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

[rockyoumonkeys]

Nah. No reason to expect them to look even remotely similar. So many variables in terms of environment, level of gravity, how many moons a planet had, how bright the sun is....every little difference between our planet and theirs could easily result in some drastic difference in how we evolved.

 

[Carnagath]

Why would aliens look like us? We suck. I'm more a fan of a blob-like race that can shapeshift on the fly and conjure limbs or whatever they need at any moment. Sort of like the T-1000, but organic. That sounds way more practical.

 

[Lord Doomhammer]

Thats one of the biggest things I always liked about Halo. The aliens actually look... alien.

The elites aren't just a blue person, its an 8-9 foot monster with a squid on it's head, 4 thumbs, and hooves. Hunters aren't just some Australasian guy with a gun, its a bunch of worms that make up a 14 foot tall living tank. I like the idea of aliens that are really bazzare, it makes the universe feel big and epic. It makes our place in the universe seem more unique when we're surrounded by creatures that breath methane and wear toilets on their back.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for games like mass effect or films like District 9 that bring the aliens down to earth with making you think about how you would react to a shambling monster in a diplomatic function. Debating economics with an elcor or finding housing for a million prawns, really making you think about how hard it is to get along with a professor or land lord.

 

[beema]

All aliens look like humans except with various funny things on their forehead. This is because every race in the universe was created by the same apparently uncreative beings.

God damn Star Trek was stupid.

 

[Tharwen]

They have no reason to even exist in a way that we understand, let alone recognise. The chances of finding aliens is tiny, but the chance of them looking like us when we do is even tinier.

 

[Lazzi]

No. The possibilities of having another species living on a different planet means that chances are they won't look anything like us. In fact, I think that should we ever find aliens, their motives and actions would be utterly incomprehensible to us.

Blue and Orange morality.

 

[Latinidiot]

A humanoid figure would make sense. There is a reason we evolved into it- its incredibly effective.

Beyond that, probably no similarity.

yeah, it is here, but we have no clue about the circumstances on other planets. Whatever it is though, it will be able to conduct fine dextrous movements and the strength to manipulate metals.

 

[ThatDaveDude1]

Yes, we do.

 

[Blank Kold]

Probably not. The human form is incredibly ineffective and has to rely on intelligence. Many animals can kill us even while we have weapons. Imagine what a sentient creature could do with a more evolved physical form.

 

[Dfskelleton]

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).

I know I'm gonna sound like a nerd here, so bear with me.
This thing is from a Lovecraft story called the Shadow Out of Time. While they appear to be higly immobile, they kinda "hover". They are usually referred to as "The Great Race", as they are the only beings to completely master unparadoxed time travel. They also have advanced teleportation technology, so they can pretty much go anywhere in a short amout of time.

 

[Woodsey]

All aliens look like humans except with various funny things on their forehead. This is because every race in the universe was created by the same apparently uncreative beings.

God damn Star Trek was stupid.

Well they had to look somewhat like humans, even Kirk draws the line at 10-feet tall blobs of mucus.

 

[TAGM]

Really, with the kind of dice rolls involved in finding a planet with ANY life on it, let alone one that's pretty much like earth, makes the chances of the first alien we find being even vaugly huminoid being very very small. See, a bunch of stuff changes the creatures on the planet - pressure, heat, ground type, atmophere... So many things that need to be pretty much the bloody same to get a vauge humanoid shaped alien. Still, there's a possibility. Who knows? It'll be fun, either way.

 

[BoogieManFL]

It seems unlikely to me for creatures born of different worlds who are advanced enough to be sentient to end up looking very similar.

Although certain things like limbs for object manipulation and eyes might be common, who knows.

 

[Small Dragon]

Aliens? Real? Aliens will exists when pigs fly.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 

[x EvilErmine x]

A humanoid figure would make sense. There is a reason we evolved into it- its incredibly effective.

Beyond that, probably no similarity.

Effective? At what?

At conquering the entire planet apparently.

I bet a race built like cougars who were just as intelligent could do just as well if not better than us.

A cougar does not have the physical capability to use tools. Any race that had enough intelligence to create a spear could defeat a race of cougars that had a human intellect.

Cougar people could develop their own version and make it a cougar spear since they're just as intelligent.

But they probably wouldn't need it since they have tactics in combat now, with much greater agility + the sharp teeth and speed that their cougarness provides.

Cmon, you know we'd have been screwed if Cougars could formulate plans.

.....I like the idea of cougar-people now.

As it is, a huge percentage of animals have the brain power required to realize that pointy objects kill things. However, the fact is, most do not have the ability to shape or use spears. While a race of cougar people would have better tactics than they do now, they would still most likely fall to spears which can be thrown or can be used to give whoever is using it incredible reach.

And the Cougars then use their human-intelligence to build shields.

It'd be us but with greater dexterity, agility, stamina, more fur, better vision, with claws and teeth thrown in.

Shit would be so over in the times when the spear was the pinnacle of technology. Nowadays.... guns may even the battlefield, but now Cougars have guns. :O

Fun little idea you got going on there...however i would point out that they could be the smartest cougars in the world but they wouldn't amount to jack without thumbs. Never underestimate the importance of the evolution of the humble thumb, without it we would be nothing.

OT
It depends on the planet they evolved on. If it was quite similar to ours then the chances are good that thy would look at least something like us. Convergent evolution and all that. However the complexity and variety of life here on earth seems to indicate that life turns up anywhere it can and even some places it really shouldn't be (There are bacteria that live on the cooling rods in nuclear reactors and some that live several miles underground where there is no air and no sunlight).
I wouldn't be surprised if we discovered that they looked nothing like us though. After all most planets are not like the earth is, actually for most of it's history the earth hasn't been a nice place to live, it's been a down right awful at times.

 

[Dense_Electric]

Thats one of the biggest things I always liked about Halo. The aliens actually look... alien.

Uh... Not really. The Elites were basically lizard-men, the Jackals were birds, the Brutes were apes, the Drones were giant insects... All bipedal (more or less), all with a head, a brain, two eyes, etc. Not alien at all. Even the worm-colony Hunters, probably the most alien of the group, was still arranged like a human.

Personally I thought the aliens in Crysis were more convincing. Even though they were sort of squid-like, their actions and communication didn't make any logical sense as we perceive them. Even their ship wasn't nice and laid out in decks like Covenant ships. Way more alien.

 

[Snowalker]

No, we look like them. They came first.

Guess the reference.

...Halo

What from Halo would that be referring to?

.

Forerunners....


Umm, yeah, I've thought this myself. I mean, in some ways it makes sense from an emotional level, and I mean, it'd to imagine aliens being completely separate from us because we control our planet. But, from an evolutionary stand-point, its damn near unbelievable.