Poll: Do you think aliens look like humans but with a few differences or exactly like humans?

[Lyx]

What kind of alien life? One that developed interstellar travel?

In that case:

- Will use similiar senses as those we already know (but possibly not exactly the same set as humans). Reason: This stuff isn't an "invention" made by lifeforms - there simply aren't that many ways to perceive info from the environment

- Will at the fundamental level "think" in a similiar way as we do. They may have special features, but basic stuff like logic will be the same. Reason: Again, there aren't that many ways to do the basics.

- Will just as us have developed coded communication - but of course completely different languages.

- Anatomy will be adapted to an environment, in which they could develop technology (i'm sceptical if this for example is possible for an aquatic lifeform). Anatomy will also be so that it can easily and with sufficient dexterity manipulate the surroundings. However, both criteria can still be safisfied with an anatomy strongly different to humans. So: They are probable to look different, but will have similiar abilities.

- Will in terms of culture and mentality be totally different to us. Reason: Current human culture can neither survive longterm on a single planet, nor is it capable of sustained interstallar travel.

 

[rokkolpo]

yes and no.

For there are many.

 

[prenelf]

dont believe in them. I think microorganisms are on other plants but not Alien races/civilizations

 

[standokan]

The idea of aliens looking like humans is preposturous, it's the same thing as thinking that god looks like an old guy with a white beard, aliens probably looking NOTHING like humans, they could be as large as a car or as tiny as a mouse, maybe they roll or maybe they crouch, maybe they talk or maybe they puff, maybe they see through feeling maybe through hearing, you don't and can't know and the last thing you should do is thinking that they look anything like the animals on this planet, they probably even don't have spines, arms and brain.

 

[Raistlinhawke]

I believe we are limited in our current ability to imagine sentiment evolving in any other capacity than that similar to our own. We little example to draw on other than semi-advanced species with a couple DNA MacGuffins through in to advance the genetics, its hard for any human to even picture creature not of, relating to, or containing at least some part of a being they have come across or has sensory recollection of.

 

[John the Gamer]

I'm going for the blobmonsters.

I'm HOPING for dragons though.

 

[Lyx]

Or they'll look like this:

This is the kind of lifeform that definatelly will NOT leave its homeplanet.

(Hint: Make this thing a bit more practically useful in performing tasks that require high dexterity - THEN we may be talking interstellar).

 

[Yopaz]

It makes sense in most pop-culture sci-fi to make aliens humanoid. Easier to understand, film, animate, etc. In reality, though, the odds of aliens being anything like us is...well, who knows?

I once came up with an alien race that were more like giant slimy spiders, with a big mouth on top and lots of tentacles. Imagine a walking venus flytrap with several dozen Doc Ock tentacles with a body the size of a Hummer, and you're pretty close. The point was, I wanted something so absolutely nonhuman that it seemed really alien. And it was the villainous race, so making them seem like horror monsters also helped.

Trying to think through all the sci-fi I've witnessed, the most alien race I've seen would have to be...the giant floating glowing Jello-looking jellyfish from Mass Effect. The hanar, I believe?

Every other race in the ME universe didn't feel alien. Asari? No way. Turian? Nope. Drell? Krogan? Salarian? Volus? Quarian? Batarian? Vorcha? Sorry. The most alien to me were the Geth, because they thought differently than humans. All the other just felt like quirky humans. The geth (and, of course, Legion) were so fascinating because they operated so differently from humans. I really hope Legion comes back for ME3.

Wow, that got out of hand.....

Actually I think the reason we think of aliens as humanoid is that we can't imagine anything that we haven't experienced ourselves. When we imagine an intelligent alien we think of the intelligent species we know. Science fiction has just convinced us that they will be green, have antennas or that kind of stuff.
Personally I think they wont look like us, there's an endless range of possibilities. The reason we look the way we are is evolution, or god if that's your cup of tea. If they have lived in a different atmosphere, had different gravity, different nutrients or disatsers that have rocked their planet they will be different. If we hadn'thad that meteor and the ice age, maybe dinosaurs would be the superior species. It's impossible to know, they might look like us, but I don't think so. The classic one with 2 arms, 2 legs, skinny body and a giant head is plain stupid though. There's no evolutionary advantage to have a head that makes it impossible to balance.

 

[Rayne870]

Given how evolution has made us with the bare minimum but still has us able to perform the tasks we need it isn't going on a limb to assume that other species would evolve the same way. Once you start tacking more arms or legs or eyes and such it takes higher brain function more support structure, and the creature keeps becoming more complex to support itself. 2 eyes for depth perception, 2 legs for walking and 2 arms for mobility seems to really get the job done without going overboard.

 

[Lyx]

Given how evolution has made us with the bare minimum but still has us able to perform the tasks we need it isn't going on a limb to assume that other species would evolve the same way. Once you start tacking more arms or legs or eyes and such it takes higher brain function more support structure, and the creature keeps becoming more complex to support itself. 2 eyes for depth perception, 2 legs for walking and 2 arms for mobility seems to really get the job done without going overboard.

That assumes an environment, in which for example four legs wouldn't provide a significant advantage.

I agree that certain evolutionary filters, like for example energy-conservation, will apply to them as well - but with a different environment, other methods may be more efficient to get the same job done.

So, they may be needed to perform similiar tasks as us (perception, communication, environment that allows discovery of basic tech, enough dexterity to perform it, ability to think sufficiently)... but "how" those requirements are implemented, may differ quite a bit depending on the environment.

 

[Zeema]

i rekon Aliens will look differently but i don't think drastically

 

[Moosh50]

I think the reason many aliens are potrayed humanlike is just so that the audience can relate to them easier. I mean, let's take Liara from ME. Would you have romanced her if her personality was in every way similiar to what she is now, but she looked like this:

But it doesn't really matter what they look like. I just hope that they'll have even slightly similiar morality as us. Otherwise there might be some problems...

 

[Gottesstrafe]

No, we look like them. They came first.

Guess the reference.

Doctor Who. Yes, I made an account just to say that.

I applaud such actions, and you are correct.

Really? I was going to say that episode from the Twilight Zone called "Third From the Sun" where two families jack a space shuttle from the government to escape a world on the brink of nuclear war to another planet, only for the camera to pan out and reveal that they were headed to Earth.

Also, do we have a clear definition for "alien"? Maybe they're just bacteria swarming under a rock on Mars, or perhaps a Lovecraftian race of super cosmic beings with goals and physical forms beyond the scope of human comprehension? Just be glad our environment favored us as the dominant species rather than, say, a highly intelligent race of cephalopods that liked to practice inter-species promiscuity and casual cannibalism.

 

[kickassfrog]

Depends, look at how many species are on earth- it depends how evolution favours conditions on their planet- so most likely not, but it's a big universe

 

[dex-dex]

I usually see them looking like the neptunians from futurama.
minus the piggie nose.

 

[Samwise137]

I'm gonna go with aliens look like something we've never even seen before.

 

[Koeryn]

I would be surprised. I mean, seriously: Humanity is a very frail, weak, and inefficient species on the whole, we lucked out by being surviving long enough to develope higher brain functions, advanced tool use, etc. so on and so forth.

 

[thylasos]

In all likelihood, aliens will have opposable thumbs and such if they're at a similar level of development, facilitating use of tools and such; otherwise, they're likely to be bacterial organisms or lower levels of development. Proper interstellar travel would require a far higher level of development, and given the vastness of the galaxy, let alone the universe, it's vastly unlikely we'll ever meet any species on a similar level of development for meaningful contact.

 

[Timmibal]

Ok, lets hope we never meet a silicate lifeform. Odds are they would communicate via electrical impulses (Similar to a CPU). Hence "We come in peace" would probably kill everyone in arc range.

So. Keeping it carbon based. We're assuming development on a world with open bodies of potable water, since even the new arsenic-eating beasties we've found need that. Heres where the crap shoot comes in. Obviously, they need some method of construction. A Biomorphic lifeform (eg Zerg) would be scarycool, but unlikely, as they would have assimilated all forms of life on their planet for raw material before they became smart enough to know they needed to conserve it, and likely would have starved to death before they developed interstellar travel. So we're looking at toolfolk here. We're also looking at organisms which can survive extinction level events and genetic bottlenecks. Mammals are our best bet in that regard as avian species lose much of their advantage once they're too big to fly.

From that we have two options. If land organisms are quadrapedal, we're looking at bipeds with grasping forelimbs equipped with multiple opposable digits. Opportunistic omnivores and scavengers, as has been said before, would be the most likely candidates. Build and appearence would highly depend on gravity and base species. (IE, no guarantee of primate-equivilants. Quillboars and Kobolds are just as likely as elves.) Telepathic beings are unlikely, although pheremonal assistance in communication a la elcor is possible.

If land organisms are hexepedal plus, the whole thing goes out the window. You can rely on bilateral symmetry, but that's about it. Four legs plus the potential utilization of forelimbs means we might be running into rachni or keepers as easily as asari out there.

Of course, if the insect equivilants develop lungs, mammals are fucked, as insects are now unlimited in size, and able to terraform their environments to a frightening degree. Insect dominated worlds would probably be honeycombs of hive structures stretching into low orbit and mining present into the upper core.

But, until someone proves FTL travel is attainable, all we'll get is an unobtrusive probe droid which is probably smarter than every human who ever lived put together from the K3 civilization a couple thousand light years over thataway, wondering what all the slow-ass signal chatter is all about. And we'll probably never even know it was there.

 

[Lyx]

But it doesn't really matter what they look like. I just hope that they'll have even slightly similiar morality as us. Otherwise there might be some problems...

I think you're mistaking "similiar morals" for "different morals". Master/Slave morals are human. If you encounter something different, then it will be so different, that you aren't even capable of noticing the difference, and will in typical-human fashing instead try to interprete it according your morals.

I know it from first-hand experience...... *goes back to kidnapping humans*