more advanced version of a human spacesuit.

[@realChewky]

This episode is perfect for my snack. I got 12 air-fried cheese sticks, 4 jalapeño poppers, 3 chicken tenders with reaper seasoning, a bag of white cheddar popcorn, a two liter ice-cold mr pibb, and ten pizzas. I'm ready! 😊

[@I-02]

That opening one-liner got a good chuckle out of me.

[@BaldingClamydia]

Quinn's Ideas is a channel that did a phenomenal summary of all 6 Dune books. It's 7h long and did not feel like it at all. He presents it in a story format and I HIGHLY recommend checking it out, if only to give him the watch time he deserves. Thanks for allowing me to advertise someone else's channel, Isaac

[@mikemoore4033]

My nomination for best depiction of an alien ambassador (written SF) is Speaker-to-Animals from Larry Niven’s Ringworld.

[@wk8219]

I love the ending. Zaphod Beebelbrox gets a lot fewer mentions thanthan I think he deserves.

[@smoore6461]

I love sci-fi Sundays!! Always great food for thought!

[@ornu01]

Just make sure you don't get on the wrong side of a guy named Retief.

[@some_haqr]

😂😂

[@iandennis7836]

Indeed......😁

[@katarishigusimokirochepona6611]

? Can someone explain this reference please?

[@katarishigusimokirochepona6611]

Ah, found it: "Jame Retief is the main character in a series of satirical science fiction stories by Keith Laumer. The stories were written over a span of thirty years beginning in the early 1960s, without much regard for chronology or any particular scheme."

[@ornu01]

@@katarishigusimokirochepona6611 Yes, he was a member of the Diplomatic Corps with a certain reputation that was at odds with his bland mannerisms.

[@Versudan]

Can't wait for the day when a specific Hub with an iconic jingle to the start of every video adds 'interstellar' as a category. Not to be confused with 'interspecies', which is considered illegal or at least questionably ethical by every major star fairing civilization.

[@Seekarr]

Fun Fact: Canada not only borders the US, but two other countries: France and Denmark. France owns islands 25km off the coast of the province of Newfoundland and Denmark owns Greenland, a mere 16km (about 10 American miles) from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago - connected by ice about 150 days a year, although it used to be over 200 days in the 1990s.

[@thomashemenway7384]

I believe that "To Serve Man" started life as a short story by Damon Knight. Later adapted by Rod Serling for a TZ episode

[@greggweber9967]

8:24 Until someone starts drawing dashed lines. Then you can have a war.

[@TovenDo.O.Video-]

"New forehead of the week"🤣🤣🤣

[@alfredlaalpacadeageofempir9215]

"¡Ahora no Robin! Necesito tener una pequeña charla con el Alfa Centauriano Cyborg."

[@michaelpettersson4919]

Have you noticed how Vulcans are typically depicted in Star Trek from a cultural point of View? Apperantly while allied with humans there tend to be a lot of cultural friction in between them. However I do get the impression that the Vulcans serving on Human dominated starships have shown that they can overcome that friction. Point being two cultures can be generally uncomfortable around each other but you probably will find individuals that can handle the stress and eventually get along fine. An alien empire are unlikely to appoint someone with a "kill all humans" attitude as an ambassador. That is unless the idea is to declare war.

[@PennyAfNorberg]

I have a filter idea: The moon, ie lagre moon to earthlike planet, can't be that that common in the galaxy

[@jasonGamesMaster]

The Babylon 5 episode! Wooot

[@jimflask1164]

The guys we met. Our decade together. What we learned is so incredible. One day people will have a positive attitude. Instead of the extreme violence at any mention of the word "alien". We will be able to share our story. Understand the technology being discussed. The better questions we can ask the better our lessons will be. When your teacher is an alien. You can only imagine what we have already learned from just our tiny group. That was willing to dig in and research instead of reacting in completely blind RAGE!!!. All the diplomacy is already settled. There is nothing to do but prove we want to be humans.

[@businessmonkey4726]

I need an "Isaac Arthur" approved SciFi book list!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

My website has a tab of recommended books isaacarthur.net

[@TGBurgerGaming]

Mass Effects citadel is great machinations, imposing sanctions, hegemony, genocide, conquest, slavery, break away regions, secrets, an elite club at the top, forbidden artifacts and uplifting primitives.

[@TheRezro]

It is a space opera. Harbinger is closer to how actual alien relation would look like. Until they F it up.

[@jackripper5270]

That opener was great

[@aceundead4750]

If my coworker doesn't keep real eyes in a jar anymore where am i supposed to get the jelly for my bread?

[@JAGzilla-ur3lh]

Actually, it's quite good on toast.

[@dkall8101]

That comparison to Pinhead made me laugh out loud

[@fraustpunk]

Brotha....at this point, do a video about how you need Causi Belli to engage an alien civilization for subjugation. But also ensure that your Navy knows only to use selective bombardment so that your raiders can stock your Alloy production planets with...volunteers.

[@sethapex9670]

I think it might be possible to crate a Warp Drive with combination of artificial gravitational waves and gravitational torsion. Waves spread out along the xy plane of rotation of infalling massive objects, causing an expansion of space along that plane in the same way that ripples on the surface of a pond cause the surface area of the pond to increase. Gravitational torsion on the other hand should occur along the z-axis of rotation of those same massive objects. In the same way that twisting a string or rope causes it to tighten and shorten, generating an extra attractive force along that axis.

[@joefarah06]

I didn’t think this would be so interesting but great job!

[@comentedonakeyboard]

The main purpose of Alien Embasies is to provide your Diplomats Acces to familiar Snacks and Drinks.

[@House_of_Zodd]

Listening to this while playing Mass Effect 3

[@michaelfonda5409]

The DMZ space station in Battlestar Galactica was kind of an embassy too

[@f1b0nacc1sequence7]

Watching this, I am reminded of the brilliant opening scene from "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets"

[@aishalotter9995]

I like most of that film some of it was a bit shit though !!!

[@larrye.goinesjr.1535]

"In-Situ", Is Out Of This World?!?

[@troydavis1]

You forgot one of the most iconic exemples of space ambassadors, the 1975 french comic book classic of Valerian, voyageur spatio-temporel, aka Valerian et Laureline, called the Ambassador of the Shadows, in the setting of Point Central, the place where races in the galaxy meet, a giant space habitat built piece by piece by each race adding their piece ! You may not know this series but its been around since 1967 !! Please read the original comic book series!!

[@prophetofthesingularity]

If we ever did meet an Alien civilization or even if somehow we could communicate with them it could show us just how much our evolution on this planet has shaped our nature. I always find it interesting that the most natural element that almost all animals share is being either hunter or prey. Many animals have to kill to survive, including us for most of our evolution and suppose we met a form of alien life where every life form on the planet simply got energy from photosynthesis or heat and they did not have to kill other species to survive. Would that have shaped them to be peaceful or would they have still become like and want to expand and conquer. Maybe our view of colonizing space and expansion would not be shared by them.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

It's worth noting that conflict and territory are not concepts dependent on carnivorous diets, just competition which is baked into the very process of evolution. A completely herbivorous or even photosynthetic species may very well have such concepts.

[@juliahenriques210]

They don't need to view what we could call harmful it as competing. Symbiotic fungi might see sporing our brains and killing 90% of humans as uplifting us, since with time we'll all benefit and our species will be much more cooperative and flourish to at least 100 times our current population. They know better. They've done this dozens of times before, and they've even had entire species begging them for the privilege, but turned some down. They'd never understand why we'd fight so hard against what's clearly best for us. Sentient plants could just act neutral and negligently, destroying our infrastructure and changing our ecosystems at will, since they know we'll either adapt around them or die, and as long as we don't cut them down they couldn't care less.

[@Melinmingle]

Best video on the citadel

[@Seekarr]

Babylon 5 was way ahead of its time, being the first real novel-style TV show. The closest style to this was the ongoing series (pro-wrestling and soap operas) which continues without any real structure except new arcs. Most TV shows of the time were episodic, sometimes having a container plot that acts as more of a context backdrop than the story (Most science fiction shows fell into this style, like Stargate, Sliders, Deep Space 9, Farscape, and Voyager fall). I don't think there was another novel style show until Battlestar Galactica, around a decade later, Rome the HBO series (created by John Milius, best known for the violent and sex filled film Conan the Barbarian, and made those elements fairly regular in novel type TV shows from then forward).

[@ni-dirus]

Its sad that there's few details on the alien faces in the thumbnail, as it used to be one of my greatest joys to see the crazy imaginations of the artists who made the thumbnails, and being able to identify the deliberation of their brushstrokes around a froglike face with orange hair, or an insectoid face with laser-like eyes....etc

[@Emolt76]

29:20 Ahhh yes, Shau Khan was always the best Human Ambassador to the Galaxy!

[@Arational]

Zaphod is just this guy, you know.

[@Jean-Luc_Renard]

Funny. It just so happens that I'm writing a story about a human ambassador to an alien civilization. I guess I won't have as much competition as I thought. Cool.

[@TheRezro]

Yeh... common trope in Sci Fi. Completely unrealistic IRL.

[@Arational]

Peter Jackson's first movie 'Bad Taste' explores the aliens harvesting humans genre.

[@caitgems1]

My favourite channel ❤️

[@Dang_Near_Fed_Up]

No ambassador negotiates like Delenn, though Korben Dallas comes close. Of course what do you expect from someone who had to pass inspection from the Vorlon, and by Jack The Ripper himself to get the job.

[@franckmalers2299]

Imagine an alien race coming in and willing to exchange tech for a place to live or raw materials like soil. I'd be very suspicious because it means their tech did not save them from crumbling ecosystem.

[@donperegrine922]

Soil might be extremely intricate! It's made of silicates, clays, decaying wood,.... But it's also very specific to earth. If they came asking for soil (more than a researchers quantity) I'd be suspicious ..because they are building an earth ecosystem, som where. Not illegal, just very weird

[@franckmalers2299]

@@donperegrine922 Soil appears early in evolution of a planet. There was soil before micro organism learned to digest dead wood. early micro organisms should be the same everywhere in the cosmos and as soil is made by them, I tend to think soil should be almost the same everywhere as well. that's just an opinion of course but it makes sense to me.

[@cosmictreason2242]

@@franckmalers2299 that is the logical conclusion of cosmic/stellar/chemical/biological evolution. I don't even agree, am YEC, but i can consider a worldview from its own merits by taking its premises for granted. Basic reasoning I'm baffled more people can't do tbh. Anyway yes, if single celled life evolves on a planet, there should be soil, because all that really is is a mixture of mineral and organic matter

[@donperegrine922]

@@franckmalers2299 hhmm....now I don't know. That makes sense too.

[@franckmalers2299]

@@cosmictreason2242 what is "YEC" ?

[@S.ASmith]

Commander Sheppard, the galaxy's best diplomat We'll bang ok?

[@vincentcleaver1925]

And one part tailor!

[@AleksandrPodyachev]

Thanks!

[@jssomewhere6740]

By the time we find aliens will those aliens be us. Sending out explorers that are basically one way trips. It Could turn the descendants of those explorers into what would appear to be aliens.

[@sergiotorres1069]

Favorite alien embassies are in earth final conflict

[@JAGzilla-ur3lh]

The ambassadors are Jedi Knights, I believe...

[@evensgrey]

This episode reminded me of another of Larry Niven's Draco Tavern stories. One of the first humans to travel outside the Sol System is at the bar, when he suddenly blanches and turns away from one of the species that's known to like meat broth and vodka, and have extremely high biotech. When asked, he explains that the species he turned away from is Earth's main source of off-world currency. In the form of a small royalty payment for...vat grown meat, cloned from all the members of the team that went to their world. Everything from individual steak equivalents to a whole, headless human body as a roast. This time, the man-eating aliens are completely civilized and harm no humans at all, and save a fortune on shipping costs. The team leader blew his brains out once they got home. The story ends with the waitress coming up to the bar and not quite being able to say what kind of meat broth the aliens just inquired about the availability of, and the bartender tells her to tell them they'll take Campbells, and like it. (For those from places outside North America, Campbells is a popular and long-standing brand of canned soup of many kinds.)

[@Arational]

RIP Roger Corman

[@SkyFly19853]

but in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri... Aliens didn't give a damn about Diplomacy... 😏

[@stonergaming-vy8ub]

Let's gooooooooooo new sfia