Aliens that are less or more than human... which do you prefer?

[Dulahan]

What is Right/Wrong or Just/Unjust is entirely and completely subjective:

person 1: "It is right and just for me to take this man as property."

person 2: "It is right and just for me to free this man from bondage
and protect him because he is inferior to you and I"

person 3: "It is right and just for me to view this man as my equal..
... and all who believe him property or inferior should be beheaded"

Three people, three points of view, three "Right and Just" observations. I completely get @jjabrams55 is saying, I would agree with him that a belief in justice is nessessary for a civilization -- even if what is and is not justice is open to interpretation.

 

[Ursa major]

person 4 (possibly shrugging): "Whatever...."

 

[Biskit]

there are absolutes of justice/injustice that most all humans agree on (barring the psychos)

It seems unjust to discount the views of psychos - they are just people with behaviour a bit further from the 'norm' than most.

 

[jjabrams55]

Well... I considered it (brainstormed it a LOT), and I must admit that it is quite possible to make an alien race who is less than human and still not a complete jerk/boring vulcan by human standards. It just requires tweaking rather than completely eliminating human needs that they will have. So my newest idea (that I will keep because it's a good one since it balances the things I want) is to have a race with all the human needs of the OP (original post), but with one tweak.

Justice/compassion needs: Only triggered with regard to physical needs (eating/drinking, safety, sex, rest, and shelter), whether it is for self or others.

Added special ability: The ability to feel the emotions of others or not. It just depends on whether they want to. They have two antenna for this, which when pointed at an individual will detect their emotions by allowing the user to actually FEEL what their target is feeling at that moment. The only emotions they can feel are like the ones from the movie Inside Out. Which means: Joy, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust ONLY.


Implications of such psychology and possible reactions to humans: Concepts of fairness mean nothing to them if they don't somehow relate to physical needs of others or themselves. At the same time, they will not react with anger if they are given the largest share of the work load over another... not until they begin tiring out and need rest anyway. Cursing at each other does not occur, since name calling won't even upset them. They actually think humans are VERY sensitive, since humans will call people out for treating them unfairly, while for these guys... they don't even care unless it relates to withholding/denying/damaging their physical needs or someone else's who they care about. In other words, verbal respect is a given (since verbal insults have no 'sting' among them, so they don't use them), but what humans regard as fairness is not necessarily.

They would find human anger over non-physical needs matters to be funny/odd. But at least they could understand it. Given that they can sense human anger through their empath ability, which means the aliens would know automatically that humans have a more broad sense of justice than they do.

 

[Steve Beaulieu]

I've always enjoyed the "less than" human approach. Orson Scott Card does it wonderfully with Speaker for the Dead and the Piggies. It forces the humans in the story to decide whether they will help or take advantage of the aliens.

 

[jjabrams55]

I've always enjoyed the "less than" human approach. Orson Scott Card does it wonderfully with Speaker for the Dead and the Piggies. It forces the humans in the story to decide whether they will help or take advantage of the aliens.

Ha. I was thinking about the power being in the alien's hands, with them choosing whether they would help or take advantage of the humans. Given what they could do, they could troll/annoy humans a LOT and think it was funny in the process... so long they didn't point their antenna at them to FEEL exactly how the human actually felt.

 

[Toby Frost]

While this is an interesting thought experiment, I wonder how much of it will be noticed by the reader. There are a lot of perfectly workable SF stories where the story's aliens are simply a bit like wasps, fascists, New Age gurus, elves, samurai or whatever else seems appropriate. Provided that it isn't glaringly wrong or done really crudely, I don't really see the problem in saying "Well, I want them to be like this, because the story requires it, so let's write them that way and provide sufficient background to make it plausible." I'm not sure that much else is required unless the book is going to be about the aliens themselves, like The Left Hand of Darkness, say.

I think I must be missing something here as I don't get the idea of aliens being "more" or "less" than humans. Surely they're just a bit like people but different in some strange way? Or are we talking about things like the Alien which are unintelligent but still dangerous and interesting?

 

[Zebra Wizard]

I find that you are restricting yourself far too much by using human beings as a basis for your alien species.

It creeping on the same "pop" sci-fi problem where they all speak english and are human with blue skin and something attached to their forehead. I'd find it more interesting and believeable if aliens were.... alien.

 

[HareBrain]

I agree with @Zebra Wizard . My favourite "aliens" have been those that are so far from human, I'm in awe of the human mind that invented them. The Djinn in Declare, and the Nefilim in The Stress of Her Regard, both by Tim Powers, fall into this category. Basing aliens on their needs is all very well, but they're much more interesting if their needs are something less than obvious to us.

 

[Dave Barsby]

Aside from energy to live and a need to continue the species I'm not sure anything else connects living things so why should aliens be anthropomorphic? Human with less or human with special abilities? For all its faults there was a great bit in the 2002 film Solaris where they're wondering what Solaris wants and compare it to God, but someone mentions it is all pointless because how can an ant explain to another ant how the human mind works? I guess aliens are usually anthropomorphised so we can hint at culture or motive and relate to the situation, but if there are aliens out there chances are they are so vastly different to us we can't begin to understand them as we wouldn't be able to box them into a human category. It's the bane of a sci-fi writer when it comes to aliens - make them a bit like us or leave people confused

 

[Gawian]

I like Aliens being fairly humanoid. I think the best example of what I would alien life to be is the Mass Effect Universe.

If you look up the Alien races in that, they are all fairly humanoid (except the Elcor and Hanar), but with major differences.

The Turians are fairly birdlike in appearance, Asari are blue and Mono-Gendered (also able to mate with ANY species), Drell are lizard like, and Krogan are... well... I don't know how to describe the Krogan ahaha.

 

[Steven Sorrels]

I like Aliens being fairly humanoid. I think the best example of what I would alien life to be is the Mass Effect Universe.

If you look up the Alien races in that, they are all fairly humanoid (except the Elcor and Hanar), but with major differences.

The Turians are fairly birdlike in appearance, Asari are blue and Mono-Gendered (also able to mate with ANY species), Drell are lizard like, and Krogan are... well... I don't know how to describe the Krogan ahaha.

There was also the Rachni, who were insect analogues, and remember that the Reapers were living organisms as well, though they were a mix of organic and inorganic materials.

 

[Elventine]

@jjabrams55 I think that you are looking are missing a vital point in creating your aliens. You need to think of what roll they are going to play in your plot, are they the allies, the villains, the bystanders, the knowledge keepers extra.... Because they have to act as a counter to the humans in the story you first have to figure out their roll and the humans roll.

Once there think about what fits for that roll they are going to play in the story -

Do they need to be less sympathetic then the humans or more?

Do they need to look more human or less?

Do they need the same environmental needs as humans or very different ones?

Do they need a harsh or soft justice system?

Do they need human traits or cultures?

Do they need less or more technology?

If they need more, what laws do they have to police that technology?

If less, why?

and so on and I believe that you will find an alien race that is organic and fits into the world and story that you are creating.

 

[Mirannan]

I think another interesting variant on this is aliens who have much the same needs as humans (maybe even essentially identical, if you want) but those needs nevertheless don't clash with those of humans because their biology is completely different. Maybe based on liquid ammonia rather than water, maybe even more exotic (Titan surface natives, using liquid methane at 100K as a solvent), maybe not based on conventional chemistry at all, as in the cheela (neutron star dwellers) from "Dragon's Egg". (The last of these also throws a radically different time sense and speed of living into the mix.)

Or even something that uses Earthlike chemistry with a small tweak, making interaction with humans potentially hazardous. Maybe the aliens need to breathe in a small amount of hydrogen cyanide occasionally, or for them arsenic is an essential mineral. Or one of their common foods is viciously toxic to humans, or vice versa. (The last is quite realistic, actually; for an example, see chocolate vs. dogs.)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

My reaction to the original question is: Why do they need to be either less or more? Why can't they just be very different without being either.

 

[jjabrams55]

@jjabrams55 I think that you are looking are missing a vital point in creating your aliens. You need to think of what roll they are going to play in your plot, are they the allies, the villains, the bystanders, the knowledge keepers extra.... Because they have to act as a counter to the humans in the story you first have to figure out their roll and the humans roll.

Once there think about what fits for that roll they are going to play in the story -

Do they need to be less sympathetic then the humans or more?

Do they need to look more human or less?

Do they need the same environmental needs as humans or very different ones?

Do they need a harsh or soft justice system?

Do they need human traits or cultures?

Do they need less or more technology?

If they need more, what laws do they have to police that technology?

If less, why?

and so on and I believe that you will find an alien race that is organic and fits into the world and story that you are creating.

I don't make aliens to fit my story's plot per say. I make aliens to ACT alien. I don't care if an alien has ten tentacles and 5 mouths... if it acts totally human, then who cares? I don't. Psychology is everything to me.


While I do appreciate your effort to help, I have no need to go over such questions, particularly because my style of worldbuilding is different.

I don't make alien races to fit a role of heroes or villains. I believe any individual can fit such a role... especially since hero and villain are both very subjective concepts depending on POV of characters involved.

Any character can be a hero or villain in my story, no matter where they came from or what they did before... all they need a is a little push. Which I... the author (or story god for that matter) will provide.

 

[jjabrams55]

I think another interesting variant on this is aliens who have much the same needs as humans (maybe even essentially identical, if you want) but those needs nevertheless don't clash with those of humans because their biology is completely different. Maybe based on liquid ammonia rather than water, maybe even more exotic (Titan surface natives, using liquid methane at 100K as a solvent), maybe not based on conventional chemistry at all, as in the cheela (neutron star dwellers) from "Dragon's Egg". (The last of these also throws a radically different time sense and speed of living into the mix.)

Or even something that uses Earthlike chemistry with a small tweak, making interaction with humans potentially hazardous. Maybe the aliens need to breathe in a small amount of hydrogen cyanide occasionally, or for them arsenic is an essential mineral. Or one of their common foods is viciously toxic to humans, or vice versa. (The last is quite realistic, actually; for an example, see chocolate vs. dogs.)

The atmosphere they are native to is a MUCH denser than what humans are used to breathing. Humans would die if they breathed it. On their world they can fly even though their wings are only as long as their human length legs, because the air is just that dense. Gravity is still 1g, so they can work well in 1g. That said, they are weaker in strength compared to humans, since their bodies strongest muscles (the back muscles) are geared toward flying. What kind of wings? Dragonfly. Two pairs. Starting below the shoulders on the flanks of the back, which is robust and curved, unlike the flat human back. It is much like an actual dragonfly's back, except it's covered with skin instead of exoskeleton.

While the aliens are human sized they are colored differently (eyes, skin, hair etc), and their waists are abnormally thin, which makes them have a rather pronounced hourglass shape, yet with a robust bow edged back.

They have other alien features as well... but I have said enough.

 

[jjabrams55]

My reaction to the original question is: Why do they need to be either less or more? Why can't they just be very different without being either.

The question is rather inescapable. You see... every story ever told was based on reality. Humans can only imagine/make stories based on what they already know. What they don't know they cannot imagine. The imagination DOES have limits, and what is known and unknown are those limits.

If one does not consider the OP question, they will end up making a race that is either:

1. A race that is merely a substitute for something else (the klingons of Star Trek were inspired by the russians, with likely a strong mongol influence as well).

2. A race that is merely a copy of what someone else has already done.


The only reason why I did this is because I prefer to make my OWN stuff. The only reason I'm even attempting to write scifi is because I'm tired of the some the stuff that passes for scifi nowadays. The good stuff with actual depth gets cancelled (second chance tv show), while the vapid stuff remains (supergirl tv show).

Probably the one scifi show that respected was Star Trek. Mainly because it attempted to answer what if? What if we went to the stars? What if we met other aliens?

That is what I want my scifi to do? Without repeating the roads of others. I'll make my own.

 

[Elventine]

I don't make aliens to fit my story's plot per say. I make aliens to ACT alien. I don't care if an alien has ten tentacles and 5 mouths... if it acts totally human, then who cares? I don't. Psychology is everything to me.

While I do appreciate your effort to help, I have no need to go over such questions, particularly because my style of worldbuilding is different.

I don't make alien races to fit a role of heroes or villains. I believe any individual can fit such a role... especially since hero and villain are both very subjective concepts depending on POV of characters involved.

Any character can be a hero or villain in my story, no matter where they came from or what they did before... all they need a is a little push. Which I... the author (or story god for that matter) will provide.

I was just using the words hero or villain as examples of character rolls. I just can't list all of them... There are so many different rolls a character in a novel can fill that just naming the few obvious ones is easiest, but that does not mean that the rolls are limited to that.

One just needs to create something the helps with ease of plot movement as well. You need the interactions between the characters to be (depending on the events within the story) either easy (more human aliens) or harder (less human aliens) in order to create the right tension and story movement for your book.

So if what they are does not matter than write them however you like. To be honest a good writer can make anything sympathetic to the readers/audience look at Enders Game or Galaxy Quest...

 

[Elventine]

My reaction to the original question is: Why do they need to be either less or more? Why can't they just be very different without being either.

Take Spider World by Colin Wilson as an example.. the "aliens" that the humans have the most contact with are in fact normal (if giant) spiders... yet they are alien and different yet they are still... what they are. Nothing out of this world.