Extraterrestrials

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It's always entertaining to see artist's depictions of extraterrestrial aliens, and how many of them are so similar and anthropomorphic in form. They have large heads, prominent foreheads, weak chins, huge eyes and small noses. The body is usually thin and weak with an underdeveloped trunk and very thin, often, short limbs. These depictions, coincidentally or not, are all anthropomorphic attributes of the human infant.

The young of many mammals have a head shape with similar attributes as human infants: prominent foreheads, short snout, and receding chin, which reverse as the animal reaches maturity, that is, the mature animals, including humans, become more aggressive in appearance. Non-aggressive characteristics in infants elicit protective, sympathetic feelings in the caretaker, which helps in nurturing and bonding with the infant.

So, we're imagining aliens as being innocent and harmless, virtually childlike in form and non-aggressive, ideal qualities--from our viewpoint--for invading aliens.

What if the depictions are accurate?
Assuming the renderings are faithful to the morphology of the aliens, what could we infer about the habitats, the environment, and the world of the aliens?

A good zoologist could look at a new, unknown animal, and judging by its overall form, it's head, and teeth could form a good idea about its habitat, it's environment, and it's diet. So, we should be able to extrapolate an idea of the alien's home world and environment from its appearance.

Thus, by observing our alien as depicted, we could conclude that because of the very large eyes they live in very dim environments, that either they're nocturnal, they live on a dim planet far away from the sun, or that they live underground for some reason. If it's a dim planet, it's probably also a cold planet unless they do live underground. The aliens are usually portrayed without any fur or hair or clothing, which would be contrary to life on a cold, dim planet unless they are subterranean. Because of their weak limbs, we could also infer a small planet with low gravity. However, another possibility is that they have spent many generations traveling on spaceships with low gravity.

Because of the vast, inordinate distances between star systems, it is possible that any aliens who approach Earth are spaceship beings, travelers or wanderers who have been living on their ships for thousands of generations and have adapted and evolved to conditions on their craft.

Our going to the nearest star system, Alpha centauri, would take 40,000 to 80,000 years. Proximo Centauri is only 4.2 light years from our Sun. Only! It would require a spaceship containing over a thousand generations of people living on that spaceship to reach the Alpha Centauri system. We might as well give up all ideas of traveling to another star system. Likewise, it would be unconscionable to think that aliens could travel such ordinate distances from a base planet, so any aliens contacting Earth probably would have lived on their spaceship for many generations.

So, maybe we should imagine beings that have adapted or even evolved to living on a traveling spacecraft, which became their home, rather than having traveled from a base planet. We don't know if interstellar space travel will ever be possible, but a traveling space colony will be feasible once problems, such as lack of gravity and food are solved.

There are many questions, such as why a species would have abandoned their planet in favor of a spacecraft. We also have to wonder what their reaction would be to encountering another star system with a planet containing life. Any planet with life would be of interest to them, though it would not necessarily be inhabitable for them.

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Stars moving away from our system would be unreachable no matter what, I recall reading recently. No number of generations could catch up. I need to look for the article.

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@coluber2001,

Fascinating stuff! I'll comment in terms of writing because it's how I come to this.

In writing science fiction, I found that making aliens too alien was something which affected sales and reviews. The weirder and more different an alien is, the harder it is for readers to identify with them (makes sense). However, this also means having to explain stuff, sometimes repeatedly.

I also found readers had interesting questions which I hadn't necessarily taken into consideration while writing.

In Untrustworthy, the aliens' genitalia are two-part and in their hands. Their genders aren't really like ours. Complicating matters is the main character is more or less the equivalent to a lesbian on earth.

So, I had to launch into explanations, finally ended up having her wife (a schoolteacher) explain reproduction in class. But having to turn a character into an expository mouthpiece is generally not so great for a character or for a story's pacing.

I also found it interesting when I devised their transportation system. I offhandedly referred to the conveyances as sleighs because I didn't want to get into the minutiae of if they would look more like trains or cars, etc. And a reader asked me: does this mean they live on an ice world? I ended up incorporating that into a prequel because I loved the idea. Smile

I've done other aliens with physiology that aligns better with ours, and that does help move the story along, because you don't need to stop the action every now and then to explain why something does or does not work for a character. It also adds the opportunity for interpersonal relationships that go beyond friendship.

I tend to make characters bipedal because it's easier to write their scenarios as well. People who walk might use bridges, vehicles, chairs, etc.

Incorporeal aliens are tougher to write because not only do you have to essentially invent their world from scratch, you also need to get it across to readers. So again, there's an issue with exposition.

Aliens also might not have the same values, motivations, thought processes, etc. as we do. What if an alien race develops of a weapon that ends up erasing their memory of using it? That is, they drop the bomb (or whatever) and then there are no witnesses if it ends up as part of a war crimes trial. Actually, dang, that could come in useful....

I can't recall who did this (might have been Ray Bradbury) where he wrote about benevolent aliens who resembled the devil. And in Star Trek: Lower Decks, the most terrifying alien is a Moopsy, which liquefies your bones while you're still alive. Eek. But Moopsy also looks like a wide-eyed, pastel plush toy. I think the idea of subverting that trope is neat.

Moopsy!
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Moopsy

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I'd like to see alien radio signals detected before I check out

One assumption I wouldn't make is that an aliens life span is similar to ours, it may well be much shorter, then again much longer.

If the universe is teeming with life and assuming we are an average species, then there will be aliens that live much longer than us and aliens that have much more advanced technology than us. For the aliens that have both long life and advanced technology perhaps the distances to be traversed would not seem so formidable

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@steve reid,

Quote:

For the aliens that have both long life and advanced technology perhaps the distances to be traversed would not seem so formidable

Like teleportation, the transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction literature and in other popular culture.

In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory of general relativity to elaborate on the idea of black holes and worm holes, proposing the existence of "bridges" through space-time. These bridges connect two different points in space-time, theoretically creating a shortcut that could reduce travel time and distance; Millions of light years to mere kilo-metres.

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@jespah,

Quote:

In writing science fiction, I found that making aliens too alien was something which affected sales and reviews.

Have you ever thought of researching the biblical account of the supposed alien visitation of observers some 4,900 years ago, for the purpose of supposedly instructing the children of men, and that they should do judgment and teach rightness on the earth. In this they failed miserably as they ended up by interbreeding with the women.

The Egyptians recorded these heavenly visitors as observers or watchers, and although there is no record of whether they were physical or energy beings, it is written, that they were able to change themselves into human form by possessing the bodies of the men while they were with their wives, this would appear to support the belief that the children born from those unions, were human in form, according to the coded information of the husband’s semen and something extra from the interloper creating mental giants such as Imhotep.

For it is written that the women lusting in their minds after their forms, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared to them as reaching even unto heaven.

The offending Light beings have been returned to their original habitat by the heavenly council where they remain imprisoned even today. Their hybrid offspring remained on earth

In Ancient Egyptian religion, Ptah was the God that called everything into existence. He was also regarded as the father of the human sage Imhotep, who was later deified and became a god.

Imhotep, was called the “God of Medicine,” “Prince of Peace,” and a “Type of Christ,” as was Melchizedek. Imhotep was worshipped as a god and healer from approximately 2850 B.C. to 525 B.C., and as a full deity from 525 B.C. to 550 A.D. Imhotep was a known scribe, chief lector, priest, architect, astronomer and a creator of drugs and medicines from plants. For 3000 years he was worshipped as a god in Greece and Rome. Early Christians worshipped him as the “Prince of Peace,” ‘Salem.’ A poet and philosopher, Imhotep coined the saying “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall die.

Extraterrestrials

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