What I hate about SciFi stories involving humans in a mass exodus from Earth to colonize space...

Earth(Gaia, Earth-that-was, Home, etc.) was left inhospitable after [insert tragedy, war, natural phenomena here], so we took to the skies in an attempt to colonize and repopulate other planets.


Basic story structure for many/most SciFi stories in this genre, yes?


But riddle me this... if the planet is inhospitable... how did they make the crafts and round up the people to get off the planet in such a short time?

Do you have any understanding how much time and effort goes in to the creation of a spacecraft?

Especially those interstellar motherfuckers that are the stars of these tales.

It took about 10 years just to design the fucking Mars Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) and all they do is roll around dirt, take pictures of rocks and read chemical compounds.

Can you imagine how much effort, time, money and manpower would go into making a cruiser large enough to A) successfully travel through interstellar space B) Hold enough people, supplies and life support to make these efforts anywhere near viable and not just a massive suicide mission?

And if these technologies or ships did exist, why did they wait until the 11th hour? Why weren't these people already halfway to Alpha Centauri before the need even arose?

Playing Devil's Advocate. Take a look at World War II. The sheer amount of hardware that was pumped out was beyond crazy. No one had any money then. But there was a time of need, a desperation. They were able to pump out massive amounts of stuff, in incomprehensible volumes just because they needed too.

Don't underestimate the power of a lot of people with a common goal. Especially if that goal is survival.

I don't recall any stories where it said that the aircraft was made in a really short time.

But both good points!

The technology can exist before the world goes so bad the people have to leave. A lot of people got away from the Gulf Coast after Katrina hit. Those idiots waited until the 11th hour. I personally know a couple who lived in New Orleans and slept through Katrina, and I hung out with them in Jackson (180 miles straight north of New Orleans, which is why the Jackson population doubled right after Katrina) a few days later when I was a refugee myself because Katrina screwed up Jackson too.

I very much believe that such science fiction movies foreshadow humanity's future. It is eventually going to happen for real.

The only instance I can think of is Trigun in which this happens. I don't know any other TV shows or movies that have this storyline.

The answer is quite simple. People on Earth realize that they're totally fucked decades before they actually are and immediately begin working on the ships that will take them out of there. Maybe the technology hadn't existed before or maybe the technology was brand new. If the plot of the story is good enough you can fill in the gaps with your imagination.

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Originally Posted by Elis D

Earth(Gaia, Earth-that-was, Home, etc.) was left inhospitable after [insert tragedy, war, natural phenomena here], so we took to the skies in an attempt to colonize and repopulate other planets.


Basic story structure for many/most SciFi stories in this genre, yes?

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Well, no, not that I'm familiar with.

Most stories where the Earth is lost, destroyed, uninhabitable or a giant ghetto suppose that colonization and expansion happened before the crisis, or if we didn't have colonies then only a few thousand humans escaped to become refugees in someone else's trans-galactic empire/confederacy.

A lot of stuff that looks like speculative fiction on its surface (it's the future, there are space ships and aliens) could just as easily have started off "Once upon a time..." and featured fairies and ogres and pirate ships--they're fantasy, borrowing the imagery of sci fi to tell dreamlike, larger-than-life tales, rather than extrapolating from current trends and knowledge to imagine a quasi-realistic future. It sounds like maybe this is what you're talking about?

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Originally Posted by Black_Eagle

The answer is quite simple. People on Earth realize that they're totally fucked decades before they actually are and immediately begin working on the ships that will take them out of there.

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Just like how we now realize we're totally going to run out of fossil fuels and are working really hard on converting to renewable energy sources eh? :chuckle:

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Originally Posted by Forsaken

Just like how we now realize we're totally going to run out of fossil fuels and are working really hard on converting to renewable energy sources eh? :chuckle:

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Wait until we are really down to the wire, when we have like a year to come up with something or else live like they did in the Road Warrior movies. Some amazing shit is going to suddenly be invented. Just watch.

to add on to what most people said...I thought ones of this story line usually assumed we already had such technology and could build it quick. phantasy star online is the only one I know with this exact story line but all the technology is already super advanced. man that was a great game.