You're the Independence Day aliens. What cities do you blow up?

[RangerWickett]

In Independence Day, something like a dozen space ships hover over major cities and blow 'em all up at once. If you were fairly well-versed in the Earth, what cities would you blow up, and in what order.

For the sake of the discussion, lets say you have 3 ships over North America, 1 over South America, 1 over Africa, 1 over Australia, 3 over Europe, and 3 over Asia. What do you blow up, and in which order?

This came to my mind because I was wondering what were the 10 most important US cities, and I only got through 7 before I ran out of obvious choices.

New York - Iconic, financial center, international airport
Washington, D.C. - Head of government, iconic
L.A. - Iconic, internation airport
Houston - Space program, oil production
Atlanta - International airport, major financial sector
Boston - Major financial sector
Chicago - Major financial sector

After that, what cities are really vital to blow up?

 

[demiurge1138]

I'd argue that San Francisco ranks up there with LA in terms of iconicism.

But if I had to pick three European cities, I'd go for London, Paris and either Rome or Berlin. Hit the major historical sites.

Demiurge out.

 

[glass]

Can I nominate Birmingham? Not for any strategic reason, just because.

In fact, if we can localise the destruction just to Villa Park, that'd be ideal.


glass.

 

[Morrus]

For maximum global effect I think you need to start with New York, London and Tokyo. Then you can move on to the capitals of France, Germany and the US. Then a few more major US cities, Moscow, Beijing.

Just found this: GaWC Inventory of World Cities on Wikipedia.

An influential attempt to define and categorise world cities, and a useful starting point for discussion, was made by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC) [1], based primarily at Loughborough University in England. The roster was outlined in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 [2] and ranked cities based on their provision of "advanced producer services" such as accountancy, advertising, banking/finance and law. The Inventory identifies three levels of world city, termed Alpha, Beta and Gamma for their relative influence. Each level contains two or three sub-ranks. There is also a fourth level of cities that show potential to become world cities in the future.

The most influential cities in the world have been ranked into three classes; Alpha, Beta and Gamma. The cities are also divided into sub-rankings within their class, based on the points given to them in the GaWC study.

Note that this roster is weighted toward financial criteria and generally denotes Western and East Asian cities in which there are offices of certain multinational companies providing financial and consulting services rather than other cultural, political and economic centres elsewhere in the world.

Alpha World Cities

* 12 points: London, New York City, Paris, Tokyo

* 10 points: Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, Singapore

Beta World Cities

* 9 points: San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Zurich

* 8 points: Brussels, Madrid, Mexico City, Sao Paulo

* 7 points: Moscow, Seoul

Gamma world cities

* 6 points: Amsterdam, Boston, Caracas, Dallas, Dusseldorf, Geneva, Houston, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Osaka, Prague, Santiago, Taipei, Washington, DC

* 5 points: Bangkok, Beijing, Montréal, Rome, Stockholm, Warsaw

* 4 points: Atlanta, Barcelona, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Miami, Minneapolis, Munich, Shanghai

As mentioned, there is also an unauthoritative fourth categorization of cities which are showing potential in attaining world status.

Evidence of World City Formation

* 3 points: Athens, Auckland, Dublin, Helsinki, Luxembourg, Lyon, Mumbai, New Delhi, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Vienna

* 2 points: Abu Dhabi, Almaty, Birmingham (UK), Bogotá, Bratislava, Brisbane, Bucharest, Cairo, Cleveland, Cologne, Detroit, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City, Kiev, Lima, Lisbon, Manchester, Montevideo, Oslo, Riyadh, Rotterdam, Seattle, Stuttgart, The Hague, Vancouver

* 1 point: Adelaide, Antwerp, Arhus, Baltimore, Bangalore, Bologna, Brasilia, Calgary, Cape Town, Colombo, Columbus, Dresden, Edinburgh, Genoa, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Kansas City, Leeds, Lille, Marseille, Richmond, St. Petersburg, Tashkent, Tehran, Tijuana, Turin, Utrecht, Wellington

There is a schematic map of the GaWC cities at their website, [3]. The GaWC is a somewhat subjective ranking, as is any other, but the top four listed cities at least match those commonly considered the major world cities.

I also found this map, which would be useful for alien invaders when planning the attack (comes from this article:

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I'll add Redmond, Washington - that should help convince people the aliens are there to benefit humanity.

And Cupertino, CA - must destroy the company that makes the computer able to take out our entire defense system.

 

[DaveMage]

Foxboro, Denver, Indianapolis, Nashville, and Houston.

Jags win!

 

[Umbran]

Chicago - Major financial sector

After that, what cities are really vital to blow up?

I think you underestimate the importance of Chicago in makin the USA run. It isn't just an important financial center - it is also the single largest transportation and shipping hub in the country. Destroy Chicago, and you gome close to cutting the nation into two separate bits.

There's the question of psychology - you say the aliens have a good understanding of Earth. But do they have a good understanding of humans, specifically, and how we think?

Plus - in the middle of such a conflict, a financial center is possibly a meaningless target. It isn't as if the financial institutions are open while the human race is in an all-out struggle for survival against a technologically superior foe. Even if they are open, if you've taken out New York and Tokyo, the financial system will pretty much collapse for a while anyway.

 

[drothgery]

I blow up the ship with nimrod who decided invading Earth would be a good idea; once you've got a fleet that can cross interstellar space, there's pretty nearly nothing you'd want on earth that you can't get more easily from asteroids or gas giants -- which don't have annoying humans that shoot back.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I'd argue that Phoenix, AZ has Alpha potential.

 

[Jdvn1]

The first group not in order of importance:
Beijing
Berlin
Washington DC
London
Los Angeles
Moscow
New York
Paris
Rome
Tokyo

3 in North America (all US... but I could be convinced to put Mexico City in there, and Washington DC could be replaced with a high-importance military base)
3 in Asia (although I probably need New Delhi or Bombay on there too)
4 in Europe

This not only gets big important cities, but cripples big important countries and disheartens the people (that's why Beijing is on there). A lot of those could be replaced by high-importance military bases, though.

I don't think any of the most important cities (at least the ones that'd be blown up first) would come from Oceania, Africa, or South America. Cairo, Caracas, and Sydney would probably be in the second wave, though.