Favorite "First Contact" scenario?

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The discussion centers on a fictional scenario involving aliens interacting with humanity, highlighting themes of inspection and cultural intervention. The narrative suggests that humans have lost their right to cultural quarantine due to their civilization's decline, necessitating alien assistance for survival. The aliens, represented as a "clique," plan to reorganize human society for entertainment purposes, akin to a reality show. This arrangement is humorously approved by pets, while humans remain oblivious to their true situation. The overarching theme critiques human agency and the absurdity of alien oversight in a dystopian context.
Noisy Rhysling
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Again, I'm going with the Motie, because the idea of stripping down to allow the aliens to inspect a human body could only be trumped by having the only woman in a whole lotta miles do the same, for instructional purposes.
 
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My favorite:

 
The strangest one I've read involved a man noticing that the farther away a letter had to go the faster it got there. So he sat down and wrote a letter to "The Postmaster, Galactic Postal System, Milky Way." He put it out for pick up and two minutes later the aliens were at his door to congratulate him on gaining admission to the Galactic Federation by dint of figuring there was a galactic postal system.
 
Greetings humanity. We of the interplanetary clique have been monitoring your planet's progress.

We regret to inform you that your civilizations have drifted beyond the point where your long term survival is possible without our assistance. As a result, your planet has forfeited its right to cultural quarantine, and must now provide our clique with compensation for the assistance you will need to survive. The only corporation to find value in your world is Galactic Entertainment. They will now invisibly reorganize your lives and society in the manner most amusing to their viewers. Since this involves allowing humans to continue to believe that they control the Earth, this message will not be transmitted to any human. Your pets however have enthusiastically approved this arrangement on your behalf.
 
Algr said:
Greetings humanity. We of the interplanetary clique have been monitoring your planet's progress.

We regret to inform you that your civilizations have drifted beyond the point where your long term survival is possible without our assistance. As a result, your planet has forfeited its right to cultural quarantine, and must now provide our clique with compensation for the assistance you will need to survive. The only corporation to find value in your world is Galactic Entertainment. They will now invisibly reorganize your lives and society in the manner most amusing to their viewers. Since this involves allowing humans to continue to believe that they control the Earth, this message will not be transmitted to any human. Your pets however have enthusiastically approved this arrangement on your behalf.
Only as long as "The Interstellar Truman Show" is getting good ratings, of course.
 
I wonder how much stories were written, that involve space fighters, and arent so soft as Star wars. I dont think missiles totally make fighter craft obsolate, for example the former cant escort shuttles if one wants to capture a celestial body. I dont insist fighters have to be manned (i enjoyed Enders game about someone control the events for afar) but i also think it isnt totally unjustifiable.
So far I've been enjoying the show but I am curious to hear from those a little more knowledgeable of the Dune universe as my knowledge is only of the first Dune book, The 1984 movie, The Sy-fy channel Dune and Children of Dune mini series and the most recent two movies. How much material is it pulling from the Dune books (both the original Frank Herbert and the Brian Herbert books)? If so, what books could fill in some knowledge gaps?
I thought I had discovered a giant plot hole in Avatar universe, but apparently it's based on a faulty notion. So, the anti-gravity effect that lifts whole mountains into the sky is unrelated to the unobtanium deposits? Apparently the value of unobtanium is in its property as a room temperature superconductor, which enables their superluminal drive technology. Unobtanium is found in large deposits underground, which is why they want to mine the ground. OK. So, these mountains - which...
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