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It's an age-old story. Flying saucers in the sky, strange new organisms on humanity's turf, a new technological superpower threatening everything Earth has ever known. What do they want? Maybe they're here to start a dialogue, or maybe they're here to wipe out the locals. A surprising percentage of aliens invade to assimilate every population until the universe is a single organism.

Aliens provide an endless venue for creativity. There are no limitations on what they might look like, what they're capable of, or what they want from the people of Earth. However, though anything is possible, science fiction writers like to fall back on a couple of motivations for their alien invaders.

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Free will is a pretty scary concept. Sure, everyone should have the right to do whatever they want to do, but what about the terrible urges people get? Would the world be a bit nicer if everyone shared the same wants, the same thoughts, and the same identity? The Assimilation Plot imagines alien invaders who set out with that goal. Assimilators often have good intentions, seeking to free their victims from their destructive urges and install a benevolent regime of peace. Unfortunately, this possibly well-intentioned outcome requires the complete subjugation and ego death of all involved. Some assimilators seek to bring people together so that they can be at the top, but many genuinely believe the increase in cohesion is worth the loss of individuality. Combining everything in the universe into a single organism is a common alien motivation.

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Arguably, the first examples of this trope are found in religious texts. Many cultures' conception of death imagines all those who pass on from this life combining into a single consciousness beyond the mortal realm. The first fully relevant example of this trope appears in Arthur C. Clarke's 1953 novel Childhood's End. The story, told in three parts, depicts the benevolent invasion of the Overlords, a hyper-intelligent alien species. The Overlords put a stop to the Cold War and begin working as supervisors. After decades of their presence, children start to demonstrate psychic powers. Sure enough, the Overlords are the physical sentries of the Overmind, a perfect interconnected hive mind that subsumes ancient species into its eternal network. The Overlords are a bridge species that groom their targets for mass ego death as part of a debatably good-natured plan to combine all intelligent life into one omniscient brain. As the new generation of children ascends, the Overlords' work is done and humanity's fate is sealed. It's framed as a good ending.

The most notable stage for Assimilation Plots is sci-fi TV. The two biggest sci-fi franchises in modern TV history feature assimilators as one of their primary antagonists. Star Trek introduces The Borg Collective, a race of cybernetically enhanced scavengers who seek to co-opt the innovations of every other sentient species. Their motivation is a bit less wholesome than that of the Overlords. They pass up the opportunity to assimilate anything beneath them and seek to improve their hive mind as a whole by forcefully converting anything worth their while. On the other hand, Doctor Who features the Cybermen, who seek to "upgrade" whoever they get their hands on. Their methods are similar, but their goals are generally less selfish. These are the two most popular examples of assimilators in sci-fi history and their examples remain influential across decades.

One of the most interesting permutations of this trope involves humans deciding to invite or cause a benevolent ascension to hive-mindedness. In these cases, a subset of people decides to give themselves over to the assimilators and facilitate the work of converting everyone else. Perhaps the best example of this sub-trope comes in the Dead Space franchise. Unitology is a religious cult that sees life as a stepping stone for a "Convergence" that will come sometime in the future. They believe they can escalate the process by converting themselves and everyone else into Necromorphs. The supposed endgame in this quest is to join together as a single massive Necromorph and simultaneously consume every planet, celestial body, and organism in the universe. It's one of the most unpleasant versions of this trope, and the game is based almost entirely on stopping it from happening.

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Assimilation is a simple idea with a lot of complex implications. Having one's identity stripped from them is the backbone of a lot of horror stories. Coming together as a group, setting differences aside, and putting all of humanity toward a single cause sounds like an unalloyed good. There are solid arguments for and against assimilation. If an advanced alien species shows up at Earth's doorstep and poses this question, it'll become the most hotly-debated question in human history. Assimilation plots can be malicious or benevolent. They can seek the highest possible intellectual good or attempt to benefit from the labor of others. Sometimes coming together isn't the ideal solution.

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