"Lost title because of the bug... but I tried again..." Topic

… Science Fiction to Reality.

"In TOS and TNG, the Enterprise spent a lot of time patrolling borders and "the neutral zone," meanwhile the Federation invested a great deal of resources into sensor networks and outposts there. Reality would be comparable to the Federation dealing with the Colonial Fleet. Knowing that the 13 Colonies are likely preparing to attack, the Enterprise patrols the border. Then, in a single instant, the Galactica jumps from Caprica to Sol, to the heart of the Federation and where Federation defenses are weakest, then launches a massive assault on a defenseless Earth. Meanwhile, Picard is left scratching his head as to how Adama managed to "sneak by undetected," but never the less Picard begins warping to Sol, arriving a few weeks or months later only to discover the war has been long lost. We didn't have to develop the particular technologies we did to get where we're at today. In gaming terms, there's many different "tech trees" to pursue. Our opponents technologies, methods and tactics would likely be quite alien to us, which should be no shock considering they're, you know, aliens.

A potentially real-life example can be found in something commonly reported of UFOs. They're said to be capable of disabling electronics. They can remotely turn off the engine to your car, or disable a fighter jets weapon systems. How do you deal with an enemy that can instantly disable you? How could you deal with an enemy that could instantly control your mind and compel you to destroy yourself, or compel your heart to stop beating? What about an enemy that can instantly travel a moment backward through time each time that you fire on it, thus always anticipating and avoiding your attacks while counter-attacking with devastating effect? How could Picard have ever managed to defeat Adama, even? He can simply appear anywhere at any time, like magic. You can't hope to catch up given his jump drive versus your warp drive. There's no apparent solution. He'd likely have a fleet riding alongside him, so even spreading out and covering all of your strategic systems would be no answer. Assuming comparable weapons capabilities, the Colonials would just steamroll the Federation every time it encountered one if its ships on guard.

You simply couldn't counter every military capability in the universe. It's not so simple as everyone using warp drives, energy weapons and missile/torpedo weapons like Star Trek. The capabilities, methods and tactics which you'd find in the universe would vary to such a degree as to seem as vast as the universe itself. You couldn't even predict what your adversary would do because they'd likely think nothing like humans. Your strategists would observe their actions in hope of establishing a pattern, but they'd probably seem completely eradic. Good luck being the diplomats of this region of the galaxy when humans can't even talk to any other animal on their own planet, who they share common ancestry with. There'd likely be little communication with alien beings for which to gain any understanding of them. The Federation's first encounter with the Romulans could have easily been them randomly waltzing over and rapidly establishing some sort of strange outpost on the moon…"
From here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Well – theres a lot of obvious nonsence there. For starters there could easily be a limit in any real or fictional universe as to what types of Faster than light propulsion systems are actually physically possible. Its no good saying the FTL Jump Drives are better than Warp Drives if you live in a universe that only allows one or the other. If the physically possible propulsion system limit is set at one (A sort of universal constant of propulsion systems) then everyone uses that system, or they have to walk everywhere.

In gaming terms, there's many different "tech trees" to pursue. Our opponents technologies, methods and tactics would likely be quite alien to us, which should be no shock considering they're, you know, aliens.

We have no information on "tech trees" other than the one humanity actually followed- there might be others, but given that we all have to obey the same laws of physics its probably more accurate to say that there is only one "tech Tree", but its quite broad. Whatever tactics or technologies they have, no matter how alien will be built on the same basic principles and therefore, in principle at least, understandable.

Good luck being the diplomats of this region of the galaxy when humans can't even talk to any other animal on their own planet, who they share common ancestry with.

. Rubbish- I share a house with three bunny rabbits. I have absolutely no difficulty whatsoever communicating with them, and they with me- I can read their body language better then I can read Barkerese. Humans are capable of passing information in a huge variety of ways from smoke signals to interprative dance- as long as our alien counterparts are mutually attempting to communicate with us and not simply being obtuse there whould be no problem.

How could you deal with an enemy that could instantly control your mind and compel you to destroy yourself, or compel your heart to stop beating?

Really? They are so different, so alien from us that we can't understand them in a month of sundays? but they apparently evolved in an environment that has something very much like a human with a heart and theyve evolved the ability to stop them on a whim? You can't have it both ways.