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EderNogueira — Sapient Alien
#alien #alienígena #creature #dry #extraterrestrial #intelligent #pastel #seco #sapient #et
Published: 2017-10-12 16:34:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 4086; Favourites: 78; Downloads: 7
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Alienígena Sapiente.Dry pastel.
I was just wandering about some intelligent species, able to build a civilization, that would look nothing like humans.
Some scientists, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, think that intelligent aliens wouldn't look humanoid, while others, like Richard Dawkins, think that a humanoid shape could be the consequence of convergent evolution and that sapient extraterrestrials would have some human-like features.
Though I couldn't think of a shape for a species capable of building things better than the humanoid shape, I think I managed to create a functional, yet very non-human, creature. It is radially symmetrical, has eyes around its head, uses his members as both legs and arms when necessary and is protected by a natural, rigid "armor". I don't know where its mouth is located, maybe beneath the body among the legs, and its digestory system may be closed like that of a starfish.
I didn't think too much about the planet, but it resembles both Mars and Earth and it has at least two visible round moons. It orbits a Sun-like or a less massive star.
Extraterrestrial series.
Éder N. Santos, 2017.
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Comments: 17
>Though I couldn't think of a shape for a species capable of building things better than the humanoid shape
It appears that you've forgotten that birds and social insects existed.
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I didn't. But eusocial insects like ants, bees or termites can't be as heavy and tall as a human being without a complex endoskeleton, and birds can't communicate vocally when using their beaks to grab a piece of grass or mud. Human fingers are far more complex when it comes to objects or tool manipulation, and our upper limbs evolved for that purpose, being generally not needed for locomotion.
I also mean technologically advanced aliens, not merely intelligent ones. Like creatures that can build cities, computers, factories, spaceships and so on.
I also didn't say aliens need to be humanoid. I've recently finished a short story where non-humanoid advanced aliens exist. But I would not be surprised to find real aliens that are humanoid because of convergent evolution.
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That is an insightful reply, although I should note that there are alternative ways to communicate without making sound(for example, ants and bees usually communicate with pheromones and bodily gestures), and there are plenty of organic appendages that can be refined to become a manipulative organ(trunks, tentacles, etc).
Otherwise, it’s pretty insightful reply.
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I tend to side with the non-humanoid version. Maybe there are some humanoids out there, but not every bodyshape is able to evolve into something humanoid without something equally functional on the way.
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Life must be extremely common in the universe, for many reasons (the vastness of the Universe, the abundance of the elements necessary for life, the fact that life on Earth seems to have been an easy and inevitable consequence of its chemistry, etc...), but of course, intelligente life is another story and it must be much rarer than simple life.
Any intelligent organism capable of building cities, factories, ships, etc. must be able to manipulate objects and create tools. You can't easily do that if you are snake-like, or too weak, or too soft... An alien must have at least some organs similar to our hands, and based on characteristics that are evolutionary trends and evolved independently many times here on Earth, they must have eyes and other sensorial organs.
If you take convergent evolution into consideration, you see that similar natural pressures lead to similar characteristics. See the example of sharks and dolphins: sharks are fish, dolphins are mammals. Sharks evolved from another fish while dolphins evolved from a terrestrial, quadrupedal mammal that ventured in the water. Threy are both fast swimmers and predators, so natural selection made them independently similar.
So, if an alien species has similar needs to us, it would not be strange if they inevitably became humanoids... 
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You're right, but if you look at cephalopods or some of the dinosauroids people came up with, you see that they are able to manipulate opjects just fine without being humanoid. Just as I said, there might be some humanoids, but I think there are other ways to build a civilization, and who knows's which ways are common and which are rare...
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Yes but their ability to use objects doesn't get even close to ours. Also, octopi live in the sea, and their ability would be much more limited on land. The next sapient alien I'm going to draw will look far more humanoid than this one.
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Who says that a civilization couldn't be limited to the sea until they develop the technology to travel on land. Similar to how ours was limited to the land and later invented ships and even later diving equipment and submarines.
Personally, I like a quadruped (or even more legs) bodyplan with additional arms, what would also be interesting is a flying organism with different appendages for manipulating objects and sitting on the ground or hanging on a tree or building or something like that.
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I think it's extremely unlikely that any aquatic being could become technologically advanced, for one simple reason: fire. Fire and metallurgy were essential for humans to develop their technology, and how could you forge metal alloys underwater? Or burn fossil fuels? Maybe you could use some geothermal vents as a source of energy but I think it's simply impractical. Such beings would not have a very good start to move forwards and get through more advanced stages of technological development, to the point that they could simply move to land and to space.
I'm pretty sure that if we find life on subsurface oceans (like those of Europa) or on some ocean planet, it will not be intelligent.
Yeah I though about some kind of quadrupedal animal too.
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Maybe those people life on a planet where there are other ways of creating energy even under water (somehow, I think about Spongebob making a BBQ underwater) or they just found a way we, with our fire, never thought about, because our brains work totally different or the circumstances just didn't make it necessary for us.
But I agree with you that intelligence is muuuuch less likely than life in general, not only under water, but I think it would be possible. Maybe fire or heat isn't even necessary for a pre-industrial society if the climate is warm enough or the have other natural advantages.
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I still think it's extremely unlikely. I don't even rule out life in the atmosphere of gas giants, but some environments are simply incompatible with native technological societies.
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...as we know them
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