it's weird how people always seem to assume aliens would be humanoid...

[kingjames488]

...even vaguely.

I'm all for the idea of there being 'life out there somewhere"... but it strikes me as odd that it always seems to conform to humanities pop culture interpretations of 'aliens'.

they're always more or less described as the typical 'grey non-gender-individual".
are we to assume there is only one aliens?
why isn't it "the blob"?
why not "E.T."?

does this make no sense to anyone else?

[L1qu1dator]

E.T. was pretty humanoid. 4 limbs - pair of hands and pair of legs, head with pair of eyes, a nose and a mouth.

[Lora Grim]

The assumption exists cause we only have one example of intelligent life. Us.
And the only place we have seen ourselves is here on Earth.
Most creatures that evolved on Earth share many similarities, so we just assume that if another intelligent species developed an a planet like Earth, that they'd share traits with things that evolved here on Earth.

[craigsters]

There was a few movies made in the late 1980's and about Aliens living in the deep ocean


DeepStar Six 1989 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097179/ <--- this one for sure is about sea aliens

Leviathan 1989 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097737/
the abyss 1989 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096754/

[Abaddon the Despoiler]

We were engineered by aliens.

[Your_White_Knight]

Messaggio originale di kingjames488:

it's weird how people always seem to assume aliens would be humanoid...

...even vaguely.

I'm all for the idea of there being 'life out there somewhere"... but it strikes me as odd that it always seems to conform to humanities pop culture interpretations of 'aliens'.

they're always more or less described as the typical 'grey non-gender-individual".
are we to assume there is only one aliens?
why isn't it "the blob"?
why not "E.T."?

does this make no sense to anyone else?

Well that's mostly Hollywood's fault...

It's easier ( especially in the past before CGI ) to paint someone blue or green and put antennas on them then to make "aliens" look other then humanoid... blame movies and T.V.

[kingjames488]

Messaggio originale di Lora Grim:

The assumption exists cause we only have one example of intelligent life. Us.
And the only place we have seen ourselves is here on Earth.
Most creatures that evolved on Earth share many similarities, so we just assume that if another intelligent species developed an a planet like Earth, that they'd share traits with things that evolved here on Earth.

tho again, that assumes that alien life would even be carbon based and require a planet like ours.

maybe there's silicon blob life? is anyone looking for that?

[eram]

probably a bit hard for a clever dolphin to make a cpu

hands help

also your senses are going to be near you brain and probably up high on the body, so a head...
you dont want your eyes near the ground where you cant see your pray and also the lag to get to the brain.

etc etc etc

so yeah maybe some divergence in evolution that ends up with something a little bit like us (assuming you are talking about beings that make and use technology)

clever squids maybe? could probably use like 6 soldering irons at the same time.

[Devsman]

Messaggio originale di kingjames488:

Messaggio originale di Lora Grim:

The assumption exists cause we only have one example of intelligent life. Us.
And the only place we have seen ourselves is here on Earth.
Most creatures that evolved on Earth share many similarities, so we just assume that if another intelligent species developed an a planet like Earth, that they'd share traits with things that evolved here on Earth.

tho again, that assumes that alien life would even be carbon based and require a planet like ours.

maybe there's silicon blob life? is anyone looking for that?

In 2001, the aliens didn't even have a physical form at all.

Actually, the novel talks about their evolution, and they did at one point but that was millions of years prior.

[kingjames488]

Messaggio originale di Your_White_Knight:

Messaggio originale di kingjames488:

it's weird how people always seem to assume aliens would be humanoid...

...even vaguely.

I'm all for the idea of there being 'life out there somewhere"... but it strikes me as odd that it always seems to conform to humanities pop culture interpretations of 'aliens'.

they're always more or less described as the typical 'grey non-gender-individual".
are we to assume there is only one aliens?
why isn't it "the blob"?
why not "E.T."?

does this make no sense to anyone else?

Well that's mostly Hollywood's fault...

It's easier ( especially in the past before CGI ) to paint someone blue or green and put antennas on them then to make "aliens" look other then humanoid... blame movies and T.V. :lunar2019grinningpig:

I mean, that is almost definitely the answer... the same reason the concept of artificial gravity was invented; it was cheaper than making people float around.

[Your_White_Knight]

Messaggio originale di L1qu1dator:

E.T. was pretty humanoid. 4 limbs - pair of hands and pair of legs, head with pair of eyes, a nose and a mouth.

That's because they wanted to make E.T. more relatable, "cute", and yes... marketable...

Nobody was going to buy E.T. dolls for their kids on Christmas if they looked like a Xenomorph...

[Lora Grim]

Messaggio originale di kingjames488:

tho again, that assumes that alien life would even be carbon based and require a planet like ours.

maybe there's silicon blob life? is anyone looking for that?

There are a lot of scientific speculations on such things, but that is all they are;speculations/guesses.

We know for a fact that we exist. We know what we look like and why we look like it.
We know that we can exist and no evidence of any of that other stuff existing, so again, we just make an educated guess that if there is life out there, it will be like humans.

*shrugs*

We wont know anything for certain till we meet an alien and then eat them. Delicious.

[kingjames488]

Messaggio originale di eram:

probably a bit hard for a clever dolphin to make a cpu

hands help

also your senses are going to be near you brain and probably up high on the body, so a head...
you dont want your eyes near the ground where you cant see your pray and also the lag to get to the brain.

etc etc etc

so yeah maybe some divergence in evolution that ends up with something a little bit like us (assuming you are talking about beings that make and use technology)

clever squids maybe? could probably use like 6 soldering irons at the same time.

if something like an octopus with a decentrilized brain can evolve on earth, just imagine what could happen on a whole other planet.

[L1qu1dator]

Messaggio originale di Your_White_Knight:

Messaggio originale di L1qu1dator:

E.T. was pretty humanoid. 4 limbs - pair of hands and pair of legs, head with pair of eyes, a nose and a mouth.

That's because they wanted to make E.T. more relatable, "cute", and yes... marketable...

Nobody was going to buy E.T. dolls for their kids on Christmas if they looked like a Xenomorph...

I know, was just questioning why OP placed E.T. as a non-humanoid example.

[kingjames488]

Messaggio originale di Midori:

Messaggio originale di kingjames488:

tho again, that assumes that alien life would even be carbon based and require a planet like ours.

maybe there's silicon blob life? is anyone looking for that?

Seems pretty difficult to make an alien interesting or fearsome if you go too abstract like that..

indeed, it's commonly mentioned in film documenteries how they add human features to all the aliens to make them more relatable.

[Your_White_Knight]

Messaggio originale di kingjames488:

Messaggio originale di Your_White_Knight:

Well that's mostly Hollywood's fault...

It's easier ( especially in the past before CGI ) to paint someone blue or green and put antennas on them then to make "aliens" look other then humanoid... blame movies and T.V.

I mean, that is almost definitely the answer... the same reason the concept of artificial gravity was invented; it was cheaper than making people float around.

True... 2001 was a game-changer... skip to 0:19

https://youtu.be/5ch5WC54egU