# Aliens' Essential Characteristics



## Buddy13 (Sep 14, 2005)

If one is to create one or several alien races, what sort of information should one first create about those races? I mean, there's the obvious average height, reptilian or insectoid things, but I mean more in depth.

Like, a form one could fill out, similar to a character worksheet, but with an entire race. Is there such a thing lying around, or could we hash one together here? What sort of information would be vital? Some of it might not even come up in the stories about the races, but might be important to how the races behave...

Anyway, yeah. There's a question in there somewhere.


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## lazygun (Sep 14, 2005)

A quick answer, might be Environment,Intelligence,Gender and Social structure?.


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## sanityassassin (Sep 14, 2005)

enviroment i think would be a major factor what sort of planet do they come from how will they evolve to cope with external enviromenal problems are they carbon based or are they silicon or are they based on an alien structure what sort of variables will be involved skin or exoscelatal colourations there should be a lot of background involved even if it doesn't involve the story directly


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## dreamwalker (Sep 16, 2005)

My advise, Don't touch silicon based life forms with a barge pole. not before you've researched them and you know what your getting yourself into.

On the other hand I think it would be quite ingenious to see some one try and suceed!

mmmmmmmm, the sand crystal race, where pregancy takes a billion years....


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## Buddy13 (Sep 16, 2005)

That reminds me, why is silicon the only alternative to carbon ever discussed? Is there some scientific basis for this, or could it really be any element (i.e., could we have a race of hydrogen-based life, or uranium-based life that humanity can't get near because of the radiation...?)?

Just random tangent.


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## Taltos (Sep 16, 2005)

Buddy13 said:
			
		

> That reminds me, why is silicon the only alternative to carbon ever discussed? Is there some scientific basis for this, or could it really be any element (i.e., could we have a race of hydrogen-based life, or uranium-based life that humanity can't get near because of the radiation...?)?
> 
> Just random tangent.



No silicon is not the only alternative. Hydrogen based lifeforms have definitely been described - first thing that comes to mind - C.D.Simak "City"  and there are certainly others.


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## Stalker (Sep 16, 2005)

Firstly, we need to study the environment and conditions of forming of such an alien race. All other things, such an physical outlook and social behaviour are going to be derivatives of the above. That's the whole scheme, actually.


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## Buddy13 (Sep 16, 2005)

Okay, this is what I have so far. Just imagine a blank after each sub-item.

Next, after "Origins" -- maybe "Biology" ?

[edit]: Oh, and the Origins is by no means complete. Any ideas there as well, re-ordering, adding, removing, et cetera.


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## otistdog (Sep 21, 2005)

Buddy13 said:
			
		

> That reminds me, why is silicon the only alternative to carbon ever discussed? Is there some scientific basis for this, or could it really be any element (i.e., could we have a race of hydrogen-based life, or uranium-based life that humanity can't get near because of the radiation...?)?
> 
> Just random tangent.


 My understanding is that the best reason that all life we know is carbon-based is that carbon is chemically unique in the way it forms bonds with other elements. Carbon atoms form what is called a "hybrid sp" electron shell, which has a shape kind of like a caltrop. This unique feature makes it very useful for forming large complex chains of molecules, which is why the chemistry of carbon has its own branch of study -- called organic chemistry.

Silicon is a member of the same element family as carbon, and members of the same family tend to exhibit the same chemical properties. However, I don't think this is necessarily the case with respect to silicon and carbon, because I think silicon has too many electrons to be able to form hybrid sp electron shells. So I think it's a bit of speculation from a ways back in scifi that has become a popular idea without having a basis in science.

Of course, I'm basing this on chemistry knowledge from high school and college that I haven't studied in a long time, so if anyone knows better, feel free to show me up.

--Otis


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## otistdog (Sep 21, 2005)

From my perspective, the most interesting thing you can invent about a fictional alien race is its psychology. To avoid the "man in a bug suit" style so frequently found in space opera, this is essential.

If you want a good start at inventing an accessible psychology that nonetheless is interesting and alien-seeming, I suggest you read some books by linguist George Lakoff on metaphor theory. Once you come up with the form of your alien, its environment, its physiological basis, its place in the ecosystem it evolved in, the behaviors that are associated with that ecological niche, its method of sensing and communicating, and so one, you can form a good set of metaphors from which to invent a psychology.

Obviously a bit more effort than desired for an afternoon lark, but I think that's how the good stuff is done. There's endless inspiration in terrestrial biology and comparitive linguistics to get you started.

--Otis


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## Tim Bond (Sep 21, 2005)

I would start with environment and move to biology - how their physical forms adapted and cope with their ideal environment and resource distribution - heavy tie in with sexual replication and variant nesting concerns - since most 'races' will be somewhat humanoid and maybe use some form of technology - ie...use of language/communication and symbolism coupled with record keeping and a way to manipulate an object. 

Then you get into the interesting part:

Language structure - based on basic adaptive concerns and physical training such as various 'disarmed' spatial educational pastimes/entertainment called ‘sports’. An example - a race that has an egg and incubates like a bird with a variant of a nest and cannot move and requires a mate to bring in food or keep it warm - even if they find an 'answer' to such a prob. with the use of technology - then - in what they call or 'approximate' as a modern society - they would still have language and culture systems that feed directly into maintaining the ancient (evolved) way of doing things out of the shear utility of possible disaster and possible loss of their 'modern' methods and thus extinction - with controls on any possible uncontrolled variants that may go outside of this very small primitive and select band of activities...they would possibly be without common awareness that the demand to do so was mostly instinct ----- (gene-hormone-chemical) ------- induced, with strong socially enforced 'meanings' given to them to work against the possibility --------- (remember: these 'patterns get repeated constantly so as you don't forget - your supposed to get married or like women - its ok to get a little confused and like blonde hair and not really women so much / or guys in flannels that smell like grease rather than guys really so much) ------- of anything else. 

They will always call it something much more (the example reptile people) sublime (love, honor ect…) and think they are doing something truly important. Much like how raw sex/ego gets called love by the dross of our own race - and then some of the same people (a large and vastly mediocre demographic) will then end up on Jerry Springer shows wanting to kill each other over nothing more than a few silly grins and boo's (also - sculpted by a media - public as to what-to, when, and how you say - yeah or neah) given buy an audience they do not know personally and then display disregard and callousness usually assumed could not possibly exist in 'normal' humans you see walking down the streets. When these lovers can no longer maintain control the others actions or their personal feelings of ego security become threatened you may see a vicious attack led by: "cause I loved you/her/him with all my heart - you f@!#$!-bic@ttth". 

Rather than love with all your heart and for their good - truly. 
Even at your cost or eventual loss to outward observation by another.

Real true sublime traits do exist – that is why there is imitation – but, if they have not grown up enough to experience a real high emotion – anything that makes them feel good will get the title. It should hold for alien races – like some form of life-threatening hunger that demands action by reflex or true need territorial dominance or even inspiration ect… They would use ‘false’ claims of what they do to justify certain activities – possibly calling them ‘uncontrolled’ even.

A crocodile (one possible variety) reptile thing would have an extreme difficulty (most likely) in not seeing us as we think we should be seen and dealt with ect... simply due to basic drives - if they have a language - even an entire civilization - it would not automatically preclude a 'willingness' to see another species as 'civilized' and thus 'not food'. Example - how long did it take, how many Indians did we kill ect...before we really saw them as 'non-savage' and 'fully-human' and stopped mass killing these people for just a little profit? We nearly killed them off. Forget the fact we don't naturally deal with them or think of them like another species of gift-wrapped (clothing) walking hamburgers. 

Love the races you create like you would a character in your writings - it will make the entire race seem to come alive and become vibrant and not just an essay on statistics, bland description - they will breath and things will seem more aware within their activities. That way - even a small mistake will come across as a 'characteristic' that defines them and which a reader may accept - rather than some error on your part in terms of research or conception on the drawing board. ------------------but--------------------When in doubt throw it out - if a few facts really don't fit - or biology as we know it just doesn’t 'work' - toss it and go with your inspiration.


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## Buddy13 (Sep 21, 2005)

Wow.


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## Thunderchild (Sep 22, 2005)

Um tim - i think you just said everything i had to say, anyway

I think it would be good to look at reproduction you can have allot of fun trying to figure out how a race woud reproduce (e.g. im trying to figure out how to make a race that is both imortal but can still evolve over millions of years)

You could also try to 'evolve a race' choose a small creature as an ancestor and  chooise how it would evolve and what characteristics will become dominant(i.e a race with huge horns or claws woould look cool but would it acully be evolve to have them)

Another thing is that most people seem to make a point of mentioning social structure but is that really important? - humans have lived in a wide variety of social structures both big and small through histoy and an alian culture could too.

Of coarse you could forget it all and just invent something because its fun,interesting or hasnt been done before


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## NikG (Oct 10, 2005)

otistdog said:
			
		

> > That reminds me, why is silicon the only alternative to carbon ever discussed? Is there some scientific basis for this, or could it really be any element (i.e., could we have a race of hydrogen-based life, or uranium-based life that humanity can't get near because of the radiation...?)?
> >
> > Just random tangent.
> 
> ...



  Well it really depends on what you're going for in the form of 'scientific basis'. If you mean substituting carbon for something else generally the answer is going to be something like "hell no" because, like Otis said, carbon is the only element that does its job as good as it does. The nearest element to be able to swap is actually Sulphuras it still forms a gaseous dioxide and would allow the species to breathe without having to eat/drink to stay alive and that causes so many problems. But again this wouldn't replace carbon as the key ingredient, the closest elements to replace it would either be Iron (4 electrons from a full shell like Iron, but different configuration) or Germanium (not a full shell but has 4 empty slots in its energy level). But then Germanium Oxide boils at around 12,000C and I'm just guessing but the surface of the planet wouldn't be very nice as you could go swimming in molten lead.

There's also the problem of the circulatory system as simply replacing CO2 means we need a new way to breathe because how it works now only works for oxygen and carbon dioxide. Sulphur is the easiest replacement simply because you only need to change the method of getting it out, CO2 leave using salt in our blood so we just need to replace the salt with one that will allow SO2 to replace CO2, but this should do the same job as CO2 and disassociates the oxygen from the haemoglobin so the system works highly efficiently.

Simply, life on earth is highly specialised and a human guess at what an alien life made of a different element would be very far from reality. It also depends how you term 'based' as well, as personally I'd say we're Hydrogen based as it makes up the majority of our body and without it we wouldn't exist.

Even simpler, you can't put a square peg in a round hole 'cause it just don't fit. It took me many years to figure that out 


Personally I think the chances of an intelligent alien species being like us are extremely high, I’d say a 1 in 1 chance. They'll need fire, language both verbal and written (especially written) and this would also need to include art. These three basics establish civilization, with the written word we can read about the daily lives of people in Egypt when the pyramids were being built or we can read Sun Tzu's the art of war. The important part is the latter it can describe how to do things that you don't have to do yourself, after reading the art of war you're much more likely to win a medieval war than the guy who didn't.

This also extends to art with us being able to make devices Da Vinci dreamed up like the hang-glider that couldn't even be made at the time, or that he dreamed up the helicopter and could draw a design and even without words get what he's trying to show. Finally fire is what makes technology and is essential in smelting ore and making electricity.

Put all these together and you bet 10/10 times you'll get a civilization, but without them you can have silicon life, sulphur life, hydrogen, uranium and whatever else could be possible but it'll just be life and the intelligent part is something they might not be capable of. Heck it's something we might not be capable of, I'm still looking for the signs of intelligent civilization on this planet.


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## FelineEyes (Oct 11, 2005)

I hate to sound childish, but while all this biology and environment and language is important it seems to me that the obvious starting point for this would be:

What makes the aliens alien?  (I.e. not like humans.)

Now, I realize everything we've said so far has been covered under this simple question, but unless you're writing a sci-fi epic, is it nessacary, or even pratical, to lay out an entire civilzation?  And since the definition of alien is from what the audience (humans) consider alien, what if you're writing from an alien perspective?  Would you bother describing something ordinary?
But, for a good examples of aliens, try Ron White's Sector General series.


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## NikG (Oct 11, 2005)

Well there's too types of sci-fi. That is the one where you open it up to be in a sci-fi setting and make it blatantly obvious it isn't a 'human' world and is 'alien', which in the true sense means different or strange. Being in an alien culture would be like me going to New York after not even living in a city like York, it's kind of close too but I'm going for Lincoln. The other is hiding it completely, like say opening the book in a bar or someone’s apartment and heck you can have an alien in there but you describe that later and everyone will take it as casual. So someone’s got green skin, one of my friends was 6’5 and that was never alien even when he was around people 4’10.



I don't see the point in laying out an entire civilization. In the novel I've wrote there's one that's being established and I want to make some short stories that describe the evolution of their society, but that's because I love anthropology. I have a few species that are so elusive I guess you could say they're like the abductees gray, 'everyone' knows they're 'there' and they pop round for a spot of high tea before slaughtering some cows but their never really 'there'. In the entire story only one of these guys shows up and there's only a few in the colony, which actually houses around 40 billion humans and even more of the common aliens. I also have another guy who's one of an elusive race and there's only a few in the entire galaxy.



So personally I don't think the whole civilization thing is important as generally there history should happen similar to ours, as our history is a bit generic and keeps repeating itself. Someone gets an empire, it falls to another one; right now it's the US and China playing this out and not long ago was Russia and the US. I think the difference between the US and China is probably more alien than what we'll see out in space, I mean they're polar opposites in every sense. The US is highly capitalist and religious, with china being highly communist and atheist (or agnostic).



The real alien civilization would be if a global civ decided to go Ancient Japan and isolate itself or Medieval Europe and go out looking for a new world. It's possible a civilization could exist for billions of years from just one sun, especially our size and manage to stay undetected from other civilization.





To cut a long babble short, do whatever the heck you want as long as you can do it good. Ringworld has some awful science, but it's one of the best science fiction novels ever simply because it's convincing. What Niven writes isn't 'it might do this' he writes it as 'it will do this' and because it's writing that 'doesn't back down' it makes it readable. Where as Treknobable is god awful and the reasoning behind it is like giving a puppy dog a dictionary and saying "whatever page you eat first, we'll take that word", which even though I love star trek it leaves itself stabbed in the back because the writing hasn't improved since the original.



Good Writer = Good Writing

God Awful Writer = OH MY GOD! Why have I been given this book, you evil, evil person!

I like how I end my babbles.


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