If an alien race appears and they look just like us, would they be humans?

[BoredAussieGamer]

Well, they could look alot like us, have many same exterior features, but it's a massive leap to say that they're humans.

They could be silicon based life. They may have seperate pipes for eating and breathing. They may not even be Vertebrates (having a spinal column).

 

[DoPo]

If we can produce viable, fertile offspring with them they are technically of the same species. I'd call them humans.

People keep saying this, but Horses and Donkeys can produce infertile Mules. So the ability to cross-breed is not an indicator of the same species.

Erm, yeah. You are just confirming what he said. The mules are infertile - they fail the "viable, fertile offspring" Singularly Datarific mentioned. So yes, only producing offspring is not the sign that both are the same species. I don't know why you felt the need to reaffirm it.

OT: No, looks aren't the same as species, otherwise we'd consider wax figures and some sculptures to be part of the human race.

 

[DracoSuave]

If we can produce viable, fertile offspring with them they are technically of the same species. I'd call them humans.

That might also disprove evolution theory in one fell swoop.

 

[Mr F.]

No. They would not be humans.

We are more then what we look like.

Although if said alien species appeared and looked like us, had the same organ structure as us and, functionally, were identical to us then that would be different. They still would not be humans but...

Well, its hard to wrap my brain around the concept and the chance is so minute.

The original question was if they "Looked" like us. So no, they would not be humans. For all we know they could be sacks of sentient water that choose to look like humans for no apparent reason.

 

[thespyisdead]

seeing as how we live on different planets, the chance of an alien race being similar to us is slim, due to different evolutionary pressures the environment on the 2 planets dish out, even if they are the the descendants of the people from earth that were abducted and seeded elsewhere in the universe 10,000 yrs ago. different evolutionary pressures CALL for different evolutionary paths

 

[MetalMagpie]

If an alien race appears and they look just like us, would they be humans?

If "human" means a member of the species Homo Sapiens Sapiens, then no. Just because something looks the same as something else, doesn't make it the same species, or even related. (See "convergent evolution" for more fun.)

If "human" means "an intelligent creature that can be described as a person as opposed to a simple animal" then that depends on how they behave, not what they look like. A waxwork model looks like a human being, but destroying one isn't murder.

Determining what the difference is between a "person" and an "animal" (using the common meaning of "animal" rather than the technical one) is a Difficult Problem (capital letters required).

Suggestions made in the past have included:
- Possesses a complex communication system capable of expressing abstract ideas.
- Manufactures tools that are in turn used for the manufacture of more complex tools.
- Clearly identifies a difference in intellectual level between themselves and other species.
- Worships a deity with a non-physical form.
- Has established a code of morality.

Clearly, all of these definitions have problems, and none of them seem remotely satisfactory as a way to "sum up" what makes someone a person. This is why it's a difficult question to answer!

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Nope. Even if they were like us in 99.9% of appearance, DNA, etc. They still aren't human.

 

[MetalMagpie]

If we can produce viable, fertile offspring with them they are technically of the same species..

Unfortunately, the definition of a species is not nearly as simple as that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem].

That might also disprove evolution theory in one fell swoop.

*is interested* Why? Are you thinking on the grounds of it being such an unlikely event to happen randomly that there must be a linking factor?

 

[chadachada123]

If we can produce viable, fertile offspring with them they are technically of the same species. I'd call them humans.

That might also disprove evolution theory in one fell swoop.

I wouldn't say so. Out of trillions upon trillions of planets out there, and with each planet with life on it presumably having hundreds of millions of different species like Earth has/has had, there's a real non-zero chance that two planets will end up sharing a species with really similar DNA (assuming DNA is standard amongst planets with life).

Plus, there's a larger chance that these humans were either planted there by some advanced alien species or something.

The odds of us having evolved simultaneously like that is extremely small, and it'd be something that we'd have to confer with the new-humans about, but it wouldn't be any real nails in the coffin of evolution.

If they have mapped their own evolution like we have ours, then we'd be able to see how their evolution ended up converging into a species just like ours. More than likely, though, it would just be aliens planting humans on random planets.

 

[Tygerml]

It would be incredibly unlikely that another planet would experience the exact same geologic events that would have resulted in the rise of homo sapiens. Just think, if a world like ours had evolved dinosaurs but never experienced an event that wiped them out like it happened on Earth would humanity's ancestors have even existed?

Given the odds involved it's pretty unlikely to ever happen, short of a branch of humanity being removed from Earth, say, 100,000 years ago and were reintroduced to us. In that case, we might be able to call them humans but the likelihood of aliens developing an identical genetic match to humanity through natural evolution? Pretty much zero.

 

[The Ubermensch]

> inb4
> Rape
> Knows this isn't /b/

I'm sure they would have their own name for their own race, so no OP.

 

[KINGBeerZ]

not unless their internal organs were also the same.

 

[Heronblade]

As others have mentioned, they would only be considered the same species if the genetics were close enough to be compatible for interbreeding, a coincidence that would be staggeringly unlikely without some form of panspermia event having occurred in the recent past. Without that requirement, one of them could look like my twin brother and we still could not call him, or them, human.

Now, it very well may be that upon discovering this species we change the meaning of the term in question, making it so that the noun "human" refers to a particular sub-type of sentients rather than to our species in particular, but until such a change is enacted...

Actually, scientific evidence shows homo sapiens- as in "us"- crossbred with other early humans. However, our genes were superior and allowed the descendants to be like we are today. Whether we can interbreed with this species depends almost entirely on whether they have the same number of chromosomes, not how similar their genes are. This is why two species of canine from entirely different parts of the world can interbreed. They have the same number of chromosomes, but their ancestors followed different evolutionary paths.

I am well aware of hybrids, and did not say any two interbreeding individuals are automatically the same species. Genetic compatibility is however the primary hurdle, there is little point in going further with a classification until that is proven.

If we can produce viable, fertile offspring with them they are technically of the same species. I'd call them humans.

That might also disprove evolution theory in one fell swoop.

Convergent evolution (two species adapting in the same ways to solve similar situations) produces individuals from different evolutionary paths that have similar genetic mutations. It is unlikely, but not outside the realm of possibility, for such species to eventually become compatible, even without any contact in between them. Of course, our hypothetical visitors having evolved on an entirely different planet does add a number of factors that would be nearly impossible to predict.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

They wouldn't be humans but they would be people. There is a difference.

 

[Zealous]

Obviously evolution would have made its mark on them depending on when they were removed from Earth (or when we were moved here or whatever crazy scifi plot you want to think up) so they wouldn't be identical to us, but they would still be part of the same species or at least the same genus so yeah, they'd be humans just not earthlings.

Now if they just looked like us but were not humans, a homo (haha juvenile humour) or even mammals or animals at all, then no, they would not be humans. At all. And I would want to kill them with fire for impersonating us.

 

[Rainforce]

they might not call themselves human, but they certainly will call their homeplanet "earth", which would be even worse : D

 

[Yopaz]

Looks aren't species, if they only look human but have a completely different and incompatible genetic pattern then they aren't. If aliens and earthlings could make fertile offspring they would be the space species.

Pretty much what I was going to say. To be of our species they would have to have a similar genome and number of chromosomes would have to match up. Even the birth of a fertile offspring wouldn't be a complete confirmation that they were humans.

 

[socialmenace42]

Hate to pull this down to the finickity level, but the term 'alien' actully literally means different, so for thhem to be alien they must differ from humans.

Also the things that make us 'human' reach far beyond what we look like, how our bodys work, even past the structure of our DNA, it encompasses our Culture, our way of thinking, our history, everything we know.
In conclusion ladles and jellyspoons if we encounter 'aliens' which are in every aspect the same as we are, there is one hell of a glich in the matrix and you should run before brick walls start appearing in front of all the windows and doors...

 

[TheBelgianGuy]

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Synapsida
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Tribe: Hominini
Genus: Homo
Species: H. sapiens



If they're not this, then they're not human.

 

[bauke67]

Well, no. But mostly because there is still a difference in place of origin, instead of species. Kind of like a German going to England: they're the same, but he'd still call himself German.