The fact a civilization has rules for warfare should make everyone else very nervous indeed. The rules wouldn’t be there if they weren’t needed.
Even when we have rules of war, we’re like “Geneva convention? More like Geneva suggestion”
russia in a nutshell
Canada wrote half of the Geneva convention with blood.
This reminds me of how loads and loads of animals in nature have evolved very specific rules of “war”, and it’s something i want to see more in scifi.
What if we’re just the only species that decided to actually fight to the death in anything but the most extreme survival situations? What if all other aliens strictly stick to intimidation and generally non-lethal contests?
It can make for a great conflict between us and everyone else, or for a source of internal conflict as humanity realizes how vile war is.
I think i’ve read some story in the past where basically this happens, and ages later after humanity stops fighting wars, a threat arises and we grimly unlock the old armories to fight for blood again.
I vaguely remember this story as well. It was from an alien’s perspective that was an attaché for an ambassador or diplomat that was approaching the Humans to ask them for help with the threat, or something along those lines, right?
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But what if we plug in a laptop into their spaceship and upload a virus?
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You should consider reading The Road Not Taken. It’s a short story by Harry Turtledove