How easily would aliens occupy earth if they decided to invade?

[Dismembered]

Lets face it guys. If an extraterrestrial species with the ability to travel the stars decided they wanted earth it's highly unlikely that we have anything that would be able to stop them. How long would it take them to conquer earth?

What if those Aliens aren't that smart how Hollywood makes them? People always think they must be some super smart over 9000 IQ creatures.

[Cinaedus]

But what if the aliens are like the asari from Mass Effect or female draenei from WoW? The only fighting that will be done then will be by us over who gets to keep them.

[Caerule]

It really depends on what they want. If they want to kill us all, they probably could. And if they can threaten us with easily accomplished total genocide, we'd probably mostly submit to their demands, if they are within reason.
If they actually wish to just rule us as occupiers for extended period through use of superior technology and force of arms, they're in for a rough time, however.

The world has no central government. Humans are naturally racist. And at least 20% of the population would oppose even the most benevolent of overlords. There's 7 billion of us. That's a lot of people to find different approaches to kill these aliens. And threat of death alone isn't going to stop a lot of them from rebelling.

The main problem aliens face is how much they'd have to invest in this. Bringing enough forces and material to earth to occupy it is going to be terribly costly even for a race that can traverse the stars. And it takes a lot more than just advanced soldiers. This occupation needs to be organized. They actually need to manage us. And they have to do all that while facing a rebellion, that will be trying to undo anything productive they wish to accomplish, and will seek to get their hands on their stuff.

It's really not productive to occupy earth. You'd need at least 50.000 million soldiers/drones that we can't destroy to manage the military side of it alone. Then there's managing, labor, construction. It's much faster to just kill humanity, or knock out all our tech, and then pretty much do your thing undisturbed. Maybe leave Australia alone, if you wish to preserve the species in isolation as an act of kindness.

[Ravenblade]

Posh? I'm being realistic. The primary materials that make up the Earth are the most abundant in the universe. As much as we might like to think we're really special the truth is we aren't. Judging by the number of exoplanets we've discovered already there are potentially tens of BILLIONS of Earth like worlds in our galaxy alone, why would any species invest that much effort to travel anywhere up to 100,000 light years within our galaxy for anything we might have? It makes absolutely no sense.

If Earth gets in the way of a trans-galactic highway then they will get interested in Earth. It will either be moved to the the side a bit or removed entirely if it poses too much of a hazard for passer-bys.

[Cosmic Janitor]

What if those Aliens aren't that smart how Hollywood makes them? People always think they must be some super smart over 9000 IQ creatures.

Because science. We currently have no conceivable way to make long distance space travel feasible. If they had that ability and didn't just happen to come here as desperate popsicles, then they are much more advanced than we are. The individual might still be an utter moron, like with mankind, but you can also use a smartphone despite having probably no clue how it works. So they as a species must be much further and the fruits of that will trickle down to the individual.

[Yvaelle]

If you gave me a single rudimentary shuttlecraft from any science fiction franchise, no matter how basic, with no weapons on it on board. I could conquer Earth in a leisurely afternoon, without firing a single shot, or even entering Earth orbit.

You don't even need FTL, any ship capable of diverting an asteroid, is capable of redirecting rocks toward our major cities - and any ship capable of interstellar flight has sophisticated enough computers to hit their targets.

Which means I can sit out at the asteroid belt, send Earth a message requesting that you all kindly bend the knee to my supreme and unconditional rule - and then kick a couple rocks into Moscow, Beijing, and Washington: those were warning shots, 3 cities become craters in a matter of hours, tens of millions dead, and a growing dust cloud that wipes out crops for hundreds of kilometers in every direction - not to mention the toxic-firestorm that washes over the same areas.

I will destroy another 3 cities, at random, every hour, until Earth unanimously accepts my demand for your unconditional surrender.

Bet you I don't even need to wait out the first hour.

Now - that's just what I can do with a shuttle, without a single laser pistol, without firing a shot, without even entering the inner solar system. Why the hell would I want to come down to your planet's surface, and fist-fight you - when I can 1 vs. 7,000,000,000 you Earthlings, literally at the push of a couple buttons: while watching Netflix.

We nuke ourselves, what the fuck do you thing we are going to do to an alien race?

Nuke... ourselves?

[Stelio Kontos]

Nuke... ourselves?

Valid strategy. If we're sure we can't have it, let's wreck it so no one can have it.

Seen it used a Russian strategy in some science fiction, enough times that I wonder if the USSR or Russia ever actually promoted it as an idea.

[Flarelaine]

Oh you're serious? Look, educated human adults don't act the way you described

*cough* #potus45 *cough*

[Yvaelle]

Valid strategy. If we're sure we can't have it, let's wreck it so no one can have it.

Seen it used a Russian strategy in some science fiction, enough times that I wonder if the USSR or Russia ever actually promoted it as an idea.

It was more or less the plot of Dr. Strangelove, the Russians built a nuclear doomsday device but forgot to tell the world about it - which meant it didn't serve as a deterrent - so America thinks they can win a nuclear war and begins a first strike, which results in the total destruction of earth.

[Deleted]

17.8 minutes give or take.

I'm leaning towards 17.3 minutes

[Deleted]

Any civilization capable of interstellar travel wouldn't need to invade another planet. We have absolutely nothing of value to such a species. Likewise if we were able to go to other stars.

The idea of alien invaders is infantile.

No it isnt. The idea we could be spared is infact infantile. Aliens who would take the long way to visit us also would like have a gain once they reached us. And if they wanted us as colony, they just would kill most of the humans, put some of us into zoos, and build their holiday appartments where washington and berlin was before the big extermination strike.

Or just imagine they used up all their water on their home world, and, as we know, earth is rich with water, they just could fill their water tanks, and leave us behind in our new wasteland.

If we ever should have contact with a species that is much more evolved than we are, it is most likely we will be the american native indians.

[Flarelaine]

You don't even need FTL, any ship capable of diverting an asteroid, is capable of redirecting rocks toward our major cities - and any ship capable of interstellar flight has sophisticated enough computers to hit their targets.

Which means I can sit out at the asteroid belt, send Earth a message requesting that you all kindly bend the knee to my supreme and unconditional rule - and then kick a couple rocks into Moscow, Beijing, and Washington: those were warning shots, 3 cities become craters in a matter of hours, tens of millions dead, and a growing dust cloud that wipes out crops for hundreds of kilometers in every direction - not to mention the toxic-firestorm that washes over the same areas.

I will destroy another 3 cities, at random, every hour, until Earth unanimously accepts my demand for your unconditional surrender.

Bet you I don't even need to wait out the first hour.

First off, it is literally impossible to get reactions that fast from any government on Earth. Especially if you blast capitals.

Second, some will try to fight back. An asteroid big enough to make that kind of impact would be easily tracked by missiles.

At the end, though, Earth would run out of missiles and you still would not have made a dent in the asteroid belt.

[Independent voter]

If it's an invasion by artificial intelligence, AI, then the AI would reprogram us by rewriting our DNA just like any other software. We would simply accept the AI as our leader. Or they could program something fatal in our DNA.

The changes could be very slow via normal human replication or very fast though a flu like virus.

[Thoughtcrime]

No it isnt. The idea we could be spared is infact infantile. Aliens who would take the long way to visit us also would like have a gain once they reached us. And if they wanted us as colony, they just would kill most of the humans, put some of us into zoos, and build their holiday appartments where washington and berlin was before the big extermination strike.

Or just imagine they used up all their water on their home world, and, as we know, earth is rich with water, they just could fill their water tanks, and leave us behind in our new wasteland.

Why do all that? Travelling to another star is a collosal undertaking. For zoos and a holiday home? Really?

For water? Water is the most common compound in the universe. You don't need to travel light years for water, it's literally everywhere. In fact if they came this far for water wouldn't it make more sense to hang out in the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt and just scoop up any one of the trillions of chunks of ice that range from the size of cars to the size of small planets? Why bother with Earth at all?

[Deleted]

Why do all that? Travelling to another star is a collosal undertaking. For zoos and a holiday home? Really?

Ask the same from the point of view of a conquistador in the 16th century.

For water? Water is the most common compound in the universe. You don't need to travel light years for water, it's literally everywhere.

Which other planet in this solar system has water?

Why would humans start space travel?

To expand. To build spaceships to find other habitable planets. How many habitable planets do you know about?

I only know one currently. Imagine there are only around 0,00005% habitable planets in a galaxy. Imagine aliens with the ability to spaceflight would reach this planet, what would be their intention with our habitable world?

To send us greetings from their god emperor?

[Zantos]

Any civilization capable of interstellar travel wouldn't need to invade another planet. We have absolutely nothing of value to such a species. Likewise if we were able to go to other stars.

The idea of alien invaders is infantile.

Even if we as a species don't, the planet might.

@op, easily. It would probably not even be a challenge to get an unconditional surrender from us.

[jimboa24]

An unlikely scenario, but what if they were a completely peaceful race that didn't even know how to fight wars because they never had to? Maybe they initiate contact because they encountered a war-like race and were losing a war because they didn't know how to create weapons or how to fight, and so they reach out to us because we're less advanced and they feel less threatened by us, but want to study our history of warfare to learn from it?

[Deleted]

How do you build a spaceship, travel..what..hundreds? thousands? of lightyears and be idiots?

By just having the idea to make a new home on a habitable planet.

"Sorry, captain, but we found there is a race of humanoids on the planet we took 100 years to travel to. Look for another one?"

[Laerrus]

Very. But I don't think they would occupy us by brute force, it would probably be more like a stealthy infiltration. They would probably choose to stay hidden among us in order to study our species, as it would possibly give them a glimpse into their own evolution.

After they got the information that they wanted, they would return to their home planet and their version of David Attenborough would then host an award winning documentary on the study of our species.

[Deleted]

If i was an alien who would want our planet as colony, i would use my heavily advanced genetics to create a fast reproducing, humanoid only targeting mutating virus to solve the problem.

Then i would send my robots to clean the place, and find a nice place to build my base.