Poll: Do you think aliens look like humans but with a few differences or exactly like humans?

[2012 Wont Happen]

A humanoid figure would make sense. There is a reason we evolved into it- its incredibly effective.

Beyond that, probably no similarity.

Effective? At what?

At conquering the entire planet apparently.

I bet a race built like cougars who were just as intelligent could do just as well if not better than us.

A cougar does not have the physical capability to use tools. Any race that had enough intelligence to create a spear could defeat a race of cougars that had a human intellect.

Cougar people could develop their own version and make it a cougar spear since they're just as intelligent.

But they probably wouldn't need it since they have tactics in combat now, with much greater agility + the sharp teeth and speed that their cougarness provides.

Cmon, you know we'd have been screwed if Cougars could formulate plans.

.....I like the idea of cougar-people now.

As it is, a huge percentage of animals have the brain power required to realize that pointy objects kill things. However, the fact is, most do not have the ability to shape or use spears. While a race of cougar people would have better tactics than they do now, they would still most likely fall to spears which can be thrown or can be used to give whoever is using it incredible reach.

And the Cougars then use their human-intelligence to build shields.

It'd be us but with greater dexterity, agility, stamina, more fur, better vision, with claws and teeth thrown in.

Shit would be so over in the times when the spear was the pinnacle of technology. Nowadays.... guns may even the battlefield, but now Cougars have guns. :O

They could not fashion a shield. The lack the arm mobility or the strength in the opposable thumbs. For similar reasons, they would not have guns.

 

[Kontar]

No, we look like them. They came first.

Guess the reference.

Dr. Who

EDIT: Doh, I was beat to it =(

I find it really hard to believe if we ever meet sentient life they will look like us. Although if they did that would send the biologists crazy, not to mention religious folks.

 

[joe the janitor]

Aliens probably don't even look remotely similar to us, however it is a possibility but chances are they have 8 legs and want to eat us.

This pretty much. That chances that aliens grew up in a similar environment as us, and evolved the sam way is very miniscule.

 

[SpcyhknBC]

A humanoid figure would make sense. There is a reason we evolved into it- its incredibly effective.

Beyond that, probably no similarity.

Effective? At what?

At conquering the entire planet apparently.

I bet a race built like cougars who were just as intelligent could do just as well if not better than us.

A cougar does not have the physical capability to use tools. Any race that had enough intelligence to create a spear could defeat a race of cougars that had a human intellect.

Cougar people could develop their own version and make it a cougar spear since they're just as intelligent.

But they probably wouldn't need it since they have tactics in combat now, with much greater agility + the sharp teeth and speed that their cougarness provides.

Cmon, you know we'd have been screwed if Cougars could formulate plans.

.....I like the idea of cougar-people now.

As it is, a huge percentage of animals have the brain power required to realize that pointy objects kill things. However, the fact is, most do not have the ability to shape or use spears. While a race of cougar people would have better tactics than they do now, they would still most likely fall to spears which can be thrown or can be used to give whoever is using it incredible reach.

And the Cougars then use their human-intelligence to build shields.

It'd be us but with greater dexterity, agility, stamina, more fur, better vision, with claws and teeth thrown in.

Shit would be so over in the times when the spear was the pinnacle of technology. Nowadays.... guns may even the battlefield, but now Cougars have guns. :O

They could not fashion a shield. The lack the arm mobility or the strength in the opposable thumbs. For similar reasons, they would not have guns.

But could they flush the toilet?

 

[Cheesepower5]

I can picture the most advanced species that would be potential alien encounters in human history would likely have opposable thumbs or something with a similar use. It IS what sets us apart from other more intelligent animals in many ways.

 

[timeadept]

i love your two choices, do they look like us? or do they look exactly like us? Cause they can't possibly be different. *bit of sarcasm fyi*

 

[Twad]

its more likely imho that they will look like nothing we can relate to. utterly.. alien.

 

[Darkauthor81]

I think there would be at least some level of convergent evolution. There's more to our dominance than just brains designed to abstract thought (because brain design is what makes an animal smart or stupid, it has nothing to do with size)

Thumbs, vocal communication, standing upright to free a set of limbs for tool manipulation. Without these we wouldn't be where we are today.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

remotely humanoid maybe. who knows. there must be some bodyparts that can handle difficult tasks, so something handlike with oposable thumbs seem logical. But maybe the same can be done with a few tentacles? We will never know

 

[MaxwellEdison]

Why is there no "completely different" option?

 

[archvile93]

No, we look like them. They came first.

Guess the reference.

Somebody probably already said this, but Doctor who. Never saw the show, just the quote in TVtropes.

OT: No, they probably even look close to human. The aliens probably evolved on a planet with a vastly different environment which would affect evolution. Even on a planet with an identical environment they would still probably look very different due to evolving differently based on random mutation.

 

[ultrachicken]

I have no clue what aliens look like, but limiting it to two absurd choices is... well, absurd.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

My favorite race in ME is the Hanar, purely for their "different-ness".
Them and the other aliens that look and talk like elephants? They make most sense to me, because they clearly have an intended reason for their design (Water world and high pressure world, respectively).

The other races are basically humans tweaked to overemphasize any certain trait to serve as living breathing thought experiments. (for example: hmm, I wonder what would happen if Humans lived in sterile conditions for so long, that we lost our immune system? That kind of thing.)

 

[manaman]

No, we look like them. They came first.

Guess the reference.

]

Pretty much every major sci-fi franchise. Right up to the big names: Star Trek, Stargate, random name with star in it. Even Star Wars was "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away." You name it, its damn common.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Sorta a response to the ," is finding aliens a good thing," forum post. I know we all have Mass Effect and Star Wars and list of sci fi universes to choose a race from, but what if they look just like us? Maybe with a few differences in height l or skin pigment, but what I everything else is human? You ever think that aleins might look like humans?

It really rather depends on what the constraints are on intelligent life (or more likely, on the ability to use tools)

Nature is full of examples of convergent evolution because some problems can only be solved so many ways.

But even with something that imposes a lot of limitations, there's different ways of solving the same problem.

Birds fly, and so do most insects, yet insect wings and bird wings look quite different.

Notice how many animals on earth are symmetrical, and have 4 limbs, 1 tail, and 1 head though; - But unfortunately, this isn't likely to be for any real reason other than they all share a common ancestor.

some examples are easier to spot;
Symmetrical animals tend to be more efficient at most tasks than ones that aren't.
having only 1 leg is awkward, but as it turns out, having 3 legs is even more awkward.

An octopus-like creature could in theory use tools, but manipulating a boneless tentacle requires much more brain-power devoted to it than using an arm with bones and a limited range of movement.

A hand might be considered a requirement for using tools, but birds demonstrate you can also hold things in your mouth.

(At the same time though, efficient tool use would suggest using limbs, appendages, or whatever that can be dedicated to the task, rather than ones which you need for something else as well.)

Ultimately, it's unlikely they'll look like humans, (or even all that close).

We can rule out a lot of body types as being unlikely, because it just wouldn't work out very well, but there's plenty of options that would work just fine that wouldn't look much like a person does.

 

[Canid117]

No, we look like them. They came first.

Guess the reference.

Stargate SG1 is my guess.


OP: No we will not look alike.

 

[King Toasty]

Eventually, but nowhere near hear and probably not at this moment.
Disclaimer: The Universe does NOT HAVE AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF MATTER. If it did, you would logically assume that everything possible would be happening at the same time, since you can argue that with infinite time, everything would happen. Wouldn't it be the same for infinite matter? Yes. Why is this self-defeating? Because something would have instantly caused the universe to be destroyed, if everything is not only possible, but assured. If the universe had infinite matter, it would have been destroyed the minute it came into creation. Also, the Big Bang theory could never have happened, because if it was expanding- well, you can't get bigger than infinite.
So no, the universe is not infinitely sized, and likely not infinitely-timed. It probably has a time-limit. Given this, everything is NOT automatically possible. The only reason we evolved the way we did is because of a series of random gene mutations, and survival of the fittest that was suited to our specific planet and terrain. It even possible life isn't carbon-based, and therefor the conditions would be entirely different.
If we did discover alien life- which i very much believe exists- it would be far different than anything we could predict.
/rant.

 

[manaman]

not only is there a humanoid race out there but there is probably another human race since there are almost infinite solar systems

Almost infinite? By which you just mean a lot. Something is or is not infinite. Something cannot be close to infinite. Well there basically is infinite variation among the make up of solar systems. With infinite variations, among a finite number its just as likely that there are no other systems that even have intelligent life let alone ones with intelligent life that have a body type that enables them to build. Just look at life on Earth, why would something alien look humanoid. Even the closest body types among animals look more alien then half the shit you see in movies and games.

 

[Hulten]

I really couldn't say. It would be funny if that was the case though. Would sure crush a lot of peoples expectations.