In countless movies (well, maybe not countless, but at least a couple) the Evil Aliens from System X (EASX) always seem to know what the most important places to attack are. You know, that the White House is the (American) seat of power. And that the Empire State Building is an Important Psychological Building. And tall buildings > short buildings.
So, outside of dumb screenwriting and artistic license, why and how would they know to do this. Assume your basic average EASX, recently arrived at our system (even if they’ve had time to study from afar) but unable to live amongst us or understand our language(s). They could clearly tell population levels, construction density, quantity of signal traffic (radio, TV, etc), electrical consumption, and other things similar. What would lead them to the White House? To the Empire State building?
We hear on earth have intelligence agencies like the CIA well if the alines are supposed to be much more advanced than we and visit earth every so often with out attacking then they simply have their own version of the CIA, KGB, or FBI gathering intelligence on where our capitals and large and/or major cities are.
Alien Intelligence Agency.
Assuming the invading aliens have some sort of civilization, they’d probably be able to recognize what cities are, and perhaps deduce some sort of importance in buildings that are tall or have unusual architecture. And cities are the definitely the most visible man-made structures from outer space.
Or maybe they mistake the buildings for life-forms (a la coral reefs)…
It’s all about the Monuments, they are like bull’s-eye targets for the aliens. That’s one of the benefits of living on the West Coast, no structures of cultural significance to mark us for attack.
True, but the White House? I would think that the Pentagon would seem a much more obvious place to attack - not only because of size, but because of geometry. The White House etc really aren’t all that special.
And why even Washington D.C.?
Actually, I like the television answer. Enough years of watching TV (even without the language) and they could probably deduce something about certain places. That is if they don’t attack shampoo and detergent factories first.
So I am going to bring up one of the main things that has bothered me about Independence Day since I saw the movie so many years ago. The aliens have complete control of the skies, they are way(!) ahead of us in technology and they go from planet to planet using up resources like locusts and then moving on. So why in the heck would they vaporize all the cities on the planet? Cities would be the prime spots for resources. Why not spray chemical or biological weapons and kill the majority of the people. After that, the ground troops(shown in the mother ship) could have easily killed the few survivors.
While it obviously makes for a much less exciting movie, it’s simply too large of a plot hole to ignore.
My guess is that they use infrared technology–or they see in the infrared–and where ever there is the most red, or heat generated by humans, they bomb the shit out of it.
Los Angeles would be pretty hard…no huge, towering landmarks. The aliens’d probably end up death-raying the microwave transmitters at a TV studio, thinking it was a military communications hub, or something.
Seriously, though…what’s the objective of the aliens? To wipe out military and political structures as a prelude to invasion, or just to exterminate intelligent life?
The latter might be easier…just indescriminately nuke all the obvious major urban areas, where the population density and concentration would be greatest, anyway. Afterwards, attack anything not in an urban area (Cheyanne Mountain, Aircraft Carriers, etc.) that’s giving off a radio (or whatever) signal.
Of course, that battle plan might become useless if the aliens run across a world like, say, the future Earth in Clifford Simak’s City, where AI robots, clone-vat food production, advanced telepresence, and other technologies have rendered cities obsolete, and the entire civilization has become decentralized. Wiping such a civilization out would be…very hard, I would think.
Oh, don’t be so parochial, Miller and HPL. I’m sure the aliens will attack your favorite places once they are done with the historical buildings in D.C.
I’m only kidding anyway, I’ve never wanted to live anywhere but out here. Still, I laugh when I remember an attempt to save an L.A. area McDonalds from destruction by declaring it an historic landmark. Even as a kid I found the debate rather sad.
Depends on the resource. If you want slave labor or concrete, the city is the place to go, but no so much if you want minerals, water, or other natural resources.
Well, the aliens in Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind invaded at Devil’s Mountain, Wyoming, in the middle of freakin’ nowhere. What? They were nice aliens? Ok so they don’t count…
Hmm, I think the Capitol building looks more centrally located…that’s where I’d aim my big Mega-Destructo Cosmic Laser, if I had one.
But wait! The Department of Homeland Security is *way * ahead of the aliens!
If you zoom in on the White House or the US Capitol (as well as the Senate and House buildings) from the above link, you’ll note that the close-up images are altered or pixelated. That’ll confound those darn aliens (assuming, of course, they are not content with the black and white images from the same site)!
