Thoughts on aliens......

I enjoyed Banks' culture novels too. The culture spaceships had Minds - sapient, hyper intelligent machines - originally they were built by biological species but eventually they took over their own building and development. I agree that the names were great - such as a warship calling itself "Attitude adjuster" or a habitation /factory one called "so much for subtlety". The mind name was the ship name, and they had real character and individuality.

I also liked Moya, and her pilot who had a symbiotic relationship with her. Farscape was a really original and creative series, I thought.

I loved The Minds, in Iain M Banks Culture novels, I loved th ship names, or at least I think they were ships, but sentient entities anyway, I always liked Moya too. It's such a shame Banks died, not least because I wanted to know more about "The Excession". I also loved the self appointed name of the people known as The Affront.

Why does humanity assume aliens would be interested in us? Good question, this is what I think:

Humanity projects certain attributes like communication, cognition, sentience, intelligence etc onto the world around them. They also assume any aliens, no matter how superficially different they might appear, will also have these core attributes. Anthropomorphism is just something humans do, it's inate.

So it appears logical to humans that if they're interested in aliens then aliens must be interested in them.

Plus, of course, it wouldn't be particularly entertaining fiction if it was about simple, single cell, alien organisms that hitched a lift on a comet and have been quietly doing their boring, non-invasive, alien thing for millennia without any humans ever noticing! ;)

Maybe they have already in fact...

In the almost limitless vastness out there, statistically there must be something or someone out there. Distances are huge, so unless some form of FTL propulsion has been invented, it's going to take a while to get anywhere.

Over the billions of years of earth history there have been multiple mass extinction events which somehow our distant ancestors survived which eventually led to the evolution of early humans and much later to homosapiens. It's complete chance that we are the dominant species.

If one of those events hadn't happened or had been less severe would we be here? Could reptiles or some sort of aquatic life be dominant. 

If you watched star trek enterprise they had a race known as the xindi which were made up of different types of evolved creatures. (Insect, humanoid, arboreal, aquatic, reptile). Most aliens are portrayed as humanoid as it's obviously easier to relate and possibly emulate (inexpensively). Could there be species of pure energy or sentient gas or liquid?

We have various creatures that have evolved to live in extreme environments, some living in the massive depths of the oceans on thermal vents the spew out super heated water. There a snail with iron armour that lives in 9500 feet in water that's around 400c. One of my favourite creatures is a tardigrade or water bear, they are a tiny creature that is almost indestructible, they can survive in a  vacuum, high radiation, heat, cold etc.

If we have life here, it's certainly out there somewhere.

Hi Cat woman, I don't assume that aliens would be interested in us. If you think about aliens In terms of life on other planets that we might encounter if we were ever able to travel the universe, there could be life forms of lower intelligence than us who wouldn't be bothered if we landed on their planet. But I was thinking about intelligent aliens who have mastered interstellar space travel and found us, and I'm not sure you can have intelligence without curiosity.

In some movies and novels, aliens are insect like rather than humanoid. I'm not a scientist, but I don't think insects are able to grow as large as humans on our planet, so maybe insect like aliens couldn't survive here. And how would insects build spaceships? I thought that opposable thumbs were a prerequisite for building stuff?

There have been alien stories where they had a hive mind (The Borg in Star trek being one example) but I'm not sure if that is an advantage as it would seem to me that it would stifle individuality, and therefore creativity and the ability to invent stuff.

If there are any scientifically gifted members here who can answer these questions it would be great to hear their ideas. This is certainly an interesting conversation.

Why do we assume that aliens would be interested in us humans? They might be more like ants and be highly organised, or bee's and have a hive mind? Or they might be a fungus and be communicating with the whole earth, and we don't know.

What would happen if aliens landed somewhere relatively unimportant, like New Zealand, or Cyprus and not America, Russia or China, would Trump make them unwelcome for not dropping in on him first?

The Borg were scary.

I agree Garak was interesting

Zaan was so cool and Aeron too.

Data was so philosophical

I don't really watc much sci fi

But the scariest Aliens ever were the Cybermen, not even Daleks were as scary!

I can’t remember the name of that movie either but I watched it not that long ago and enjoyed it. I did find it sad as the little girl in the movie was sick. 

Wow! Great someone else like Erich Von Daniken! I Read his chariots of the gods, also the stone age was quite different and I wanted to order the eyes of the Sphinx but it’s not available now. I can also listen to him for hours. First time I heard him talking about Ezekiel and the wheels and this “temple” in high mountains, I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes because I felt that so intense. It’s XO fascinating how he talks about the temple osirion in Abydos, the Sphinx, the great pyramid of Giza, also the Nazca lines and Buddha in his chariot… many many stories that to me make perfect sense 

Yes, my issues with watching movies are related to sensory. Not only sound. The sound, the screen flashing different pictures constantly, also the action and generally too much information. I always stand up and leave in the middle of a movie, to calm down and process what I saw. Whoever watches with me, they get annoyed by me disappearing suddenly. Now I’m additionally overwhelmed by my toddler, so watching anything is close to impossible. Even that movie with aliens I can say, I listen to that more than watched. When I watch alone, I make breaks whenever I want and continue when I want. 

1) cute - don't know if Data from Star Trek Next Gen counts as an alien (not human and not from earth??), but I find the enthusiastic and earnest way he just tries anything without preconceptions or prejudices and usually comes up with an interesting and intelligent take on it is rather endearing, so maybe "cute"??

2) Admire - obviously Darth Vader who has so many positive qualities that far too often get overlooked. Also the Alien Queen (Alien/Aliens etc). She is awesome: driven, resilient, goal oriented and willing to take any steps necessary to achieve what's necessary.

3) Scariest: Kai Winn from DS9 - arrogant, manipulative and treacherous. Turning people's faith and hopes into a personal power grab. Yeah: scary

4) Funniest: Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. Funny and dangerous, but still funny. 

5) Identify: Garak from DS9. So many mental health issues(!). Feeling alone and a perpetual outsider. Coping on the outside, because he has to, but struggling on the inside. Driven, goal oriented, clever and able to play politics without having a particular desire for power. Makes rational decisions even if they're difficult. Lacking in empathy and not afraid of being unpopular. Ultimately on the side of "good" but often reluctantly. (I'm always drawn to morally ambiguous characters!)

Also a category of my own: most irritating alien: Q from Next Gen. He's such an annoying character. 

Hi Alien on Earth - for you and others who don't watch sci-fi movies I've edited my original post and added some questions relating to what people think about aliens in real life.

I'm interested by your issues with movie watching. Is it because you get sensory overwhelm? Have you tried turning the sound off and watching with subtitles?

Also, do you read novels? There are some good ones with aliens in, including these:

Enders Game - by Orson Scott Card

War of the worlds - H.G.Wells

Childhood's End - Arthur C Clarke

Starship Troopers - Robert A Heinlein

Alien - Alan Dean Foster

The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury

The man who fell to Earth - Walter Tevis

Great thread, Lotus!

1. Cutest: Grogu (same species as Yoda, but a baby - even though he's in his 50s - they live a very long time!)
2. Admire: (I love the Man Who Fell to Earth!!) Spock - as an undiagnosed autist child, I identified with him A LOT!!
3. Scariest: Most definitely the Xenomorph in Alien.
4. Funniest: Rocket from the Marvel films
5. Identify: Those who know me know that I rarely go back and edit a message and so I have to choose Spock again. I identify with him more than the generic Vulcan because he was half human and felt emotions but couldn't express them, which is similar to me for different reasons.

Wow someone else who knows about Erich Von Daniken... awesome! I watch a lot of his videos on YT, some are hours long, I don't mind though I could listen to him talk about aliens or the weather all day long lol. I read his intriguing Chariots of the Gods when I was probably a little young to do so, and have since read Miracles of the Gods, both I love and now own my own copies - my mum got fed up with me taking hers

I read books from Erich Von Daniken also watched “Anunnaki” the lost book of Enki based on Zachariah Sitchin’s book it lasts 7 hours, in few parts on YouTube. I have never watched any of those movies above. Unfortunately I’m not a good movie watcher, quickly get overstimulated by tv or laptop, whatever device it is. There are very few movies I watched. I saw one sci fi movie about aliens but I can’t recall the name of it. These aliens looks a bit like octopus but walking and communicated by splashing black paint in circles and they had oval shaped looking like a rock space ship. There was one scientist who broke their communication code on a laptop. They could also show future because for them there is no difference between past, present and future. Who can guess what movie I’m talking about? I can’t recall the name… unfortunately. 

1,2,4,&5 Are covered by Galaxy Quests "Thermians" 

Answering item 3 would just get me further strife, so I'll take the fifth on that one...

1 Tribbles from  star trek, who can resist a chirpy ball of fluff 

2. Saru from star trek discovery, he started off being afraid and then discovered his true self and rescued his people.

3. The alien from "The Thing" it could be anyone or anything. It is a great movie.

4. Mork, I love and miss Robin Williams 

5. I'd love to say Saru from answer 2 but I'm still stuck being mostly afraid, maybe I'll discover my true self one day.

1. Cutest -   Ewoks
2. Most admire - Spock.
3. scariest -  Davros. Really scared me as a child.
4. Funniest - Mork from Ork. Robin Williams was brilliant.
5. Identify with - Spock again or The Second Doctor 

Thanks Lotus for the thread I do like my sci far, Star Wars being one of my top films. 
1. Ewoks or maybe Yoda not sure which? 
2. not sure if he counts as an alien but he is not native to this planet but will have to go with Darth Vader. Always and still am a big fan. 
3. I’m going for the alien out of the alien film here, thistle scene of the alien coming out of the stomach is still a classic

4. Maybe the Jawas or the blue alien on the keyboards in the cantina 

5. this one I’ve struggled with maybe a hybrid of the Mandolorian and C3PO…..

Aliens aren't a big interest of mine but this seemed like a fun thread and I wanted to join in. They may not be your most typical alien answers though.

1. Oh the alien from Home.

2. Jake Sully from Avatar

3. That Martians from War of the Worlds

4. Paul 

5. Leela from Futurama because she spends a lot of time feeling different.