Aliens

I've been thinking about aliens lately. No, I don't think about aliens a lot. I'm not one of those people who are looking for the conspiracies everywhere. But I do think, like most scientists, that there is other life out there somewhere. Maybe not Star Trek life. Maybe more like primordial life. Then again, maybe far more advanced. Who knows?

But I saw a commercial for some station that's going to be re-running the War of the Worlds movie and I was just thinking about it casually.

I was thinking about how we always (in the movies and television) try to make alien life fit our own definition. Like, we assume that because we love our children, they will. But what if their offspring are survival-ready right after birth (like many Earth animals) and they don't even think about their children except for the time that it takes them to stop and drop an egg or whatever? How would we relate to a being like that?

Or what if the aliens we meet are like the ancient Samurai? We may be able to relate to the loyalty and discipline part of their psyche, but remember... the Samurai were trained to be as if they were already dead. They had no fear of injury or death because of that. They also did not require even the most basic comfort or attention. A being that is not worried about its own self would be something very alien to most humans. Maybe even something we could not communicate with.

Worse, still. What if aliens were like the fish in the ocean--only worried about whether they were going to be able to eat something weaker than itself and whether they were going to be eaten by something larger. Someone like that, who only respected and feared (and yet expected) death, and only wanted (and expected) to dominate/eat the weak... How would we even relate to someone like that?

Personally, I have always said that the alien race that will have the best chance of communicating with us are the Star Trek types. You know, the human-looking ones. I would imagine there may not be many of those. (Although, simple math would suggest there should be some...)

After that, we would probably be inclined to communicate well with aliens that reminded us of friendly mammals--dog aliens, chimp aliens, squirrel aliens.

Pity the poor race that makes First Contact with humans looking like this:

Seriously, they could offer us The Cure For All Forms Of Illness and we would still rather kill them.

But probably the worst aliens of all would be the cat aliens. I say worse because we would definitely be accepting of them. Who doesn't wish cats could talk and fly space ships? But let's think about this a second.

Have you ever seen how long a cat keeps its prey alive and terrified?