The Long Road

01/07/2005 Archived Entry: "Humans in Sci-Fi Part 1: Human Nature"

I’m thinking of Enterprise in particular for this entry but a ton of sci-fi succumbs to this problem. The issue being that humans are presented as something special in the universe, as the ones with all the answers, and that “human spirit” will always win out the day no matter the odds. Even if Earth is destroyed and remnants of humanity are scattered across the cosmos, humanity will, through this miraculous property that is lacking in every other race in existence, find a way to overcome superior number, technology, and culture. It is the biggest cliché in sci-fi.

Whenever an alien comments on the resiliency of humanity, or how humans always manage to be unpredictable, or some other such purple prose, it is a huge turn-off. I can’t exactly pinpoint why it bugs me, there’s just something wrong when other races acknowledge that humans are destined to be the greatest race the universe has ever seen. Who knows, maybe we will be but I don’t see it.

Even comics (some of them are sci-fi =P) get into the act. I cannot count the amount of times an alien empire which presides over entire galaxies and rules billions of planets look at Earth and decide that humans are a threat because of the “potential of humanity”. Isn’t that just a little presumptuous?

I think one of the reasons why this is so prevalent is that we tend to like stories with likeable heroes who will win in the end; in stories featuring many alien races, the audience is obviously going to attach itself to and want the humans to win, to be the “better” race. We want US to be the heroes.

Perhaps it is an extension of human rhetoric. We try so hard to convince kids and each other that each and everyone of us is special and unique and destined for greatness that we just can’t stand it if the same did not apply to our species as a whole.

Maybe one day we’ll fly off into space and meet plenty of other races and realize that we’re no more and no less special than any other race, just another cog in the intergalactic wheel. I’d probably find some kind of weird satisfaction in that.

Replies: 6 comments

Hmm, I'm sure you've blogged this before. I totally agree though! It would be good to see movies where humans lose, but still retains their values. Wouldn't that be a victory???

Posted by dAN @ 01/07/2005 10:50 AM EST

i think it just goes to show what value we place on humanity. isn't humanity the thing that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom? i guess the idea has just been extended to the unknown as well as the known.

i think it's kind of about self-preservation. if humanity itself isn't that valuable ... why preserve it? why treat it with respect?

also, don't you think it would be kind of eerie if you watched/read something where your own society ended up enslaved? it's really just patriotism on a much grander scale.

Posted by melpie @ 01/07/2005 02:12 PM EST

it is a fairly simple thing actually. As humans we generally think of ourselves as better than everything else because we have the capability of rational thought. In addition we refuse to accept the idea that there is the possibility that there could be some other species/race that also has rational thought or is somehow better than us. As a result, media/art/entertainment tend to write so that humans are the be all and end all and everything cowers before us. Ironically, if these aliens can understand the potential etc of humanity, and have already organized into some higher level society with various organizational forms of control, they really already do have rational thought and probably are better than us. hmm, maybe that isn't irony at all, but just stupid people not understanding what they are reading...
Goddamn critical thinking class

Posted by sbdep @ 01/07/2005 04:06 PM EST

Now that you mention it, I think we've had a similar discussion over email once.

I don't necessarily want to see humans lose and enslaved...I just don't want everyone saying that humans are god's gift to the universe, is all.

"if these aliens can understand the potential etc of humanity, and have already organized into some higher level society with various organizational forms of control, they really already do have rational thought and probably are better than us." Nah, just means they've been around longer.

Posted by Rayne @ 01/08/2005 03:39 AM EST

I'm starting to get tired of it, where humans always succeed; it's just too snobbish & patronising. Humans just keep ruining nature & trying to preserve their race. How's about sci-fi where humanity falls beneath the onslaught of nature and doesn't bounce back?!?

Posted by Colin @ 01/21/2005 10:16 AM EST

Just watched Enterprise 4x11, it's about 2 aliens which are thousands of years old discussing how humans are completely different from any other species they've ever met. UGH.

Posted by Rayne @ 01/24/2005 12:33 AM EST