Wrote a random new short story. ReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReadit as commandeth the hypno toad. All glory to the hypno toad!
By day I studied; chemistry, mathematics, physics, working as hard as every other boy in my class, striving for perfection. I wasn’t falling behind, not by far, but I felt guilty. I wasn’t at the top. And the reason for it was because I didn’t spend my nights as my father intended.
Instead of studying in the early hours, as I had been taught to by my father, I crept through the silent corridors and across the cold floors in bare feet to the piano room.
The piano was beautiful. It was old; not so old it no longer functioned properly, but old enough to have a matured quality of sound, the kind of sound you only hear from really esteemed concert pianos in great opera houses. I was lucky my school had one – but then, it was to be expected. It was a historic school, and we had only the best.
I opened the French windows a crack in a small ritual I observed. I wasn’t sure why, I just felt compelled to let the moonlight in.
I sat at the cushioned bench, running my fingers over the ivory keys. Moonlight glinted through the French windows, reflected in the meticulously polished case lid. A faint breeze blew in. It smelled like old wood and polish and time.
I pressed the keys down in a chord, and the wind picked up. My dark hair fluttered about my head, my silk pyjamas wrapping delicately around my ankles. The sound resonated through the room and through my bones. I moved my fingers, playing a piece I’d known for so long it felt natural to play. I shut my eyes, revelling in the cool wind and the familiarity of the piece.
The door creaked, and my head shot towards it in surprise, though my hands never ceased from playing. A tall figure held the door open, half-silhouetted in the moonlight. Her hair was piled on top of her head, tendrils snaking down to frame her face. She was dressed from the waist down, and her legs were hidden by flowing opaque drapes that drifted against the current of the wind. Her breasts were covered only by a strip of the same material.
For a moment I was transfixed; she was so beautiful. Her body was perfect, tall and willowy. Her hair streamed and flowed in no particular rhythm, too fine and too thick at the same time. She began to walk towards me, swaying, letting her skirt drifting hypnotically.
Then I saw her face. She was grey – no, silver – and metal plating encircled her left eye and part of her brow bone. Her eyes had no irises, just vertical slits that dilated in the dark of the room.
For a moment, the scientist in me wondered just what she was. Was she some kind of hallucination? Was she a figment of my imagination? Was she a dream?
She stopped a couple of metres from me and cocked a metal-tipped finger at me. I rose, almost involuntarily, from the chair, my hands stilling at last, and walked towards her. Every step was odd.
I took her extended hand. It was cold, but her touch was like lightning. I stared into her eyes as she pulled me closer, so close that our bodies touched. Our heads level, I stared into her eyes.
Sawing machines and bolts, wires, steel and smoke. A blue light, a lightning strike, and a sun so bright it reached the furthest rock and the deepest quark. And a music so beautiful it touched the coldest moon and the hottest star.
I stared into her eyes, and they sucked me in.
Ah, you must have encountered one of the asari. They come from the planet Thessia and are quite unique in that they appear attractive to many sentient species. The effect her eyes had on you may have been her melding process which is still being studied. Its a process where yours and hers nervous system become linked through the skin and some form of telepathy so that your bodies can respond to each other's electrical impulses. Its basically their way of having sexual intercourse so congratulations on having your alien cherry popped.
[img]http://gza.gameriot.com/content/images/view_320200_1_1247054983.jpg[/img]
Boobs are mammary glands - an organ unique to mammals. Why would an alien have them?
[QUOTE=Larikang;28936890]Boobs are mammary glands - an organ unique to mammals. Why would an alien have them?[/QUOTE]
Technically any aliens wouldn't look like us at all, unless there were to be some sort of explainable ancestry. Life could very well be created without the introduction of carbon or any of the other element on our planet. Instead of DNA, Aliens would probably have some bizarre different structuring format for their bodies. Not to mention, the possibility that they would evolve enough to look like bipeds anything like ourselves would be extremely unlikely.
Usually fiction authors have aliens arranged in this matter because they find it difficult to think up something along these lines, they want to add sympathy and emotion we would understand to the aliens, or they have some sort of ancient ancestry with us.
[QUOTE=Aurora93;28937049]Usually fiction authors have aliens arranged in this matter because they find it difficult to think up something along these lines, they want to add sympathy and emotion we would understand to the aliens, or they have some sort of ancient ancestry with us.[/QUOTE]
Its more simple than that man, a human cant read any emotional response unless it has a face, sure body language helps, but the face is key. You wouldnt give two shits to the prawns in district 9 if they didnt have huge gaping eyes and a face that was pretty much human.
[QUOTE=Aurora93;28937049]Technically any aliens wouldn't look like us at all, unless there were to be some sort of explainable ancestry. Life could very well be created without the introduction of carbon or any of the other element on our planet. Instead of DNA, Aliens would probably have some bizarre different structuring format for their bodies. Not to mention, the possibility that they would evolve enough to look like bipeds anything like ourselves would be extremely unlikely.
Usually fiction authors have aliens arranged in this matter because they find it difficult to think up something along these lines, they want to add sympathy and emotion we would understand to the aliens, or they have some sort of ancient ancestry with us.[/QUOTE]
I actually think that biped would be the ideal evolution.
[QUOTE=Mr_Razzums;28948343]I actually think that biped would be the ideal evolution.[/QUOTE]
Sphere is the way to go.
[QUOTE=Mr_Razzums;28948343]I actually think that biped would be the ideal evolution.[/QUOTE]
Planet is composed mostly of ocean
Air is mostly toxic solvent that eats away organic compounds fairly quickly, no plants to make oxygen (on land) due to this
All life is in ocean.
Legs are now obsolete.
Aliens would look similar, the arrangement of our limbs, hands, eyes, nose, mouth and ears have evolved so to be optimised by an intelligent creature. An educated guess would say that aliens would look humanoid.
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;28949494]Aliens would look similar, the arrangement of our limbs, hands, eyes, nose, mouth and ears have evolved so to be optimised by an intelligent creature. An educated guess would say that aliens would look humanoid.[/QUOTE]
There is little evidence to back up your claim. If you believe in evolution, then the reason why all intelligent life on Earth is so similar is because it all evolved in the same environment from the same primitive roots. Our particular arrangement of sensory organs and appendages does happen to work very well (as guaranteed by evolution), but that doesn't mean that it's the [i]only[/i] good arrangement. A different genetic seed or mutation in the past could have to lead to an entirely different, but comparably successful result.
Most "aliens" in science fiction are either an excuse to create A) a new ethnicity of human or B) monsters. The general fanboyish attraction to type A, I think, comes from the fact that we view them not as aliens but as exotic humans. E.g. Star Wars, Star Trek, Mass Effect, Avatar.
No, environment would not have as big an impact as you believe. Well if it is a water planet they would have fins and gills of some sort. But to be intelligent they must have 'hands' to use tools. With around 5 or more digits to allow them to have the dexterity required of an intelligent being. 'Nose' will probably be positioned above their 'mouth' to aid it taste and smell. Eyes should face forward like most advanced predators to see clearly what they are focusing on, In this case what their hands are working with. You only have to look at most animals to see that most sensory organs are placed on a 'head' of sort. Aliens will not vary much from life on this planet as it is the most efficient way of 'doing' it.
[QUOTE=Larikang;28936890]Boobs are mammary glands - an organ unique to mammals. Why would an alien have them?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Aurora93;28937049]Technically any aliens wouldn't look like us at all, unless there were to be some sort of explainable ancestry. Life could very well be created without the introduction of carbon or any of the other element on our planet. Instead of DNA, Aliens would probably have some bizarre different structuring format for their bodies. Not to mention, the possibility that they would evolve enough to look like bipeds anything like ourselves would be extremely unlikely.
Usually fiction authors have aliens arranged in this matter because they find it difficult to think up something along these lines, they want to add sympathy and emotion we would understand to the aliens, or they have some sort of ancient ancestry with us.[/QUOTE]
sack child feeding could be a trend on planets with water land and vegetation.
It makes it easier to feed to the kiddos. (of course there are other options)
hard land? legs would be common too
goddamit, i want to meet some aliens now
Wow, this thread turned into a discussion on alien evolution and physiology. That's a first for me lol xD
[QUOTE=gekoladie;28956532]Wow, this thread turned into a discussion on alien evolution and physiology. That's a first for me lol xD[/QUOTE]
This is facepunch, threads derailing 3 posts in is normal
[QUOTE=gekoladie;28935079]Wrote a random new short story. ReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReadit as commandeth the hypno toad. All glory to the hypno toad!
By day I studied; chemistry, mathematics, physics, working as hard as every other boy in my class, striving for perfection. I wasn’t falling behind, not by far, but I felt guilty. I wasn’t at the top. And the reason for it was because I didn’t spend my nights as my father intended.
Instead of studying in the early hours, as I had been taught to by my father, I crept through the silent corridors and across the cold floors in bare feet to the piano room.
The piano was beautiful. It was old; not so old it no longer functioned properly, but old enough to have a matured quality of sound, the kind of sound you only hear from really esteemed concert pianos in great opera houses. I was lucky my school had one – but then, it was to be expected. It was a historic school, and we had only the best.
I opened the French windows a crack in a small ritual I observed. I wasn’t sure why, I just felt compelled to let the moonlight in.
I sat at the cushioned bench, running my fingers over the ivory keys. Moonlight glinted through the French windows, reflected in the meticulously polished case lid. A faint breeze blew in. It smelled like old wood and polish and time.
I pressed the keys down in a chord, and the wind picked up. My dark hair fluttered about my head, my silk pyjamas wrapping delicately around my ankles. The sound resonated through the room and through my bones. I moved my fingers, playing a piece I’d known for so long it felt natural to play. I shut my eyes, revelling in the cool wind and the familiarity of the piece.
The door creaked, and my head shot towards it in surprise, though my hands never ceased from playing. A tall figure held the door open, half-silhouetted in the moonlight. Her hair was piled on top of her head, tendrils snaking down to frame her face. She was dressed from the waist down, and her legs were hidden by flowing opaque drapes that drifted against the current of the wind. Her breasts were covered only by a strip of the same material.
For a moment I was transfixed; she was so beautiful. Her body was perfect, tall and willowy. Her hair streamed and flowed in no particular rhythm, too fine and too thick at the same time. She began to walk towards me, swaying, letting her skirt drifting hypnotically.
Then I saw her face. She was grey – no, silver – and metal plating encircled her left eye and part of her brow bone. Her eyes had no irises, just vertical slits that dilated in the dark of the room.
For a moment, the scientist in me wondered just what she was. Was she some kind of hallucination? Was she a figment of my imagination? Was she a dream?
She stopped a couple of metres from me and cocked a metal-tipped finger at me. I rose, almost involuntarily, from the chair, my hands stilling at last, and walked towards her. Every step was odd.
I took her extended hand. It was cold, but her touch was like lightning. I stared into her eyes as she pulled me closer, so close that our bodies touched. Our heads level, I stared into her eyes.
Sawing machines and bolts, wires, steel and smoke. A blue light, a lightning strike, and a sun so bright it reached the furthest rock and the deepest quark. And a music so beautiful it touched the coldest moon and the hottest star.
I stared into her eyes, and they sucked me in.[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ubWZ7.gif[/IMG]
[editline]5th April 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;28955657]No, environment would not have as big an impact as you believe. Well if it is a water planet they would have fins and gills of some sort. But to be intelligent they must have 'hands' to use tools.[/QUOTE]
You're making a classic mistake here, which is judging every traits usefulness by comparing it to human traits. Evolution is not a guided path, and humans are not the "best" organism. By saying that it needs to be able to use tools to be intelligent (and presumably that it needs to be intelligent to use tools) you're making a circular argument that if it was smart it would be like people because people are smart because they are like people because they are smart because
There are other animals, like dolphins, that are extremely intelligent. Not only do they use tools, to the extent that they can, but they have complex social interactions and can formulate precise plans to catch food. They're not evolving hands or other grasping extremities because they don't need to. They're not evolving to be like people, they're evolving to be successful in their given environment.
You claim environment doesn't have that big of an impact but that flies in the face of pretty much everything we know about evolution.
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;28955657]'Nose' will probably be positioned above their 'mouth' to aid it taste and smell. Eyes should face forward like most advanced predators to see clearly what they are focusing on, In this case what their hands are working with. You only have to look at most animals to see that most sensory organs are placed on a 'head' of sort. Aliens will not vary much from life on this planet as it is the most efficient way of 'doing' it.[/QUOTE]
Here you're mixing up causes and effects again. Most animals that have a distinct head with two eyes and a mouth and a nose have it not because it's "the best" evolutionary path, but because they share a common ancestor which also had a head with two eyes and a mouth and a nose. As soon as you travel past that ancestor and start looking at other branches of the animal kingdom you'll see a whole bunch of different arrangements, all of which are effective for a given animal.
Evolution doesn't always produce perfectly efficient organisms, either--organisms are shaped over time by ever-changing environments, and often those changes will stack up, some sticking around even after they've become useless, like a program that's full of hacks and workarounds. Look at the human appendix, which serves no purpose other than to get infected and kill people, or the many stomachs of a cow. So just because an organism has certain traits doesn't mean they're the most efficient.
[QUOTE=TH89;28993058] Here you're mixing up causes and effects again. Most animals that have a distinct head with two eyes and a mouth and a nose have it not because it's "the best" evolutionary path, but because they share a common ancestor which also had a head with two eyes and a mouth and a nose. As soon as you travel past that ancestor and start looking at other branches of the animal kingdom you'll see a whole bunch of different arrangements, all of which are effective for a given animal.
Evolution doesn't always produce perfectly efficient organisms, either--organisms are shaped over time by ever-changing environments, and often those changes will stack up, some sticking around even after they've become useless, like a program that's full of hacks and workarounds. Look at the human appendix, which serves no purpose other than to get infected and kill people, or the many stomachs of a cow. So just because an organism has certain traits doesn't mean they're the most efficient.[/QUOTE]
Actually I disagree it is evolutionary beneficial to have the sensory organs on the head as information sent from them reaches the brain as fast as possible. The signals don't have to travel into the spinal cord or pass over many nerve synapses. If for example a creatures eyes were on a limb, the time for it to react to threats would have a great delay due to the distance for the impulse to travel and the number of synapses (gaps between nerves). This will make its reactions too slow to stay away from predators/ catch prey. Therefore following the theory of evolution it would be killed off.
And that exactly follows on to your idea of common ancestor. Their ancestors have evolved through being the 'fittest' because of the traits being beneficial. Because these traits are successful the following generation have the same trait. Evolution [i]then[/i] common ancestry:
Unfortunately it is you mixing up cause and effect :)
Secondly your right, evolution isn't perfect. If you look at our eyes the sensory nerves (rods and cones) are facing the wrong way therefore not perfect but it works so evolution has kept it. Other mutations that are not beneficial or mostly a hindrance are bred out due to that animal dying/ being killed
[editline]5th April 2011[/editline]
I have been assuming that when we speak of 'aliens' we mean creatures of higher intelligence like humans. Dolphins and chimpanzees are not classed as higher intelligent beings.
Dolphins are best suited to their environment but that is limiting their path to higher intelligence. Yes they have basic speech, yes they use tool, yes they have a simple society, but they will not build cities and all the other things humans have because they lack hands.
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;28993851]Actually I disagree it is evolutionary beneficial to have the sensory organs on the head as information sent from them reaches the brain as fast as possible. The signals don't have to travel into the spinal cord or pass over many nerve synapses. If for example a creatures eyes were on a limb, the time for it to react to threats would have a great delay due to the distance for the impulse to travel and the number of synapses (gaps between nerves). This will make its reactions too slow to stay away from predators/ catch prey. Therefore following the theory of evolution it would be killed off.[/QUOTE]
This already presupposes 1. the existence of a head and 2. that the brain is in the head. Instead of starting at single-celled organisms and working up from there, you're starting with an Earth-like physiology, because that's what you expect to see, and working backward by rationalizing it. But your rationalization doesn't even account for invertebrates, or the many very slow animals that have been around for millions of years. Being fast is one way of being evolutionarily successful, but it's not the only one.
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;28993851]And that exactly follows on to your idea of common ancestor. Their ancestors have evolved through being the 'fittest' because of the traits being beneficial. Because these traits are successful the following generation have the same trait. Evolution [i]then[/i] common ancestry:[/QUOTE]
Nope! Every animal has its own lineage. You are not "more evolved" or "better evolved" than a starfish, which doesn't have a head at all. You're making the classic mistake here of assuming that human beings are a higher order of life than others, and ranking other animals by how much like humans they are.
There is no one right answer, one ultimate being that all of evolution is working toward. In any given environment you'll see hundreds of species, all of which are evolutionarily successful in that environment. Are they all the same? Not at all.
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;28993851]I have been assuming that when we speak of 'aliens' we mean creatures of higher intelligence like humans. Dolphins and chimpanzees are not classed as higher intelligent beings.
Dolphins are best suited to their environment but that is limiting their path to higher intelligence. Yes they have basic speech, yes they use tool, yes they have a simple society, but they will not build cities and all the other things humans have because they lack hands.[/QUOTE]
There's no such thing as "higher intelligence" in biology. You're just drawing an imaginary line between humans and the rest of the planet and claiming to be special. There's no scientific basis for what you're saying. If you're going to argue that humans are the highest form of life because they build cities, you might as well argue that cheetahs are the highest form of life because they run the fastest, or that whales are the highest form of life because they are the biggest. When your standard for "high intelligence" is "act just like a human being" then of course human beings are going to win.
People reading this thread should consider this fact: after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs there was a massive hole left in many of Earth's ecosystems: the dominant roles that dinosaurs once played were up for grabs. We all know how this story ends, of course. Mammals evolved to be strong and adaptable enough to take their place.
What you might not know is that before the rise of the mammals, the [i]birds[/i] were the first family to fill the dinosaurs' empty niche. There were many species of birds filling the roles of the mammals we know today: huge, flightless, carnivorous predator birds, small herbivorous rabbit-like birds, etc. (the extremely endangered [url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/pictures/110228-best-pictures-worlds-rarest-birds-ibis-owl-crane-parrot/?now=2011-02-28-00:01#/rare-birds-photo-contest-kakapo_32641_600x450.jpg]kakapo[/url] is a relic from such times). It is not hard to imagine that just a slight twist of fate could have prevented the rise of the mammals - instead making today's dominant families the birds or even the reptiles.
we all will never see space, or even alien life in our lifetimes :(
[QUOTE=dude2193;29010457]we all will never see space, or even alien life in our lifetimes :([/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=36068[/url]
:smugdog:
[QUOTE=Chernzobog;29011214][url]http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=36068[/url]
:smugdog:[/QUOTE]
Yer, that will never take anyone far enough to see aliens. We would need faster than light travel which we understand in theory but have no way to implementing with our technology and most probably never will.
--
Th89, I understand and I guess agree with everything you're saying. I was very interested in biology before I went down a different scientific root. I guess I was just trying to base my thoughts in what I knew. Although; a biology course may not talk about higher or lower intelligence but it does not mean the divide does not exist. It is a well know theory that there are several jumps an organism must make up the intelligence graph (along the lines of; family society, basic society, communication, advanced communication, use of tools, advanced society etc etc.), I understand that aliens will come in all shapes and sized due to stimuli from their environment, but I still believe human level intelligent beings will most likely have some centralised brain/sensory organs and hands of sort to use/make tools. If its a land organism it'll most likely have legs, you have to see its not me thinking "oh earth animals have legs to that's the only thing". Most earth land based animals have legs because it's the best and most simple evolution step to take to escape predators/catch prey. Their eyes won't likely be on the side of their head like a cows because they need to look forward i.e. to use tools. Limbs to use the tools, whether a hand or a tentacle. (dolphins may us tools with their beaks but that beak will never do anything advanced). I guess district 9 prawns, aliens and predators are all ok example of the form I'm getting at.
But I guess it's just my personal opinion. We can always make a sportsman's bet on it!
god this is so f*cking hot o_O;
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;29013984]Yer, that will never take anyone far enough to see aliens. We would need faster than light travel which we understand in theory but have no way to implementing with our technology and most probably never will.[/QUOTE]
Yup. Hopefully by the time I'm 80 I can pay a few million space dollars and visit a government moonbase for a few hours.
[QUOTE=gekoladie;28935079]Wrote a random new short story. ReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReaditReadit as commandeth the hypno toad. All glory to the hypno toad!
By day I studied; chemistry, mathematics, physics, working as hard as every other boy in my class, striving for perfection. I wasn’t falling behind, not by far, but I felt guilty. I wasn’t at the top. And the reason for it was because I didn’t spend my nights as my father intended.
Instead of studying in the early hours, as I had been taught to by my father, I crept through the silent corridors and across the cold floors in bare feet to the piano room.
The piano was beautiful. It was old; not so old it no longer functioned properly, but old enough to have a matured quality of sound, the kind of sound you only hear from really esteemed concert pianos in great opera houses. I was lucky my school had one – but then, it was to be expected. It was a historic school, and we had only the best.
I opened the French windows a crack in a small ritual I observed. I wasn’t sure why, I just felt compelled to let the moonlight in.
I sat at the cushioned bench, running my fingers over the ivory keys. Moonlight glinted through the French windows, reflected in the meticulously polished case lid. A faint breeze blew in. It smelled like old wood and polish and time.
I pressed the keys down in a chord, and the wind picked up. My dark hair fluttered about my head, my silk pyjamas wrapping delicately around my ankles. The sound resonated through the room and through my bones. I moved my fingers, playing a piece I’d known for so long it felt natural to play. I shut my eyes, revelling in the cool wind and the familiarity of the piece.
The door creaked, and my head shot towards it in surprise, though my hands never ceased from playing. A tall figure held the door open, half-silhouetted in the moonlight. Her hair was piled on top of her head, tendrils snaking down to frame her face. She was dressed from the waist down, and her legs were hidden by flowing opaque drapes that drifted against the current of the wind. Her breasts were covered only by a strip of the same material.
For a moment I was transfixed; she was so beautiful. Her body was perfect, tall and willowy. Her hair streamed and flowed in no particular rhythm, too fine and too thick at the same time. She began to walk towards me, swaying, letting her skirt drifting hypnotically.
Then I saw her face. She was grey – no, silver – and metal plating encircled her left eye and part of her brow bone. Her eyes had no irises, just vertical slits that dilated in the dark of the room.
For a moment, the scientist in me wondered just what she was. Was she some kind of hallucination? Was she a figment of my imagination? Was she a dream?
She stopped a couple of metres from me and cocked a metal-tipped finger at me. I rose, almost involuntarily, from the chair, my hands stilling at last, and walked towards her. Every step was odd.
I took her extended hand. It was cold, but her touch was like lightning. I stared into her eyes as she pulled me closer, so close that our bodies touched. Our heads level, I stared into her eyes.
Sawing machines and bolts, wires, steel and smoke. A blue light, a lightning strike, and a sun so bright it reached the furthest rock and the deepest quark. And a music so beautiful it touched the coldest moon and the hottest star.
I stared into her eyes, and they sucked me in.[/QUOTE]
Wow.. this was very touching. For being a sci-fi freak myself. Having my hand on my dick so sweetest touch, reading the story of a girl such a lust. I removed my hand of my dick, As it was so thick. Feeling so deep inside. Made me chose the other side. With the one final lift, I went back to my Dick.
Cool story bro.
I think the 'little gray men' have an ancestery with us. Maybe back when we were evolving, their race evolved off us from a tangent. we were built to survive, they were built for intelligence. Maybe they descended from an ape that used more intelligence than force to survive? This could explain their weak, small bodies and enlargened intelligence.
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;29013984]I still believe human level intelligent beings will most likely have some centralised brain/sensory organs and hands of sort to use/make tools.[/QUOTE]
I think the main issue here is that you keep referring to "human level intelligence". The argument that I and others are making is that it's unlikely that alien life will be even comparable in intelligence. It seems like a huge assumption that all evolution in the universe will follow the same general course of evolution on Earth - even in the sense of merely producing intelligent creatures like humans. Consider dolphins, in particular. They are incredibly intelligent animals and yet do not even have a hint of the beginnings of tool development (as opposed to animals in the primate family). It seems possible that highly intelligent life could develop (with languages, societies, etc.) without the ability to create tools or mold the environment as we have.
Your assumption about a centralized nervous system seems more plausible, but there could still be other successful designs. A creature with a distributed nervous/sensory system, for example, would be more durable since it would be harder to completely disable its senses.
[QUOTE=Greeneyes;29013984]If its a land organism it'll most likely have legs, you have to see its not me thinking "oh earth animals have legs to that's the only thing". Most earth land based animals have legs because it's the best and most simple evolution step to take to escape predators/catch prey. Their eyes won't likely be on the side of their head like a cows because they need to look forward i.e. to use tools.[/QUOTE]
Legs do seem like a plausible assumption. Though nature on Earth has shown us that legs can come in any number of variations. Humanoid legs are by no means the ultimate solution.
Eyes on the side of the head are actually a trait of prey animals. Such positioning grants them a larger field of vision - assisting the spotting of predators. Similarly, forward facing eyes are a trait of predator animals [b]not[/b] tool-users. Forward facing eyes allow for depth perception - crucial when stalking prey. However nature does indicate that intelligence tends to increase the higher up on the food chain you are so it would be safe to assume that intelligent aliens would have forward facing eyes.
Aside from all of that there are examples of "unintelligent" animals that use tools. For example birds can use twigs to hunt for hidden grubs, weave elaborate nests, or construct [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowerbird]sculpture gardens[/url].
[QUOTE=Larikang;29081758]I think the main issue here is that you keep referring to "human level intelligence". The argument that I and others are making is that it's unlikely that alien life will be even comparable in intelligence. It seems like a huge assumption that all evolution in the universe will follow the same general course of evolution on Earth[/QUOTE]
I am not saying all aliens will. There are countless galaxies in the universe each with billions of stars holding trillions of planets, which each have a probability of holding life. We cannot make a guess at what aliens look like in general because there are millions of different possibilities. Hell none of us can argue what a non-carbon based organism will look like.
I therefore refer to 'human level intelligence' because talking about organisms as a whole would be too empty and general.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
