How similar (or different) would alien 'small tech' be to our own?

[Astro Pen]

I've been thinking a lot about alternative alien tech. Not the huge Dyson sphere and singularity stuff, but the small things.

Were we to capture a ship of theirs, how would it be held together? Would they go down the same inventions and refinements path as us because it is the most logical methodology or would they have used something completely unthought of by us?

Would they use, for example:
Nuts and bolts
Paint
Rivets
Semiconductor logic
Adhesives
Insulated wires for carrying electricity
Fabrics
Springs
Liquified gasses
Gear mechanisms
Cooked food
Lenses

Would it all be uncannily familiar, or would we have to think right outside the box?

 

[CupofJoe]

Even on Earth you have very different technologies being used for the same purposes.
I’m always amazed at the multi-storey bamboo scaffolding you see in parts of Asia and wonder strange metal scaffolding must look to someone from there.
If the aliens were “Star Trek” different from us [all about the same size and build, and from similar types of planets], then I’d guess that their solutions to problems would look a lot like ours.
I’d also expect there to be thing that are wildly different because they didn’t have X to do a job and had to think of a different way around it.
Or they have access to something we don’t. I’d love to see the effects on a world where Spider’s silk can be spun and woven as easily as Silkworm’s silk.

 

[Foxbat]

I think it would depend a lot on physiology but I do think there will be common areas. Nuts and bolts might not work if they didn't have fingers like ours (how would they hold a spanner). On the other hand, maybe they could develop super strong adhesives as an alternative.

The harnessing of electromagnetism, I would guess, would be an important stepping stone for any advancing civilisation. With that in mind, I'd say that insulated wiring could be a common thing.

 

[AllanR]

Harry Harrison's West of Eden, had dinosaurs that didn't go extinct and they developed a mixed level of tech in his story. Almost all there tech was organic and grown.

from the wiki -The Yilanè, having had millions of years of civilization, have a very advanced society primarily based on a mastery of the biological sciences, especially genetic engineering, so much so that almost every tool and artifact they use is a modified lifeform. Their boats were originally squids, their submarines are enhanced ichthyosaurs (here called uruketos), while their guns are modified monitor lizards which eject projectiles using pressurised gas.

 

[farntfar]

Foxbat suggests that electromagnetism has to be a common science, but actually there is no reason why any form of energy couldn't replace electricity in circuits.
We are all taught, at an early school level to think of electric circuits in terms of water system, so that we can "see" how they work. Indeed the idea of electric current even borrows the name from the idea of a river or pipe system, and we are taught to think of resistors in terms of thin pipes, a waterfall as a large potential difference, where the water at the top has more potential energy than that at the bottom.
Alien technology may well be based on giant hydraulic systems where ours is based on electronics.
So semiconductor technology:
Diodes are replaced by one way valves, batteries by water towers etc.
All sorts of stuff that I've seen in sewage works or steam engines seem to mirror electrical capacitors or induction coils.
Has anyone ever built a waterflow transistor? I don't know but it must be possible.

However electrical and electronic systems do seem very convenient.
Who knows. Some aliens may well find it appallingly primitive.

 

[Astro Pen]

Has anyone ever built a waterflow transistor? I don't know but it must be possible.

Yes indeed. @farntfar. I recall in he seventies done work was done on fluidic logic.
Here's a description of fluidic logic gates

Fluidic Logic | Symscape

www.symscape.com

I think automatic transmission valve blocks make use of it too

Just found s nice video by Steve Mold

 

[farntfar]

Love it.
Thank you.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Look at a boat now compared to one made 2000 years ago. Look at computer now compared to one made 60 years ago.

The Universe is (probably) more than 13 BILLION years old. Imagine the disparity in gear made within only a fraction of that time frame.

So I would say that alien technology will likely look very , very different to anything we currently use.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I'm not sure where it might lead, but perhaps the aliens didn't develop a strong sense of sight and instead relied on echo location similar to bats. They wouldn't rely on light for indicators, perhaps a combination of vibration, braille-like displays, and audio. The interfaces to common devices would be much different. A white noise generator might be used to camouflage movement.

Another direction to explore would be if the aliens didn't develop a strong sense of audio. In that case light-based indicators and tactile indicators might be heavily utilized.

Perhaps electrical shock isn't painful to the aliens. Again, that would change the indicators on devices. Instead of vibrating to gain attention, devices might give off a repeated electrical shock. Perhaps the aliens could even sense electro-magnetic radiation and use that as opposed to light and sound indicators.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's hard to comprehend exactly what aliens may be like. The chances of them being bipedal, 6 foot mammals with hands, eyes, mouths is pretty slight. For all we know they could be aquatic 600 foot dolphin-like creatures, or the beings the size of ants.

 

[Swank]

You could replace almost every kind of technology with some biological equivalent - grown to shape or modified by programmed "termites". You could have culture completely unused to thinking about technology as something assembled from smaller parts.

 

[Foxbat]

Foxbat suggests that electromagnetism has to be a common science, but actually there is no reason why any form of energy couldn't replace electricity in circuits.

I suggested this because electromagnetism is one of the fundamental forces of the universe and arguably the easiest of these forces to be harnessed by a civilisation. It will not be dependent on planetary conditions - unlike, for example, hydraulics or fluidics.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Let us consider chemistry for a moment.
The periodic table is a surprisingly new device. For example, below is an arrangement by Walter Russell from 1926.
Scientists have continued to look for ways to "discover" the elements with the appropriate number of electrons in order to fill the gaps since mid 19th century. When chemists got done with "stable" elements they went on and created a bunch more in laboratories (118 total now!)

I suggest that visiting aliens base material science on a more basic understanding of the universe. More basic than bosons and quarks. The result is material science that provides them with materials with the precise qualities they desire, opacity, thickness, density, tensile strength, flexibility, etc. etc. And one that can start with any passing asteroid for base material.
The notions of materiality based on "electron count based elements" is as silly to them as what we think of materiality based on Aristotelian physics. (This tree is part earth, part water, part fire...)

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

It's hard to comprehend exactly what aliens may be like. The chances of them being bipedal, 6 foot mammals with hands, eyes, mouths is pretty slight. For all we know they could be aquatic 600 foot dolphin-like creatures, or the beings the size of ants.

Or they/it could be something completely unlike "life" but something (at least) as complex and seeming improbable, and we wouldn't even recognise it as aliens? In which case we may already be familiar with aliens.
The aliens may be astounded by our planet's development of biotechnology (eg, eukaryotes) and consider humans'"tech" as merely a particular characteristic of a branch of the biome.
Also, most of our most important (to us) technology, ie agriculture, medicine, is biotech. Symbolic language is something else I think... but definitely originating from the body

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

I suggested this because electromagnetism is one of the fundamental forces of the universe and arguably the easiest of these forces to be harnessed by a civilisation. It will not be dependent on planetary conditions - unlike, for example, hydraulics or fluidics.

Perhaps our belief that electromagnetism is a fundamental force of the universe is contingent, and "electromagnetism" is an artefact created by the experiments that people have actually done over the centuries. We have a category called "electromagnetism" because it fits in with what we've already learned. Alien science may have taken a different track... we know that our understanding of the world is partial, and different fields of knowledge don't always match up, eg relativity and quantum physics

 

[Foxbat]

Perhaps our belief that electromagnetism is a fundamental force of the universe is contingent, and "electromagnetism" is an artefact created by the experiments that people have actually done over the centuries. We have a category called "electromagnetism" because it fits in with what we've already learned. Alien science may have taken a different track... we know that our understanding of the world is partial, and different fields of knowledge don't always match up, eg relativity and quantum physics

I don't see it this way.

The electromagnetic spectrum covers a huge energy range, including visible light, gamma radiation, x rays and is now thought to be strongly linked to the weak nuclear force. It is not a convenient construct simply to explain certain conditions or phenomena. You can see that it exists simply because there is light to see by. You can measure that it exists by measuring gamma radiation. You can even feel that it exists by sticking your finger into an electrical socket and getting an electric shock. You can also feel it in the sunburn you will receive through overexposure to ultra violet light. The very fact that I sit at a computer typing this sentence is only possible through the force of electromagnetism.

If it is indeed linked to the weak nuclear force then none of us would be here without it because it is the weak nuclear force that allows suns to burn through fusion reactions - creating the light and heat we all need to survive. Countless repeatable experiments also testify to its existence and that it is not simply a pigeonhole explanation of events.

All of this tells me it is real and it is something that we could not exist without. Where it is advantageous is that it is quite possibly the most accessible of the forces that we can harness for our own use and advancement. It is my view that the very existence of countless stars and the light they provide (and also particularly in regards to the weak nuclear force) is proof that electromagnetism is universal and, if it is available for us to harness, it will also be available for aliens to do likewise.

 

[Swank]

Maybe the universe is just an assembly of well organized Tic-Tacs, and we are too blinded by physics to see this simple truth.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

What the bodies are made might make a difference in how they react to electromagnetic radiation. Its hard to imagine what a body made of energy would look like and how it would interact with matter and energy. A solid body that is sulfur or silicon based or a DNA that uses chlorine and krypton might also interact differently which might influence what tools are made of or how they are used. Behavior can also change the way things work. If we didn't use metal or kill life to get what we need things would probably look a lot different.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

I don't see it this way.

The electromagnetic spectrum covers a huge energy range, including visible light, gamma radiation, x rays and is now thought to be strongly linked to the weak nuclear force. It is not a convenient construct simply to explain certain conditions or phenomena. You can see that it exists simply because there is light to see by. You can measure that it exists by measuring gamma radiation. You can even feel that it exists by sticking your finger into an electrical socket and getting an electric shock. You can also feel it in the sunburn you will receive through overexposure to ultra violet light. The very fact that I sit at a computer typing this sentence is only possible through the force of electromagnetism.

If it is indeed linked to the weak nuclear force then none of us would be here without it because it is the weak nuclear force that allows suns to burn through fusion reactions - creating the light and heat we all need to survive. Countless repeatable experiments also testify to its existence and that it is not simply a pigeonhole explanation of events.

All of this tells me it is real and it is something that we could not exist without. Where it is advantageous is that it is quite possibly the most accessible of the forces that we can harness for our own use and advancement. It is my view that the very existence of countless stars and the light they provide (and also particularly in regards to the weak nuclear force) is proof that electromagnetism is universal and, if it is available for us to harness, it will also be available for aliens to do likewise.

I don't doubt that the term electromagnetism describes real phenomena. Does that mean that it is one of the things the universe is assembled out of? Or is it a definable property of the total universe, which could be sliced up other ways?

 

[Foxbat]

It is one of the four fundamental forces that govern how our universe operates.
The four forces being: Strong Nuclear Force, Weak Nuclear Force, Electromagnetism and Gravity. Without these, we wouldn't exist and therefore couldn't possibly debate what things aliens could do.

The four fundamental forces of nature

Facts about the four fundamental forces that describe every interaction in nature.

www.space.com