Oolite Bulletins

Argh … OK. Five examples, please, of invisible aliens (or at least, aliens which are invisible to unaided humans). I'm prepared to stretch the definition of "invisible" to cover being really hard to spot or really easy to overlook: functional invisibility is fine, even if visible wavelengths of light does actually bounce off the creature in question. However: simply being very small/too small to see with the naked eye does not, for the purposes of this question, count as being invisible: all aliens must be, say, at least as big as a Standard Earth Dog (1 Border Collie or greater). And it's aliens only: invisible humans need not apply.

Usual rules: one entry per answer, one entity per author/universe.

If we're ruling out being too small... There's a reclusive alien Green Lantern called Mogo who has appeared in a few stories, usually sending a hologram rather than appearing in person. In one story an alien hunter manages to track him back to a planet in the middle of nowhere and spends years searching for him - eventually realising that the entire planet is Mogo! So it may not be conventional invisibility, but if you don't know where to look he's hard to find...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogo

ffutures wrote: ↑Sat Feb 06, 2021 3:00 pm

If we're ruling out being too small... There's a reclusive alien Green Lantern called Mogo who has appeared in a few stories, usually sending a hologram rather than appearing in person. In one story an alien hunter manages to track him back to a planet in the middle of nowhere and spends years searching for him - eventually realising that the entire planet is Mogo! So it may not be conventional invisibility, but if you don't know where to look he's hard to find...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogo

It's a bold attempt, but I'd have to say "no" to this one. This is essentially just a very extreme version of not knowing what someone looks like.

The 'invisible' aliens known as the Shadows, B5.

cbr wrote: ↑Sat Feb 06, 2021 5:33 pm

The 'invisible' aliens known as the Shadows, B5.

Yes - definitely counts. That's number one.

Disembodied wrote: ↑Sat Feb 06, 2021 3:07 pm

ffutures wrote: ↑Sat Feb 06, 2021 3:00 pm

If we're ruling out being too small... There's a reclusive alien Green Lantern called Mogo who has appeared in a few stories, usually sending a hologram rather than appearing in person. In one story an alien hunter manages to track him back to a planet in the middle of nowhere and spends years searching for him - eventually realising that the entire planet is Mogo! So it may not be conventional invisibility, but if you don't know where to look he's hard to find...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogo

It's a bold attempt, but I'd have to say "no" to this one. This is essentially just a very extreme version of not knowing what someone looks like.

Didn't think you'd go for it. OK, let's try The Silence from New Who. You forget you've seen them as soon as you look away

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence_(Doctor_Who)

ffutures wrote: ↑Sat Feb 06, 2021 10:33 pm

Didn't think you'd go for it. OK, let's try The Silence from New Who. You forget you've seen them as soon as you look away

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence_(Doctor_Who)

Hmm … OK, I'll allow it. it's not conventional invisibility but it does involve altering perception in a way that goes beyond a simple disguise. If you see something, but immediately forget that you've seen it, did you really see it at all?

That's two.

Stargate SG1: The Nox and/or the Reetou (for reference, season 1 episode 13 and season 2 episode 20, respectively).

Commander_X wrote: ↑Sun Feb 07, 2021 5:56 pm

Stargate SG1: The Nox and/or the Reetou (for reference, season 1 episode 13 and season 2 episode 20, respectively).

Either one is good! That makes three.

The Alien/entity from The Forbidden Planet

cbr wrote: ↑Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:40 pm

The Alien/entity from The Forbidden Planet

There's some debate to be had as to whether this is really an alien or not … it is, after all, a projection from Dr Morbius's own id. But I think I'll allow it: it's definitely not human, and it only exists because of the effects of ancient alien technology.

That's four. Next one wins!

Disembodied wrote: ↑Sat Feb 06, 2021 12:56 pm

Argh … OK. Five examples, please, of invisible aliens (or at least, aliens which are invisible to unaided humans).

My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I remember spending the duration of a cigarette watching footage of multiple human "marines" in a fight with an alien in terrestrial jungles, where they could only see the alien by using an infra-red camera. I didn't watch enough of the film to be sure of it was actually invisible, or just very well camouflaged.

Was that an Arnie I saw in it, and was it the first of the "Predator" films? Probably. Certainly less enthralling than going back to work on the graveyard shift.

"revealing luminescent green blood" - nope, didn't see that bit.

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 9:12 am

My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I remember spending the duration of a cigarette watching footage of multiple human "marines" in a fight with an alien in terrestrial jungles, where they could only see the alien by using an infra-red camera. I didn't watch enough of the film to be sure of it was actually invisible, or just very well camouflaged.

Was that an Arnie I saw in it, and was it the first of the "Predator" films? Probably. Certainly less enthralling than going back to work on the graveyard shift.

"revealing luminescent green blood" - nope, didn't see that bit.

Whether you've seen the film or not, the Predator counts. It uses very high-tech, possibly light-bending camouflage; while not being as invisible as some other examples, it does fit the definition of being "really hard to spot". That makes five: RockDoctor takes the prize!

Disembodied wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:58 am

It uses very high-tech, possibly light-bending camouflage; while not being as invisible as some other examples, it does fit the definition of being "really hard to spot".

Everyone knows the H2G2 story about the magician, the invisible mountain, and the suspicious new asteroid?

Disembodied wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:58 am

That makes five: RockDoctor takes the prize!

Oops.
OK, since the point came up in a book I was reading earlier this week ... usual caveats and FIVE FTL drives or antigravity devices which are commonly attributed (in-universe) to one person (entity), but was actually invented by someone else. For example (and therefore going off the table), the regular FTL drive in "Known Space" has been attributed in several of the Man-Kzin Wars novels/ novellas to one Dimity Carmody, whereas later in universe-time it is less inaccurately ascribed to the Outsiders (because they live out in the low gradient gravitational fields and cold of Oort clouds and Kuiper belts) ... who don't actually claim it's invention, being consummate salesmen. Elsewhere in that universe, people often mention the Kzinti "gravity planer" STL drive, but which was invented by the Jotoki amphibians before they regretted hiring Kzinti mercenaries.
Meaningless Bonus Point to anyone who can bring up a usage of the DREADCO "buttered cat" levitation system.

In Harry Harrison's In Our Hands, The Stars AKA The Daleth Effect the antigravity machine is invented by Arnie Klein, an Israeli scientist. But he tries to keep it secret and of course never patents it. The discovery eventually results in his death at the hands of spies trying to steal it and the loss of the spaceship he designed. It is then reinvented by a car manufacturer (I think Japanese but I'm not entirely sure) who launch it as their own invention, if I'm remembering it right - apologies, but it's been a long time since I read it and I can't find my copy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daleth_Effect