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How Different Would the World Be if Giant Monsters Existed?
Hexmage-PA
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm a fan of giant monster movies, but I've recently been bothered by how little the existence of city razing giant monsters affects the fictional worlds such movies take place in. This thread is for speculating how the existence of giant monsters would affect the development of the modern world.
BTW, I hope no one minds that I've dared to introduce such a ludicrous hypothetical to the strictly "serious business" Debate and/or Discourse forum.
First, allow me to lay down some base assumptions:
* Giant monsters exist despite supposedly being physically impossible.
* The first giant monster made its appearance in 1954 with the destruction of a major city (if you get the significance of this, give yourself a gold star).
* Most giant monsters are lone freaks of nature created by some sort of mutation-causing substance.
* Giant monsters are at least 100 feet tall, are immune to all but the most spectacular displays of firepower (and are resistant to explosives), and have an inexplicable penchant for attacking major cities. Some possess exotic energy weapons and/or the ability to quickly regenerate from wounds.
* At least one attack on a major city by a giant monster occurs each year. Most cities affected are located near the coast and are attacked by monsters emerging from the sea.
* Major cities are not the sole target of giant monsters; for example, large ships have been destroyed by seagoing monsters.
* When not attacking a city, giant monsters are surprisingly elusive. This makes it difficult to hunt them down.
* About 30 monsters exist in the world, though new ones will continue to arise until the mutagens that create them are eradicated.
With that out of the way, here are some of my speculations as to how the world would be different if giant monsters had existed since 1954:
* High-risk targets (cities located near the coast) would fall into disrepair and be replaced by new cities further inland, as the costs of rebuilding after multiple catastrophic attacks would become too great (not to mention that people might not want to live in a place that might get flattened under a colossal reptilian heel).
* Attacks on ships and ports would inhibit international trade conducted via sea, perhaps slowing economic growth for many countries.
* The impacts of pollution would be more seriously considered and addressed (as it's hard to ignore the problem of industrial waste if said waste spawns city-destroying abominations).
* Conceptions of humanity's place in the universe would certainly be affected by the existence of nearly-invincible behemoths that can unknowingly kill humans in the same way a person might unknowingly step on an insect (I'm assuming varieties of nihilism would be more common).
I'm sure the existence of giant monsters would have other effects and hope that some of our board's more knowledgeable members might deign to contribute.
BTW, I hope no one minds that I've dared to introduce such a ludicrous hypothetical to the strictly "serious business" Debate and/or Discourse forum.
First, allow me to lay down some base assumptions:
* Giant monsters exist despite supposedly being physically impossible.
* The first giant monster made its appearance in 1954 with the destruction of a major city (if you get the significance of this, give yourself a gold star).
* Most giant monsters are lone freaks of nature created by some sort of mutation-causing substance.
* Giant monsters are at least 100 feet tall, are immune to all but the most spectacular displays of firepower (and are resistant to explosives), and have an inexplicable penchant for attacking major cities. Some possess exotic energy weapons and/or the ability to quickly regenerate from wounds.
* At least one attack on a major city by a giant monster occurs each year. Most cities affected are located near the coast and are attacked by monsters emerging from the sea.
* Major cities are not the sole target of giant monsters; for example, large ships have been destroyed by seagoing monsters.
* When not attacking a city, giant monsters are surprisingly elusive. This makes it difficult to hunt them down.
* About 30 monsters exist in the world, though new ones will continue to arise until the mutagens that create them are eradicated.
With that out of the way, here are some of my speculations as to how the world would be different if giant monsters had existed since 1954:
* High-risk targets (cities located near the coast) would fall into disrepair and be replaced by new cities further inland, as the costs of rebuilding after multiple catastrophic attacks would become too great (not to mention that people might not want to live in a place that might get flattened under a colossal reptilian heel).
* Attacks on ships and ports would inhibit international trade conducted via sea, perhaps slowing economic growth for many countries.
* The impacts of pollution would be more seriously considered and addressed (as it's hard to ignore the problem of industrial waste if said waste spawns city-destroying abominations).
* Conceptions of humanity's place in the universe would certainly be affected by the existence of nearly-invincible behemoths that can unknowingly kill humans in the same way a person might unknowingly step on an insect (I'm assuming varieties of nihilism would be more common).
I'm sure the existence of giant monsters would have other effects and hope that some of our board's more knowledgeable members might deign to contribute.
Hexmage-PA on
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unless it's somehow immune to explosives (up to and including nukes), I don't see the problem
While I may accept the appearance of giant monsters as fact, there is no evidence that their appearance is caused by man. People are only 5 - 7 feet tall. Monsters are over 100 feet tall. How could people possibly influence God's earth to create something of that scale. These "monsters" are just proof that Jesus rode velicoraptors.
Also, I'd be interested in seeing the crazy cults that might form around specific monsters.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
I guess that a lot of this would depend on how invulnerable the monsters were. A lot of international money would go towards utterly eradicating these things. I don't think our species could tolerate some giant lizards sitting on top of the food chain. We are mean, mean little monkeys.
It's hard to imagine a real creature blown up to 5000% size just shrugging off a series of missile barrages. I guess this is a world wherein metaphors and fears are independent creatures and metaphors and fears are certainly tenacious.
Is it possible to find a small Japanese boy to befriend one monster and/or pilot a giant experimental robot? Ultimately this would be the soundest plan.
Is Africa safe?
Norway?
Australia?
I suspect civilization would have mostly developed where they weren't. Also, this all started in 1953.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_from_20,000_Fathoms
But you wouldn't consider Kong to be a giant monster?
I think after the first few monsters we'd have a lot more "anti-monster" tech, and would kill off all the monsters we could. If you look at our own evolution, humans became very good at making weapons to kill our natural predators. I don't think this would be much different.
If they're noble why would they be defending us?
Due to the global increase of giant monster attacks, the United Earth Empire revealed to the public the results of the combined efforts of the greatest scientific minds of the planet.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
Giant monsters are not merely scaled-up creatures. They possess bizarre anatomical features that not only allow them to move their colossal bodies, but also to defend them. Though not immune to explosives, giant monsters possess extreme resistance to them (a nuke would probably work, though). Furthermore, some creatures are able to regenerate from even the most terrible wounds.
Another factor to consider when using explosives against giant monsters is the fact that most beasts are highly elusive and retreat to remote undersea or underground lairs when not on a rampage. Most of the time you won't know where a monster is until it has nearly arrived at a city.
I'd love it if someone here was able to explore the impacts of reduced international trade.
I guess there are about 30 giant monsters around at a time. Many travel by sea (a creature that lairs somewhere in the Pacific might show up in Japan, the US' west coast, Australia, etc). In general, inland areas are less likely to suffer an attack as their are fewer monsters that remain entirely terrestrial.
Monsters might do battle and slay one another, but certainly not for the sake of defending humans.
The rhedosaurus was only about 65 feet and got killed way too easily to satisfy the assumptions concerning giant monsters this thread is based on (the same can be said for Kong).
If you really want to get technical, this all started when the discovery of the komodo dragon inspired the idea of a far-off island populated by strange creatures in the mind of Merian C. Cooper, the creator of King Kong.
This is going to poll well going into an election year
"Tough on monsters" is a foolproof election platform.
We're little monkeys with explosives. Giant Monsters would find their time on top of the food chain to be brief and painful. Also they would likely be tasty with ketchup. But seriously, we've got some big fucking bombs.
That is, of course, just the 1/4 deluxe scale model manufactured by Tamiya for the Kubinka Anti-Monster Museum, formerly the Kubinka Tank Museum.
It's probably just me, but the historical ramifications would be pretty interesting, but I don't think they'd really be able to compete in some regards. Between 1941 and 1944, almost a third the people in Soviet Byelorussia died (a country of 9 million people)--I think it would be hard for just one or two super-huge monsters to pull the same thing, especially to a landlocked country.
And Westboro will start Godzilla Hates Fags
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
But, like comic book superheroes and zombies, it's best if you don't analyze them from a real-world perspective. We're a species that has spent much of its history figuring out better and bigger ways to kill one another in the largest numbers possible. Godzilla, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and a zombie uprising aren't really much of a threat to organized human societues. Especially one that knows how to put 10 nuclear warheads on the tip of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Rigorous Scholarship
If there were always monsters though, I wonder how humans would develop. If Monsters are attracted to large communities would we default to a more nomadic lifestyle? We obviously wouldn't be nearly as technologically advanced now.
I'd fully expect that one of the first pieces of technology created would be an exceptionally durable and powerful GPS system where the military would do everything possible to attach one or more to such a beast to track it back to its lair (assuming it has one and isn't just nomadic). Assuming such a lair is far enough away from human habitation, I'd think SOP would be to hit it with a tactical nuke adapted to such a purpose.
Equally, the creation and implementation of "early warning" sonar systems would no doubt be a priority in order to comfort the population and retain population in coastal areas; giant monsters aren't that fast-moving, so if you could get an early warning network of sufficient range in place the evacuation of cities before they were destroyed would be practical.
All things considered, however, I don't doubt that some of the more militant world governments with access to nukes would have tried saturation nuking the monsters at some point since 1954, which raises another interesting question; what might the effects of concentrated nuclear weapons use against the monsters have on the environment?
If anything, I'd think giant monsters are less frightening than earthquakes and hurricanes. You can kill giant monsters.
Rigorous Scholarship
Where there were dragons, there were always dragon slayers.
It's not all it's cracked up to be.
Pretty much. Something like 50% of the world's population lives within 200km of a coastline. At one monster attack per year, and assuming 100% casualties, the total loss of a city the size of New York (~8M) is barely a quarter of a percent of that number. We would likely just beef up early warning systems and anti-monster defenses to the point of having nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and/or torpedoes along every coastline. And probably build massive cold-war style fallout shelters and rapid-transit evacuation infrastructure to move people inland once the big rubbery guys start clomping around.
Are you kidding? Aside from being a welcome break from that shit, this is genuinely awesome to discuss.
Giant robots to combat giant monsters? This is the world I want, if it came down to it (it being giant monsters).
Oh shit! Only a step away from a US sanctioned Megazord!
Hurricanes can easily be outlasted and survived; at the very least, people may quite easily underestimate the devastation wrought by a hurricane. As far as earthquakes and tsunamis, they're devastatingly powerful, it's true; but city-destroying earthquakes and tsunamis are both rare and unpredictable.
Given the hypothetical scenario of "one city utterly destroyed a year", that's both a predictable and reliable natural phenomenon, and I think that's going to panic people. Couple that with the fact that, unlike a hurricane, tornado, or even an earthquake, a giant monster attack would inflict horrific amounts of casualties on a city and raze it utterly to the ground, I think they would lead to a new level of panic.
Also, there's the fact to consider that monsters are a quantifiable enemy; they're something that that the human psyche can recognize and fear. It's hard to fear a natural phenomenon, but it's easy to fear Godzilla. Just look how panicked people get at the reports of killer sharks or crocodiles in a populated area.
I dunno man, I've some of those things take multiple missile hits and hardly flinch!
God help us if they're actually Lovecraftian giant monsters.
Rigorous Scholarship
Gamera is really neat,
Gamera is filled with meat,
We've been eating Gamerrrrrrraaaaaaaaaa!
Possibly. On the other hand, Cthulhu might not have even really noticed the steamship. That whole incident is...controversial among Lovecraft fans.
Unless the advanced weaponry can only be controlled by emotionally disturbed children, then it tends to do pretty well.
But honestly, if it's live in a world saved by pissy snot-nosed brats, or no world to live in at all, it would be a pretty tough choice.
It was very sporting of them to employ their giant, skyscraper-sized death bots exclusively against giant monsters and nothing else.
The whole 'driving most of Earth insane in their dreams' and 'armies of minions and lesser spawn' seem more of problem than the 'giant monster' portion of Cthulhu's repertoire. Some of the Cthulhu mythos are just straight up end of the world scenarios though.
Yeah, these things can go toe-to-toe with monsters that sweep away conventional armies effortlessly; God only knows what they'd do to China or Russia.
It's the same thing that always bothered me about the X-Men stories; the US government had a whole army of fifty-foot-tall killer robots and they somehow didn't have complete global hegemony.
I'd be shocked if some (if not all) of those projects weren't at least partially subsidized by a coalition of other nations who were worried that Japan's fall would mean these monsters would go after them as well.
As far as the effectiveness goes, many of them were actually very effective. Kiryu, Mogera, Gotengo, and the (first) Super X were all useful against Godzilla and a few found use against other giant monsters, most of the time they were taken out due to outside factors.