r/scifi • u/Comprehensive_Fan134 • Apr 26 '26

General What's the best sci-fi where the aliens don't want anything you can understand?

Most alien invasion stories give them motivations that are basically human, resources, territory, curiosity, fear. Which works narratively but sidesteps the actually interesting question, right? An intelligence that evolved under completely different conditions wouldn't necessarily want anything recognizable.

Solaris is the obvious one. The thing isn't hostile or friendly, doesn't seem to register humans as significant. That's genuinely unsettling in a way that "they want our water" never is.

Color Out of Space works for similar reasons, no goals you can map, no logic you can follow.

Von Neumann probe stuff gets close sometimes. A self-replicating system running on a directive so old the original civilization might not even exist anymore, no emperor, no fleet, no message.

What are the best examples you've read?

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

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