I’ve been asked to come up with some examples of the following: Are there any examples of alien races in science fiction who don’t want any other races to know of their existence?
Why were you asked this?
The Paxans in Star Trek: the Next Generation.
There was a race in ST: Voyager who after a Borg attack feared outsiders so much they disguised their entire civilization.
A friend of a friend who is a professor of philosophy is writing a paper about privacy and secrecy in which he wants to use such a thing as an example.
The Paxans are close, but they let Data know about them.
I read a science fiction book in middle school (I think it was my first ever, actually) in which there is some sort of disease going around in which people transform into something else, which everyone considers A Bad Thing (although it actually isn’t), and the main character, who is the bodyguard of some sort of royal female Cat Person (from another planet), who discovers he’s getting the symptoms and is trying to hide it from everyone.
Anyone know what book this is?
Also from Star Trek, the Organians weren’t particularly interested in letting anyone in on the fact that they were Q-like beings, until they were forced to lay some smackdown.
And in what way is that relevant to my question?
I remember an episode of Outer Limits where a pair of Martians with a time machine were replaying events in a diner over and over again, which is not on topic; however, they were disguised as humans and desperately hiding the fact that they were Martians.
Kind of a tricky concept for there to be a story about it; it would have to be one where we never even realized they existed. Like, the (talking) clams with legs in B.C., but I don’t think that counts as science fiction.
Against their will. It would be more accurate to say that they let him live after he learned of their existence, and he convinced them his silence his guaranteed.
Trance on the show Andromeda and her “species” aren’t hiding that they exist per se, but are hiding what they really are. They look like Nightcrawler from X-men but purple and go around the galaxy like any other humanoid and are really evasive when questioned about their origins or home planet. They are actually…stars, or the humanoid avatars of stars. Trance is the avatar of the star Gemini.
Are you looking for aliens who can interact with others while remaining hidden (and choose to do both) or those who are extreme isolationists, like some sort of planetary Tuaderi?
There are probably several examples of the first, like the Outer Limits Martians mentioned. The Adjustment Bureau would be another, but probably don’t fit the “alien race” idea if that’s what you want.
How about Nibbler from Futurama? Sure, he’s revealed himself on occasion, but then he returns to his post, ever vigilant, lest Earth again come under brain attack.
The Silence from Doctor Who - not only do they want people to not know they exist, they have a power to enforce it.
What about those sunglasses dudes in They Live?
The puppet masters in some of Niven’s work aren’t secret, but they keep the location of their home world secret. If that helps.
Regards,
Shodan
There was a race called the Reol in Stargate SG1, who would automatically appear to you as someone of your own species, and implant false memories that they were an old friend. This was a defence mechanism so that no-one ever knew they existed
Also, some of the first ones (such as the shadows) in Babylon 5 used to keep a very low profile. Usually, this was right up to the point when they decided to come out of hiding and kick your ass.
In E.E. Doc Smith’s Lensmans series both the good super-race and the bad super-race were unknown to humanity, even to the Lensmen. If I remember correctly only the Children of the Lens knew the full truth.
The natives of Gustible’s Planet have been hiding from Earth humans ever since we dscovered that they are very, very tasty. (Cordwainer Smith)
My thought as well. There’s a sub-class of stories in which some alien race is in control of the People of Earth and they don’t want anyone to know about it. The classic example is Eric Frank Russell’s Sinister Barrier, but there’s also Ray Nelson’s inctredicle sparse story Eight O’Clock in the Morning, which was expanded to become the film They Live, and there’s Stephen King’s * The Ten O’Clock People*, the title of which indicates that it’s inspired by and an homage to the Nelson story. In all of these, as soon as someone finds (via some chemical means) to see the aliens as they really are (they always look terrible), they become targets to be hunted down and silenced.
Then there’s the related class of “alien parasites who duplicate us/take us over”, such as Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters, Finey’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (and its many film versions), and tons of stories by Philip K. Dick, Eric Frank Russell (again), and others, in which the invading alien parasites don’t want anyone not yet taken over to know. Yet.
The beings in William Gibson’s “The Belonging Kind,” wherever they come from (never specified), are not interested in controlling humanity but only in hiding among us in a kind of parasitic niche. Their parasitism consists of their ability to produce passable counterfeit currency from their bodies. No harm to humanity, beyond a little inflation.