Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This

Newsgroups	rec.arts.sf.written
Subject	Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This
From	Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com>
References	<109cfe5e-4e59-4d90-a390-7c3f0c12e46f@googlegroups.com> <oHzLB7.1JM@kithrup.com> <185d850c-a9b9-4e7a-8a1c-158d1d4b5b35@googlegroups.com>
Organization	dis
Message-ID	<XnsA6DAC20D765F9melchizedek@216.166.97.131> (permalink)
Date	2016-12-10 18:04 -0600

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Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> wrote in
news:185d850c-a9b9-4e7a-8a1c-158d1d4b5b35@googlegroups.com: 

> On Saturday, December 10, 2016 at 3:45:03 PM UTC-5, Dorothy J Heydt
> wrote: 
>> In article <109cfe5e-4e59-4d90-a390-7c3f0c12e46f@googlegroups.com>,
>> Quadibloc  <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
>> >This article
>> >
>> >http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/54262/20161210/scientific-
>> >reasons-why-people-convinced-octopuses-exact-description-aliens.htm 
>> >
>> >was inspired by the science-fiction movie Arrival, which, according
>> >to a review of it that I read, is a good and serious science-fiction
>> >movie, something we need more of.
>> >
>> >Anyways, though, the article raised a question to which I think I
>> >have an answer.
>> >
>> >In a lot of science fiction, aliens end up looking exactly like
>> >humans - or like humans with a few trivial differences.
>> >
>> >What is the next step up from that?
>> >
>> >Imagining what an intelligent life form that evolved completely
>> >independently from us is *hard*.
>> >
>> >So what is the obvious shortcut to take?
>> >
>> >Well, if we don't assume that all the steps evolution took in
>> >getting to *us* will be exactly repeated on another world... but
>> >we're not up to re-imagining a whole new development of life from
>> >the beginning... 
>> >
>> >why not imagine that only a *few* of those steps are repeated?
>> >
>> >So we get lizard aliens - they're very common.
>> >
>> >Maybe starfish aliens! Or octopus aliens, as noted in the article I
>> >referenced above.
>> 
>> I have a set of starfish aliens on a work on my back burner.
>> They're nice guys.
>> 
>> But the answer to your question is: CGI.  CGI and motion-capture.
>> Beats the hell out of humans (or animals) in suits.
>> 
>>
> 
> Starfish aliens?
> 
> H.P. Lovecraft's "the Mountains of Madness"  had Elder Things with
> starfish-like appendages.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness
> 
> First time I encountered starfish aliens: the Justice League of
> America debuted in 1960, defeating "Starro the Conqueror."
> 
> http://www.comics.org/issue/15487/cover/4/
> 
> Though I probably first read that as a reprint in
> JLA #39, an 80-page Giant from 1965.
> 
> http://www.comics.org/issue/19584/cover/4/
> 
> There's a TV Tropes page for our Sea Stars from the Stars:
> 
> http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StarfishAliens
> 
> Julie Schwartz, the JLA's editor, sold ATMoM to ASTOUNDING
> back in his Solar Sales service days.
> 
> Kevin R

Creating aliens which have different body plans isn't difficult
in writing, and realizing them visually has become a lot easier
with CGI.

But making and depiciting an intelligent creature which *thinks*
differently than a human is a lot harder. Hal Clement famously
had fantastically shaped aliens who talked 'like Calvin Coolidge'.

The alien(s) in Stanislaw Lem's novels were truely alien, but
that makes them hard to empathize with.

'Arrival' (a movie I highly reoccomend) does a pretty good job, 
but their alien thought patterns are informed, not shown.

pt

Thread

Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-12-10 11:57 -0800
  Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-10 20:37 +0000
    Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2016-12-10 14:08 -0800
      Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2016-12-10 18:04 -0600
        Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This mcdowell_ag@sky.com - 2016-12-11 00:18 -0800
        Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Default User <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com> - 2016-12-12 09:27 -0800
  Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-12-11 08:01 -0800
    Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-11 22:41 +0000
      Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-12-11 18:36 -0800
        Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-12 03:02 +0000
          Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-12-12 04:38 -0700
    Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Robert Bannister <robban@clubtelco.com> - 2016-12-12 09:59 +0800
      Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-12 03:02 +0000
        Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This "a425couple" <a425couple@hotmail.com> - 2016-12-12 15:31 -0800
          Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-12-12 16:00 -0800
          Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 22:40 -0500
            Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) - 2016-12-13 04:01 +0000
              Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2016-12-13 06:55 -0600
            Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-13 04:02 +0000
              Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-12-13 08:13 -0700
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-13 16:26 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Default User <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com> - 2016-12-13 12:06 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2016-12-13 21:21 -0600
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2016-12-13 21:53 -0600
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2016-12-13 22:29 -0700
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2016-12-14 15:07 -0600
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-14 04:10 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Peter Trei <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2016-12-14 07:09 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-12-14 07:27 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-14 15:50 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2016-12-15 01:18 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-12-15 16:42 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2016-12-16 05:48 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-12-17 06:47 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-17 18:58 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-12-17 16:16 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2016-12-17 19:25 -0600
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2016-12-14 00:33 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Joe Bernstein <joe@sfbooks.com> - 2016-12-14 09:37 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Paul Arthur <junk+usenet@flowerysong.com> - 2016-12-14 18:49 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-15 01:36 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Chrysi Cat <chrysicat@gmail.com> - 2016-12-15 06:00 -0700
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-15 13:36 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Joe Bernstein <joe@sfbooks.com> - 2016-12-15 10:09 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Anthony Frost <Vulch@vulch.org> - 2016-12-14 08:04 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> - 2016-12-14 09:51 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Default User <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com> - 2016-12-14 10:40 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> - 2016-12-14 13:46 -0500
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) - 2016-12-14 18:57 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Default User <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com> - 2016-12-14 11:43 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-15 01:34 +0000
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2016-12-14 15:09 -0600
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This David Johnston <Davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2016-12-14 15:00 -0700
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net> - 2016-12-14 17:37 -0800
                Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> - 2016-12-14 07:23 -0500
            Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-12-13 09:48 -0800
          Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2016-12-13 03:18 +0000
      Re: Why We Imagine Aliens Look Like This Cryptoengineer <treifamily@gmail.com> - 2016-12-11 22:54 -0600

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