Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content,

check out go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

We've seen aliens invade Earth in every way imaginable, lumbering tripods, sleek death rays,

and plans so convoluted that they make a bond villain blush.

But what if they actually had a good plan?

Previously did an episode looking at their worst alien invasions,

where advanced species somehow forgot the basis of conquest, logic, or even common sense, but today we're

doing the reverse.

What the aliens showed up, and this time, their invasion actually made sense.

These are the 10 best alien invasion plans, we'll be exploring examples from science fiction

and speculative strategy that actually work, those that follow the first rule of warfare

we've often cited over the years.

After all, a truly dangerous alien doesn't just arrive with a big gun, they arrive with

a plan that's already winning before the first shot is fired. Now since these will mostly be fictional references, we'll be having a lot of spoilers, and more

to the point, we will often see the aliens end up eventually losing from something either

unpredictable or really stupid. That just comes from wanting a book or film that is meant

for human audiences, who would generally prefer happy endings,

not humanity's long-term enslavement or extinction. So even when the aliens later do something outrageously stupid to snatch defeat from the charges of victory, we will still give credit

where it is due. Number 10. The Infiltration Gambit Invasion Without a War.

Why conquer Earth with plasma bombs as you can do with paperwork, puppets, or parasites?

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