How do you envisage aliens will look when we finally meet them?

Mighty mouse

Mighty mouse

Sillycon Valley
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Jun 11, 2006
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I think I read somewhere that our form, a two legged bipedal, is the most likely evolutionary occurance.

I suspect where you get life you get a lot of life, so of the survival traits, lack of susceptibility to disease and environmental change rather than intelligence will prevail. So I confidently expect thick skinned, squat types rather than 16 legged spiders with huge brains. Birds with brains would be good though.

Knowing our luck we will probably get evangelical harpies that try to sell us the equivalent of the Big Issue before moving on. Imagine it, religious zealots using androids to disseminate their message. Just accept the word and get a free android. Bliss
 
If they're advanced then they must be able to manipulate tools of some kind. The first and most basic step is "How do they do this?"
 
I just hope we're able to recognize them as life forms when they do show up. We're in just about the ideal spot in the Universe for carbon based life forms. Our Solar system has enough complex molecules for metal. Many solar systems don't. Maybe the inhabitants of those can manipulate simple molecules into more complex molecules. (Gas into metal).
 
They'll be an intelligent shade of blue that needs to be refracted through a prism!

Sorry...too much of a Hitchhiker's fan, I guess! :eek:

Um...perhaps they'll send their equivalent of a chimp or a dog first!

Ah, you can't really say for certain, I suppose, because who knows what random evolutionary processes have taken place out there. And if the universe is as expansive and infintive as some believe, then technically every single possible appeareance could be out there!
 
genetic-enegeneering parasites (the flood)

parasitic or symbiotic worms (dream catcher)

grays

they look like us!

there are no aliens

slugs and caterpillars

bugs

rapidly evovling insectiod reptilians (tyranids)

evil clowns

buckyball-like structures

intelligent elements

floating brains

fishmen

lizardmen

really hot hermaphroditic cat people or fox people or lizardmen that believe sex is something to be enjoyed every chance you get (how they got into space, I'll never know, maybe an advanced form of multi-tasking?)

whales

something like a cross between a snail and a mantis
 
Pedantry:
Intelligent aliens? If not, my first suggestion is "very small"; there are many more microscopic than large organisms, and they've inhabited a wider selection of environments.
 
Pedantree (please imagine the branches, it's too complicated to draw it)
Intelligent aliens?:If not, probably very small (there are far more microscopic than large organisms, and they're adapted to a wider range of environments)
If intelligent, did they find us or did we discover them (considering that the first extraterrestrial hookup being a random meeting in an interstellar filling station is improbable)
If they've come to Earth, some way of manipulating matter is essential. Similarly, some sensory organs capable of getting information from outside their immediate environment (probably electromagnetic radiation {light, radio waves, infra red, gammas}; but a sensitive gravity detector, or something that translates one energy into another is possible)
Some form of technology to endure the rigors of space travel (a space living organism is possible, but timescales lower the probability of it visiting [The black cloud]
A size within three orders of magnitude of a human being (too small, the only way to get the complexity is to use neutronium or equivalent, which couldn't visit, too big, and not only do you have difficulties transporting it, but "nerve" impulses, restricted to light speed, slow its reaction time until it could barely detect us. There might be a sentient planet, but we are going to have to visit it.)
If we're visiting someone elses planet, then recognising sentience might be the first major problem. If it doesn't build motorways or eat hamburgers, how do we know it's intelligent. Indeed, we don't have a definition of "intelligent" which can be agreed on for this planet. If it doesn't require technology, its means of manipulating the environment might not be clear at all, and though we'd know we'd seen an alien, we wouldn't know we'd seen a sapient one.

But (ignoring a huge tangle of potential choices on his paper) I consider the most likely first contact with an intelligence not descended from our DNA to be with one created by ourselves, springing from our present computers; and that won't look like anything, much.
 
They're blue. They have fairly small bodies and relatively long legs. They have 3 legs each with feet that are a bit like our hands, but much much tougher, though they can use tools with them. They have 4 eyes each. They're excellent at jumping.

or maybe I'm just bored... :D
 
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I was bored too.
 
Ok. I'll won't do a JD here.

If they are advanced enough to get here, then they might understand that
a different appearance might not be the best for first contact.
So if they look horrible,then they either are not for peace, or are not advanced enough ;)
 
Alurny: Heh! Surprisingly close to the image that popped into my head only the eyes were placed differently. Well done anyway!
 
I think they'll look very shocked and rather curious about us.
 
Last edited:
Saolta Oiche said:
I think they'll look very shocked and rather curious about us.
Click to expand...

On that, I'm reminded of an old cartoon (National Lampoon or Heavy Metal, I think) spoofing Close Encounters of the Third Kind ... when the alien reaches the Mother Ship, all battered and bruised and is asked: "So, how did it go?" his(?) response: "Level this planet!" If they really took a good look, we might not have a chance to see them... that might well be their response.....
 
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