Fictional aliens must be different than humans

[Spacescifi]

 

There are many ways to go about this, but the only thing I am absolutely for sure about a fictional alien race is this:5

They need to be different from us.

The easiest thing to do is change how they look and call it good.

Yet if you want them to act different than the average person, you need something.

What I give is only a suggestion so take it or leave it.

Take three words. If you can't think of any make them all start with the same letter. Next, think of how each word relates to the alien, how they are not like your average person.

Granted no alien created by humans is truly alien, neither could we write what we do not know. The goal is to write a race that is different than your average person. That is all it takes. If your race is different in ways that go beyond skin deep, then that is good enough for me.

Try it. Here, I will even give you some words.

They all start with the letter S.

Safety. Sight. Sex.

Now what did you come up with?

 

 

And yes, I already have all three words completed, if anyone cares just ask me.

[cubinator]

Conversation. An alien race might communicate with each other by warming up different parts of their body in certain patterns. This is something we literally cannot do ourselves, and so finding a common means of communication would not involve speech at all.

[Spacescifi]

39 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Conversation. An alien race might communicate with each other by warming up different parts of their body in certain patterns. This is something we literally cannot do ourselves, and so finding a common means of communication would not involve speech at all.

 

True and an awesome thought.

Conversation.

Cat

Camera

Conversation as you said.

Cat means they definitely have some cat characterstics going on, camera means their brain has the storage capacity to record 48 hours of what they see and hear and can rewatch it with eyes closed, fast forwarding, pausing or rewinding at will. Also they can delete it.

Even if dead, a blood sample can be taken, and given that the cells store the information it can be converted to digital format and viewed on computer or TV later.

It also means that each and every one of them is a walking camera that can be used against you in a court of law.

Edited May 21, 2019 by Spacescifi

[KSK]

Big. Bad. Banana.

A highly intelligent species in which bunches of individuals spend most of their time nourished by and plugged into their Ur-Tree. To Terran eyes they resemble bunches of overgrown bananas.

That doesn’t sound so bad though. Well you haven’t seen what happens when something threatens the Ur-Tree. Applying strict vulcanesque logic, one bunch will sacrifice themselves to save the many. Through an accelerated aging process, the bodies of the Chosen transform into a mush of toxins barely held together by a decaying outer shell.

Then they fall on whatever threatens them...

[Nightside]

Fissile. Fastidious. Fungi.

The Igsouel species replicates itself by a process of asexual binary fission upon reaching maturity (imagine getting a twin sibling when you turn 20). 

They are decomposers, like fungi and require large amounts of decaying carbon based matter for food.

They are a bit ashamed of eating rotting garbage and so are extremely fastidious at all other times.

[Spacescifi]

1 hour ago, Nightside said:

Fissile. Fastidious. Fungi.

The Igsouel species replicates itself by a process of asexual binary fission upon reaching maturity (imagine getting a twin sibling when you turn 20). 

They are decomposers, like fungi and require large amounts of decaying carbon based matter for food.

They are a bit ashamed of eating rotting garbage and so are extremely fastidious at all other times.

Quite good? How would they look? 

Humanoid is arguably the most practical design for an intelligent race.

Why? Human feet and legs are made to support weight, animals are usually built for speed (bent backward at the knee so they can lunge forward). And it is also easier to build up than to build out, especially with a big rearend like all animals tend to have.

What I am saying is that animal based designs can work, but they are hardly as efficient as the humanoid design for doing stuff humans do (reading, building stuff).

My personal preference is to modify the humanoid design in ways that give the aliens an actual advantage over humans.

For example, I would put retractable cat claws inside the joint where the fingers flex, making that part somewhat bigger to accomodate the claws.

That is a better spot for them, as real cat claws are attahced to shot stubby digits for better force application. If the claws were at the ends of the human fingertips, they would more easily be broken and have less force could be applied easily.

Now you can merely bend the fingertips to swipe something with PLENTY of force. Superior to using your fingertips and possibly breaking a finger in the process. Bending the fingers is almost like using your fist.

[Mikki]

I could imagine a alienrace of;

Insectoids, enhanced with "custom bionics" like digital extended memory or digital situation awareness, artificially extended lifetime by genetic engineering or chemical, physical technologie. Not the regular specimen of said insectoid civilisation, highly optimized for exploration.

Travelling space at c, close to c, or morelikely at a fraction of c might need to specialize the travellers to make it even possible.

They might be similar to humans, bipedal, imagine descendants evolved from a ant or termite, wasp or bee kind ancestor.

They may be super adaptable by genetical engineering themself in "no-time", and live like for ten thousand years, when some wish to do so. Which noone of them wants, because its just dead-boring even for them.

Their reproduction and social behaviour might be utterly pragmatic and lacking any sense for things like religion, politics or human desires. They might be interested finding ways to other dimensions/ parallel universes or simply wanna look around what`s going on in the Milkyway.

Maybe said insectoids are capable of manipulating physics in a way that make them literally god-like in our eyes.
A Kardashev scale 2,5 or 3+ civilisation which currently creates a unfathomable galaxy-supercluster-wide experiment due to pure boredom, nobody really knows the idea behind. Clearly, they utilize selfreplicating robots and artificial intelligence to persue their goals.

Single specimen/ groups of said Insectoidrace might be "prospecting" the galactic neighborhood for unwanted "collateral" damage due to their "higher means" and follow instructions from their superiors without knowing any much more details to share with us.

Basically absolutly friendly aliens, galactic "apex predators" without the need for any prey and missing any fear because they simply "can". They assemble any desired element in wast amounts simply by nuclear fusion, equipment and any biological sample is nano or mega constructed at fully automated facilitys surveyed by A.I.

Literally gods. On the edge of creating live themself based on well-known elements, carbon, hydrogen and the common matter created in supernovas or their nuclear fusion facilitys. We may behave like bacteria to them, but still respected and taken for serious.

 

 

Edited May 23, 2019 by Mikki
typo:D

[Spacescifi]

1 hour ago, Mikki said:

I could imagine a alienrace of;

Insectoids, enhanced with "custom bionics" like digital extended memory or digital situation awareness, artificially extended lifetime by genetic engineering or chemical, physical technologie. Not the regular specimen of said insectoid civilisation, highly optimized for exploration.

Travelling space at c, close to c, or morelikely at a fraction of c might need to specialize the travellers to make it even possible.

They might be similar to humans, bipedal, imagine descendants evolved from a ant or termite, wasp or bee kind ancestor.

They may be super adaptable by genetical engineering themself in "no-time", and live like for ten thousand years, when some wish to do so. Which noone of them wants, because its just dead-boring even for them.

Their reproduction and social behaviour might be utterly pragmatic and lacking any sense for things like religion, politics or human desires. They might be interested finding ways to other dimensions/ parallel universes or simply wanna look around what`s going on in the Milkyway.

Maybe said insectoids are capable of manipulating physics in a way that make them literally god-like in our eyes.
A Kardashev scale 2,5 or 3+ civilisation which currently creates a unfathomable galaxy-supercluster-wide experiment due to pure boredom, nobody really knows the idea behind. Clearly, they utilize selfreplicating robots and artificial intelligence to persue their goals.

Single specimen/ groups of said Insectoidrace might be "prospecting" the galactic neighborhood for unwanted "collateral" damage due to their "higher means" and follow instructions from their superiors without knowing any much more details to share with us.

Basically absolutly friendly aliens, galactic "apex predators" without the need for any prey and missing any fear because they simply "can". They assemble any desired element in wast amounts simply by nuclear fusion, equipment and any biological sample is nano or mega constructed at fully automated facilitys surveyed by A.I.

Literally gods. On the edge of creating live themself based on well-known elements, carbon, hydrogen and the common matter created in supernovas or their nuclear fusion facilitys. We may behave like bacteria to them, but still respected and taken for serious.

 

 

Ha, as far advanced as these fictional aliens are, I can still detect human characteristics in them. Humans get bored. Humans like to create.

Animals as a psychological model leads to sub-human intellect, so I suppose we have no other choice than to use hunans as a base.

Aliens I intend to use for my story are based on three words.

Safety. Sight. Sex.

Safety means that they accept, provide, and support safety. The one thing that will make them be unsafe is their curiousity to see something. But they get no thrill out of risking their lives to know how close they can get to death

Sight means they love visuals and incorporate it into their technology more than humans do. They also are innately good at imitation by sight, which means in general they make good artists. In both drawing and music. They are basically sight learners, even though they may not have the muscle nemory for a new task, they can copy it by movement until they get it 

Sex means unlike humans, sexual arousal and pleasure depends totally on eating specific native fruits. Meaning without them, even a lover would merely treat their mate like a close platonic friend. The opposite sex can use the same locker rooms without issue too when they have'nt eaten any of the fruit recently.

The native fruit is regulated, and knowing that other races, including humans can easily be sexually aroused, they avoid coed locker rooms with them. Only with each other do they use coed rooms.

[Mikki]

Having a reproduction cycle depending on a second lifeform (the fruit) seems basically legit.

But it seems to circumvent evolution and adapting to changes in the environment in general, "Survival of the fittest" has been proven a somewhat effective way to evolve a species to gain higher levels of intelligence.

Abundance of the trigger (the fruit) is a so-called filter in evolution, some simple lifeforms on earth may have existed for a certain timespan like this, untill the environment changed and the trigger vanished.

Not criticism but such a sex mechanism as described leads to many open questions when applied to higher lifeforms.

Sex is most simply explained a trick of nature to cheat death, refreshing and mixing DNA, the pleasure and arousal a programmed feature buried deep in the genome and acting on the most basic level of the subcontiousness.

Depending on the fruits make this species rather vulnerable, the genetic pool under constant constraints less likely to evolve naturally and healthy.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Mikki

[Spacescifi]

55 minutes ago, Mikki said:

Having a reproduction cycle depending on a second lifeform (the fruit) seems basically legit.

But it seems to circumvent evolution and adapting to changes in the environment in general, "Survival of the fittest" has been proven a somewhat effective way to evolve a species to gain higher levels of intelligence.

Abundance of the trigger (the fruit) is a so-called filter in evolution, some simple lifeforms on earth may have existed for a certain timespan like this, untill the environment changed and the trigger vanished.

Not criticism but such a sex mechanism as described leads to many open questions when applied to higher lifeforms.

Sex is most simply explained a trick of nature to cheat death, refreshing and mixing DNA, the pleasure and arousal a programmed feature buried deep in the genome and acting on the most basic level of the subcontiousness.

Depending on the fruits make this species rather vulnerable, the genetic pool under constant constraints less likely to evolve naturally and healthy.

I understand your rationale, others have said similar things, but it is'nt a cause for concern for me.

Human scientists may scratch their heads on how they ever got as far as they did.

The funny thing is, the aliens will also wonder why we have'nt nuked ourselves to oblivion yet.

Questions with answers that can be as simple or complex as you want then to be.

For what it's worth, I have another cat based race that looks kinda like this.

Main difference is the claws are where I mentioned earlier. Not on fingertips.

These also have some strange ways about then, which will freak you out if you apply evolutionary logic to them.

They are based upon 3 words.

Food: They can eat a lot and not eat for days after. Food is about health first for them. A person's health records are scanned at stores and restaurants, so that anything that will damage them beyond acceptsble levels they won't be able to buy until their health improves enough. 

Friendship: Friendship means they trust that you won't take their stuff while they aren't looking. By nature they steal from strangers and have no laws against it, unless friends are involved. Otherwise everything is either secured or made so that stealing is not worth the trouble. Often leaders of companies are family and friends.

Fitness: Being physically fit is more important than for your average human. Since they love to chase down prey even when they don't plan on killing it  For exercise. They even incorporate exercise in their architecture, making doors unusually heavy or requiring you to pull/lift back heavy levers to open them.

Beyond all this, they take frequent short naps (to recover from strenous activity) and their bodies do not create their own body fat. So eating pure fat for them is quite healthy... up to a point anyway.

 

 

Edited May 23, 2019 by Spacescifi

[Mikki]

Conceptually a species that could truely exist, agreed. (Its not that i agree based on my current forumname "robotic cat", which is purely fun and not related)

I do like local wildlife which includes domesticated cats and wildcats, lynxes, even wolverines, and the behaviour of said reallife fauna is rather amazing, funny and sometimes frightening. I give your fictional endeavour quite a good chance for a good sci-fi story.... and the mentioned life-cycle has it`s rationale nonetheless, even some "old snarky people" like me must respect other ideas.  (Knocking my head and thinking "Get out you demons of rationality, now!")

Edit: You are actually smart, we, descendants from banana munching apes should exercise some modesty when it comes to a possible global tribe outrage involving nuclear fissile sticks driven by pure greed about bigger and tastier bananas.

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Mikki

[Spacescifi]

16 minutes ago, Mikki said:

Conceptually a species that could truely exist, agreed. (Its not that i agree based on my current forumname "robotic cat", which is purely fun and not related)

I do like local wildlife which includes domesticated cats and wildcats, lynxes, even wolverines, and the behaviour of said reallife fauna is rather amazing, funny and sometimes frightening. I give your fictional endeavour quite a good chance for a good sci-fi story.... and the mentioned life-cycle has it`s rationale nonetheless, even some "old snarky people" like me must respect other ideas.  (Knocking my head and thinking "Get out you demons of rationality, now!")

 

The first race that relies on specific fruit for their reproductive cycle actually has a bit more to them than I am letting on.

But only in a physical way. They can climb walls. Courtesy of octopus suction plates on their fingers and palm, going all the way up the forearm to the elbow. To do this they excrete a sticky adhesive through palms and fingers that looks akin to a shiny iridescent snail trail.

Also have them on ear lobes, fringes of ear, knee caps, and the soles of their feet.

Their home of origin is a mars like world but big as earth and an atmosphere lime earth's as well. The sky is pinkish though near the the horizon (closer to the ground) and fades to blue as you it goes higher.

Grass is red from the high iron content, since red us like green is on earth.

The aliens themselves have a much higher tolerance for cancer than us, what with eating plants made from soil with lots of rust in it.

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Spacescifi

[GearsNSuch]

This species would resemble a 70s era automobile.

Their skeletons would form a car frame shape, overlaid by a photosynthesis capable, paint-like, shell. 

Their “engine” would be composed of a quick firing bone and muscle system arranged in a similar manner to a railway pump cart. This would drive the “wheels,” composed of a wood like substance with an air bladder around. 

Within, the “cabin,” or stomach, fed by a mouth in the region of the gas flap and another under the engine, would have digestive fungal growths resembling luxury seats. 

Although their cognitive ability would be somewhat limited, their fantastic speed would allow them to catch unsuspecting prey. 

They would communicate via air blasts released from a bladder that produced a honking noise and bioluminescent lights positioned around the perimeter. Alpha organisms would assert their dominance by blasting deep bass from another “speaker” organ, although this would frequently cause them to be executed by other members of the pack. 

[Starhawk]

This thread been moved to Science and Spaceflight.

KSP Moderation Team

[magnemoe]

How about body plans? After body plans who works well, better or almost as good as our.

We have the human ones, upright with two arms and two legs.
Note that this is still human body plan

Then we have Dinosaur and birds as an second, many dinosaurs had arms, they just lacked an large brain and hands. 

Centaur or 4 legs and two arms could easy be 6 legs or 4 arms and 4 legs while I don't think an 2 legs and 4 arms would be common. 
 

Edited May 29, 2019 by magnemoe

[kerbiloid]

55 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Centaur or 4 legs and two arms could easy be 6 legs or 4 arms and 4 legs while I don't think an 2 legs and 4 arms would be common. 

Btw, Ph.J.Farmer in his World of Tiers series mercilessly deconstructed the common centaur body plan. Even not naturally evolved, but manually constructed (like in the book).

Recalling and creatively expanding his idea, that's somewhat like this.

(Given the human upper body + horse lower body)

Tiny human nostrils can't provide the huge horse body with air, they should be expanded to the horse nostrils size, together with the nose.
The same about the throat and the neck.

Tiny human mouth and puny human teeth can't eat enough grass to feed the horse body.
It should either have a horse-big mouth, jaws, and teeth, or be a predator to eat more nutritious food.

Even having the horse-like jaws, it should gather the grass. But it can't bite it from the ground with the human face, as it sits on the human torso instead of the flexible horse neck.
So, it should do it with arms. But the human arms are too short and soft to do that, it can be done only with tools and blindly.
So, a herbivorous centaur should be dropped. Only a carnivorous one.

But a predator centaur should anyway eat a lot, much more than a human, so its head (even staying human-like) should be much bigger, to have big jaws, and still horse-sized nose and neck.

But all this faces the next problem: what to put into the human torso?
Tiny human lungs, heart, liver and stomach are absolutely useless for the horse-sized body. They are only a barrier between the face and the really big lower intestines.
So, they should be removed, and the human torso should be just like a horse neck.

But horses don't have shoulders right next to the jaws.
So, either the human torso should still have a skeleton (ribs and shoulders) to have the arms attached beneath the human head, or the arms should be lowered down to the horse shoulders.

But if lower the arms, then there is no need in the human torso at all, it just makes troubles. So, in this case the centaur becomes a hexapod with the front pair of limbos not used for moving and unproper CoM position.

In the Farmer's book the human torso was enlarged but kept the human shape, all human intestines were replaced with an additional lung pump to help the horse lungs with breathing.
This in turn should cause a problem with the pump and the native horse diaphragm synchronization and burst the horse's lungs. Also as a real horse lives without such pump, it looks not useful.

So, a centaur species looks unrealistic in any case.

Edited May 29, 2019 by kerbiloid

[magnemoe]

15 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Btw, Ph.J.Farmer in his World of Tiers series mercilessly deconstructed the common centaur body plan. Even not naturally evolved, but manually constructed (like in the book).

Recalling and creatively expanding his idea, that's somewhat like this.

(Given the human upper body + horse lower body)

Tiny human nostrils can't provide the huge horse body with air, they should be expanded to the horse nostrils size, together with the nose.
The same about the throat and the neck.

Tiny human mouth and puny human teeth can't eat enough grass to feed the horse body.
It should either have a horse-big mouth, jaws, and teeth, or be a predator to eat more nutritious food.

Even having the horse-like jaws, it should gather the grass. But it can't bite it from the ground with the human face, as it sits on the human torso instead of the flexible horse neck.
So, it should do it with arms. But the human arms are too short and soft to do that, it can be done only with tools and blindly.
So, a herbivorous centaur should be dropped. Only a carnivorous one.

But a predator centaur should anyway eat a lot, much more than a human, so its head (even staying human-like) should be much bigger, to have big jaws, and still horse-sized nose and neck.

But all this faces the next problem: what to put into the human torso?
Tiny human lungs, heart, liver and stomach are absolutely useless for the horse-sized body. They are only a barrier between the face and the really big lower intestines.
So, they should be removed, and the human torso should be just like a horse neck.

But horses don't have shoulders right next to the jaws.
So, either the human torso should still have a skeleton (ribs and shoulders) to have the arms attached beneath the human head, or the arms should be lowered down to the horse shoulders.

But if lower the arms, then there is no need in the human torso at all, it just makes troubles. So, in this case the centaur becomes a hexapod with the front pair of limbos not used for moving and unproper CoM position.

In the Farmer's book the human torso was enlarged but kept the human shape, all human intestines were replaced with an additional lung pump to help the horse lungs with breathing.
This in turn should cause a problem with the pump and the native horse diaphragm synchronization and burst the horse's lungs. Also as a real horse lives without such pump, it looks not useful.

So, a centaur species looks unrealistic in any case.

Totaly agree the centaur creature is stupid. With centaur body plan I was thinking 4 legs and 2 arms or an combination.
Something more like this. 

Lower body is not much thicker than upper, as an creature with no arms think an dachshund with an set of legs halfway down  
However you could also make upper body on the above creature shorter, reduce distance from arms to front leg to the half would work just as well. 

[kerbiloid]

CoM is still before the front legs.

A balanced CoM centaur: "drider" (caution, disgusting content.)

But still has problems with short arms and invisible ground.

[magnemoe]

54 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

CoM is still before the front legs.

A balanced CoM centaur: "drider" (caution, disgusting content.)

But still has problems with short arms and invisible ground.

Good point about CoM, it would be behind the front legs even if front is extended forward on above image as bak part is much heavier, still most weight on front legs. 
An drider design is pretty much another body plan, with so many legs you could simply use the two front one as hand and still have 6. 
Issue is if so closed packed legs would scale up?

[mikegarrison]

Every large animal on Earth is evolutionarily related to us. So there is no reason to think that alien life would be even as similar to us as an alligator or a boa constrictor.

[Nightside]

4 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

So, a centaur species looks unrealistic in any case

That was great,  now do a Pegasus.

Just to start it would certainly need hollow bones...

[kerbiloid]

3 minutes ago, Nightside said:

That was great,  now do a Pegasus.

Just to start it would certainly need hollow bones...

If take cow instead of horse, it will have out-of-the-box methane propulsion as a bonus.

Edited May 29, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Spacescifi]

6 hours ago, magnemoe said:

How about body plans? After body plans who works well, better or almost as good as our.

We have the human ones, upright with two arms and two legs.
Note that this is still human body plan

Then we have Dinosaur and birds as an second, many dinosaurs had arms, they just lacked an large brain and hands. 

Centaur or 4 legs and two arms could easy be 6 legs or 4 arms and 4 legs while I don't think an 2 legs and 4 arms would be common. 
 

Aww... as much as I love catfolk creation, the legs and feet need to be humanized, or else they will be inferior to human legs for load bearing (holding heavy stuff with arms).

Here are some pics from a website that explains it more thoroughly.

Also this: Simply standing would be a challenge for extended periods of time. Cat other creatures like dogs have legs optimized for pure speed. Ever seen a dog run so fast his hind legs literally arent even touching the ground as he lunges forward? Humans are optimized for reading, writing, and building. Animals? Are optimized for hunting, chasing, running away, and searching.

 

Edited May 29, 2019 by Spacescifi
Fix

[mikegarrison]

No offense, but if this is going to be a thread about neko girls, maybe it shouldn't have been moved to the science forum?

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

No offense, but if this is going to be a thread about neko girls, maybe it shouldn't have been moved to the science forum?

Its about body plans, catgirls are simple easy to use as models as popular, could used WOW races instead

And Spacescifi, agree with you, line 2 would be an walking animation, also straight then staning . basically straight to handle load. And yes somewhat inferior potentially faster but less stable and less capable of carrying load.