Almost Human Behavior Analysis Request

[Spacescifi]

 

I think the true litmus test of any fictional alien is how human or not human their civilzation is. So I will analyze fictional aliens of my own design to see how human they would behave.

Race 1 Analysis: They lack anger/sadness. Have fear, joy, love, disgust, and surprise only.

War:  Could it still exist among them? I suppose, but the only way to prolong one would likely be a war of a love of idealogies. One side loving an idea enough that they view another as a threat and tell the other side to give it up or else. In war I would expect soldiers to be dispassionate about killing, and fearful when threatened, even though they would have to control it.

Crime: I suppose. Maybe. You just would not have any crimes motivated by anger nor sadness. So probably few if any mass shootings, apart from those who are psychotic enough to enjoy that. Although people would not be angry with criminals, I could see them executing dangerous ones, to neutralize their threat to society. Life sentences and tons of red tape preventing execution I do not see happening there.

Sex: Without anger or sadness, relationships between the sexes would be different. Suppose one fears their mate is cheating on them. They love their mate, but do not feel angry or sad, rather they feel they may lose their mate to another. What what do they do? It depends. If they become disgusted with their mate's behavior they may get a divorce, if they still love their mate they may challenge their mate's lover to a duel or ask their mate to choose between them once and for all.

 

Race 2 Analysis: Sticks and stones may break their bones but words will truly never hurt them. Also they do not require association with others to be happy. They can be just as happy isolated as they are with a group. However a group CAN potentally make them less happy. They retain the full range of human emotions.

Friendship: I think it would be more like a mutual ally. If you help me and I trust you, so will I. They may enjoy another's company for a time, but at some point they will want to be alone and all of them would understand that.

Crime and war: A given. It's going to happen for the same reasons humans do it.

Conflict: Since words do not hurt, I would expect conflict to be more physical or through threats and intimidation. That would sooner or later lead to isolation from the threat or violence. Duels may be popular again.

 

What is your analysis?

[kerbiloid]

Are aliens rasta?

[Spacescifi]

29 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Are aliens rasta?

 

Excuse me?

 

Although perhaps that is the real irony here.

Every alien behavior we can imagine humans have done before, although they do not necessarily act like that 24/7 though.

For example, Vulcans have been depicted as proud, rascist, and overwhelmingly logical people. Klingons on the other hand tend to act like human bullies.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Spacescifi

[Signo]

2 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Are aliens rasta?

As far as I know at least Predators are.

[Spacescifi]

24 minutes ago, Signo said:

As far as I know at least Predators are.

 

What. Is. Rasta?

[kerbiloid]

54 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

What. Is. Rasta?

Spoiler

In terms of declared behavior and hairdo.

 

[Spacescifi]

6 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

  Hide contents

In terms of declared behavior and hairdo.

 

 

Huh? Are you referring to race 2? Or do you think both race 1 and 2 resemble Rastafarians?

Strange. I simply decided to play with/modify human traits. I was not really aiming for Rasta as I did'nt even know what it meant.

Actually race 2 I at least on a small scale was inspired by the social behavior (and lack thereof) of domestic cats. Thus when they want to be alone, leave them alone. They will let you know when they want company.

[razark]

On 9/18/2019 at 2:19 PM, Spacescifi said:

Race 1 Analysis: They lack anger/sadness. Have fear, joy, love, disgust, and surprise only.

War:  Could it still exist among them?

Easily.  

 

We want resource X.  If we don't have it, we will not be able to do Y.

They have resource X.  If we take it, they won't be able to do Y.

Therefore, we will take it from them by force.

(Insert any X and Y that you want.  Also, it holds true for (certain types of) crime.)

[Spacescifi]

12 minutes ago, razark said:

Easily.  

 

We want resource X.  If we don't have it, we will not be able to do Y.

They have resource X.  If we take it, they won't be able to do Y.

Therefore, we will take it from them by force.

(Insert any X and Y that you want.  Also, it holds true for (certain types of) crime.)

 

Thanks. I guess the crimes that won't exist will be crimes of hate.

Again, the closest thing to hate for them would be fear of an ideaology that another group has that threatens their own.

I guess what makes these aliens different than us is that they woukd be ready to make peace rather quickly as soon as they realize there is nothing to fear.

Unless they are so disusted by others (literally wanting to avoid) that peace is not an option. Only isolation or destruction... perhaps both.

EDIT:

Overall though, I would like to think that forgiveness would come easier for these aliens than us.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

If they don't have "anger" and "fear", they don't either distinguish "peace" from "war", or have "oaths".

Try to make a peace treaty with a street robber who doesn't hate you personally but wants your money.

Edited September 20, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Spacescifi]

57 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

If they don't have "anger" and "fear", they don't either distinguish "peace" from "war", or have "oaths".

Try to make a peace treaty with a street robber who doesn't hate you personally but wants your money.

 

Hold on. 

The grays (have grayish skin but otherwise virtually human with a few extra features) know and possess:

Joy

Love

Fear

Disgust

Surprise

What they do not have the capacity to feel are sadness and anger.

But yes, you have got it right that bargaining with these aliens can definitely be done if under the right circumstances where both sides get something they want.

As for the robber, there is no peace treaty for that. That is what law enforcement is for.

Understand that without anger, fear is often the next best thing to replace it and motivate them. 

As for robbers, some societies have EVERYBODY packing pistols for that very reason. Just in case.

Others do not allow weapons at all except by guards, and guard bots which are common.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

If their species don't have anger, it can neither be carnivorous/omnivorous, nor actively self-defend. Then their only survival strategy is hiding and reproducing.
Thus such species unlikely can evolve into a sapient one, unless it's a parasite of strong, aggressive, and stupid one.

[Spacescifi]

9 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

If their species don't have anger, it can neither be carnivorous/omnivorous, nor actively self-defend. Then their only survival strategy is hiding and reproducing.
Thus such species unlikely can evolve into a sapient one, unless it's a parasite of strong, aggressive, and stupid one.

 

Never said they evolved, nor did they. Races can have whatever origin story a writer wants.

Even so, their origins won't really play a major role until they come face to face with possible extinction anyway.

[Signo]

You should have a look for "r/K selection". I think that is what you are really looking for.

 

[kerbiloid]

31 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

Races can have whatever origin story a writer wants.

Then what does the word 'analysis" mean in the topic title?

[Spacescifi]

15 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Then what does the word 'analysis" mean in the topic title?

 

You have a point. You did what I asked for. Your analysis. I guess perhaps I was a bit vague in the original post.

Primarily my intention was to study their behavior to see posible types of behavior that may occur in their society.

Which is valuable to know in a scifi setting with multiple races where interstellar travel is casual.

 

 

[Signo]

8 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

 

You have a point. You did what I asked for. Your analysis. I guess perhaps I was a bit vague in the original post.

Primarily my intention was to study their behavior to see posible types of behavior that may occur in their society.

Which is valuable to know in a scifi setting with multiple races where interstellar travel is casual.

 

 

So you did not read about r/K selection: either you kill or be killed. Would you let a planet of K-selected entities you discovered first to flourish to kill you or would you kill them first? 

[Spacescifi]

8 minutes ago, Signo said:

So you did not read about r/K selection: either you kill or be killed. Would you let a planet of K-selected entities you discovered first to flourish to kill you or would you kill them first? 

 

That depends more on the ethics of the civilization involved. Inasmuch they only lack anger and sadness, and they still retain human curiousity, I do not see them being genocidal or even xenocidal.

 

If they met anything like the B5 shadows though... yeah. They would go full xenocidal on them. They are an obvious and unrelenting threat.

 

 

[Signo]

3 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

 

That depends more on the ethics of the civilization involved. Inasmuch they only lack anger and sadness, and they still retain human curiousity, I do not see them being genocidal or even xenocidal.

Risking your planet is a threat that spacefaring races will not want to face. Moreover if you think about "us", it is highly probable we will open fire first. Maybe we are the "shadows". We have all the good traits that make for a "nasty alien". And we never found any relatively close neighbor, we will be "the people coming from the black nebula that shot first". We will be feared. 

Or we are doomed and we will be killed by some alien bug. It was fun. Goodbye.

[Spacescifi]

3 minutes ago, Signo said:

Risking your planet is a threat that spacefaring races will not want to face. Moreover if you think about "us", it is highly probable we will open fire first. Maybe we are the "shadows". We have all the good traits that make for a "nasty alien". And we never found any relatively close neighbor, we will be "the people coming from the black nebula that shot first". We will be feared. 

Or we are doomed and we will be killed by some alien bug. It was fun. Goodbye.

 

Haha... deep thoughts you made.

But really and truly, it's all for fun and fictional. If anything, it's more art imitating life than anything else and the oddities of trying to cope in a strange universe that is like ours but dialed up to 11... because scifi.

[Signo]

Psychlos' math is 11 based, so the 100 credit note is actually a 121 one and their equations rely on cryptography to hide teleport tech from other races. And when they meet people they start with a planetary gas bombing as a welcome. Because sci-fi

 

EDIT: and they have surgically implanted "stuff" in their brain to make it "short-circuit" when an alien asks them about math.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Signo