About Aliens in Theory

The Normality of Aliens.

By Dr. Emilie Vanwilder.

The following is from the Space Academy's introduction to extra-solar affairs.

Although the word ‘alien’ means very different from us, our perception of aliens is that of people much like us. The cause is a simple one, science fiction TV and films. Because of the constraints of special effects budgets, actors who played aliens had to do so with rather minimal changes to their appearance.

We are accustomed to seeing humanoid aliens with pointy ears and funny noses, unusual skin and hair colour, who are said to have different internal organs, and may have some special abilities. This is the result of practical choices made in the film industry. The costuming and make up needed to give us a truly alien character has been expensive and difficult and thus not used very often.

Puppets and computer graphics can give us vastly different aliens, however until recently these technologies were not very convincing or cheep. Thus major alien character remained actors who were recognizably human in form.

Animation can escape this costuming problem, however it often does not. Bad aliens are sometimes monstrous versions of animal, yet most good aliens follow the formula of being almost human in appearance. The reason here is not so much about budget but more because characters need to be understandable to the audience.

In some science fiction novels we see a step away from the universe being populated with humanoids. But even here, where visualization costs nothing but extra descriptive words on paper, most characters are close to us in form and behaviour. To write about a truly alien creature is a difficult task. Not only must the author design the alien in great detail, they must communicate about it to readers who may not easily grasp how vastly different it is from us. This task is fairly easy if the alien is the monster of the story, as we don't need to empathize or understand it. The task is much harder if the alien is a major character on equal footing with any human in the story.

As with appearance so with behaviour.

In popular fiction most aliens have an exaggerated aspect of human society and behaviour patterns. We have very aggressive or logical aliens, just to point out the classic examples, which serve useful rolls in the story telling. As stories often help us understand aspects of our world, this is a valid use of fictional aliens. However it stamps out perception with an expectation, that is unlikely to be fulfilled by real aliens.

The problem with aliens in fiction is that they are usually not alien enough. For the convenience of the audience, they must be easy to relate to. However this has given us an unrealistic and limited view of what aliens may be like.

An example of a near human TV alien. 

They will have a body pattern with 3 as a major feature, 3 arms & legs, 3 eyes & ears, etc. Their gravity, will be close enough to our own to avoid the difficulties this factor would make in a TV show. Their air mixture and air pressure could be quite different, requiring them to wear a full suit when ever in a human friendly environment. 

They will be able to communicate in a language we can translate. Maybe some have learned human speech. But a computer translator is likely the way this would be handled. Thus causing some interesting issues in lag time and lost subtlety of communications. 

Culturally there must be common ground for a working relationship with humans. Some shared ideas of right and wrong to prevent constant conflict, at lest. In a realistic show, both human and alien would be aware of many of the cultural differences, after all the first contact diplomacy is done. This would not stop the culture shock entirely as characters interact, but should prevent the more obvious blunders. To have an alien crew member on you ship, all the crew should be required to study up on it, read the guide to alien race X and watch the documentary.

An example of a very alien alien. 

Their body pattern will not be humanoid at all, and not overly close to any earth creature either. Although humans seeing it will make some comparison, bug like or squid like etc.

It will have a 2 segmented body, the lower half with 8 tentacles for movement and the upper with 4 tentacles for manipulation of objects, all having a very keen sense of touch and taste. The segments with be hard shelled with a flexible middle. Tentacles may be drawn in for protection. 

It will have 4 eyes on top and bottom segments, heavy lids will protect them. Its brain being able to dual process to a greater extent than any human. It would nearly always be doing two things at once.

It will have a separate digestion and respiration track. The lower orifice for eating and excreting, the upper one for breathing. 

Its body will be efficiently in its environment, but may cause it to be over powered or under powered when in a human setting of gravity, air pressure and air mixture. Maybe it finds high radiation to be normal and the lack of it causes problems. 

Communication is mostly done with colour variations on its upper segment. But it can also make some whistling sounds for long range messaging from its breathing orifice. Human peach would be impossible for it, although it may recognize out vocalizations as communication.

Its culture will be very different from our own. But some basic factors will be in common; the need for food and shelter, to mate and socialize with others of its kind, the desire for safety and comfort. A curiosity must exist if it is to advance a technological civilization. The ability to make and use tools. If it is sociable then a structure of rules is likely to form out of unwritten behaviour patterns. What these are like may be different than our own, but the fact of their existence is common ground.

Notice that nothing was said about the size of the alien. Physics does dictate some ways biology will form, we understand this here on Earth, but other worlds may have unexpected answers to the issues of size.

Now imagine you are writing a TV show and you have to make use of both the above aliens. Assuming the special effects department is up to the task of providing both of them. What would you do with them?

Another issue with Aliens.

In specific we are talking about advanced alien civilizations. Those with better technology and or 1000s of years more history under their belts. Even without a large edge in tech, time can cause a huge expanse in terms of power and placement. In short we often vastly underestimate what the aliens may be like.

Brief view of the Kardashev scale.

K1 - a civilization makes full use of their planet, but does not really use space.

K2 - it makes full use of the energy from its star, and resources of the solar system.

K3 - it spans the known universe inhabiting all star systems.

The categories are very very wide.

Of course we use ourselves as the benchmark for the K1- ratting.

(By the way Earth’s current energy consumption is about 12 terra-watts.)

A few examples;

Star Trek’s Federation of planets is not a K2, more like a K1.4

Asimov’s Foundation of a million worlds is about K1.7

The Star Wars Empire of a billion planets that spans the galaxy would be K2.

Even though most of these civilizations cover large areas, none develop many solar systems to their full extent, with Dyson spheres or Halo rings. A few mega city worlds do not count for much at this scale.

You may want to say "The Empire in Star Wars, has to be close to a K3." But no. When talking about the power and population of a fully developed Dyson sphere it is on par with what is described for the entire Empire. Yes a single fully developed solar system could take on a galactic civilization, if it is mostly empty space. A few billion planets with a few billion people on each is NOT a challenge to a real K2.   

 Dyson Sphere, half way to completion. 

What can a k2 do?

They can blow up planets just as good as the Death Star could. With giant solar lasers or with near light speed ‘relativistic kill’ missiles. They can launch, not just a few that a target planet might intercept, they could launch 10,000 every day for month after month, with out any problem at all. They could build a Death Star sized object as a minor expense. 

A k2 civilization would outnumber the Earth by 1 billion to 1. That needs to take a second to sink in. We start to think of Earth as getting crowded, yet they would have not 100s or 1000s of billions, but literally Billions of billions of people and no real worry about energy and resources for them.

A k2 that wanted to could employ a trillion people as astronomers, monitoring every star in the galaxy. They could build a trillion telescopes all bigger than Hubble.

A k2 can build a fleet of a 10 million aircraft carrier size ships, each with a crew of 10,000 and not worry about the mass of the materials as compared with the total of the solar system. They could do this every year and it would be only a small fraction of the annual budget. Yea think about that.

These are not just fantasy numbers, someone did the math.

Now you may be thinking "The old Enterprise is not that big or bad." 

 But try to imagine an invasion fleet of 10 million ships like that. 

Assuming no faster than light travel is possible.

A k2 civilization could undertake colonization the slow way. Using a fleet of one million colony ships per target solar system. Even if only 10% are armed, that is still a lot of fire power.

Science fiction has given us many alien invasions that involve one huge ship or a few dozen large ones. Somehow these are odds we can handle. What if 1 million ships arrived in the solar system? We see them coming. Then they brake into 10 groups of 100,000 ships each. With each group going to orbit a planet and begin developing it. One group being tasked with concurring Earth, required not to bomb it from long range with mass drivers (for whatever reasons).

How is that for a film scenario? It sure presents a near hopeless situation. Maybe if we get the mother ship all the rest will just turn off. No, there is almost zero possibility that the aliens would arrange their command structure that way. 

A few last remarks.

Most fiction does not explain well what a K2 civilization is and what it can do. You get a near equivalence as a Federation or Empire, which spans many solar systems without developing any past the basic colony size of a few million people. Even in settings with galactic empires several thousand years old we see a major lack of development. Only habitable planets are lived on and then most are not even as populated as the Earth is now.

An expanding k2 would be a sensible story setting, maybe coming into conflict with another nearly equal civilization. But even this gets into mind boggling big battles of millions of ships.

No fiction writer (known) has ever tried to have a k3 setting. 

P.S.  from Dr Mentok.

Ok now, consider that life extension technology is likely to develop. 

People will be living a very long time and in good health. If we say 500 years, this it not to wild an idea. You could be having kids at the same time your great grand kids were having some too. If you were in a top position at your job, you may hold it for over 100 years. 

Thinking about this a bit of a mind stretch, but not half as much as what things would be like if near importation was possible. How would it effect social patterns when everyone is expected to live thousands of years and more? 

Now consider this.

As a biological copy with all memories, or even a robotic one, you would still be you. With Star Trek transporter tech we assume you are still you, even though you were basically disintegrated and reconstructed. Cloning and brain taping are in the same realm.

What if a few identical copies were made? Each is you, but as they gain new individual experiences, they become different yous. Imagine a family reunion? Now try to imagine an alien race that accepts this as normal and does not tightly regulate the self copying but has some way to deal with questions of asset ownership.