What do you consider to be the most interesting alien race?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on various intriguing alien races from science fiction, with a particular focus on the Moties from "The Mote in God's Eye," known for their hierarchical society and reproductive pressures leading to societal collapse. The Kzin are mentioned as poor diplomats, while other notable races include the Puppeteers and the xenomorphs, praised for their unique characteristics. Participants also explore the complexities of alien biology and societal structures, referencing works by authors like Niven, Varley, and Watts. The conversation highlights the creativity involved in crafting alien species and the philosophical implications of their existence. Overall, the thread showcases a rich tapestry of ideas surrounding the portrayal of aliens in literature.
  • #51
@Fervent Freyja: If you have a Kindle or a Kindle app on whatever device you use, may I suggest you check out the short works of Kiev Dal. They may be to your liking.
 
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  • #52
Khatti said:
The assumption is that the kilt simply came back into fashion. Fashion was different three hundred years ago, why will it not be different three hundred years hence? Like Heinlein, Lazarus Long is a Missouri boy who was born in the last half of the Nineteenth Century; basic pioneer stock. He's going to be rugged and self-reliant. The Methuselahs are different from the rest of humanity, they may just need more calories as a matter of course. Also, if you're really working, 3000 calories at a sitting may not be bad. I'm a Minnesota farm boy, and I know from stories handed down that people routinely ate that during the horse-drawn days of agriculture and didn't gain an ounce. Methuselah's Children was written for Astounding Stories during the 1940s, you're not going to see a lot of sex in it. Sorry.
The Deadliest Catch crewmen eat up to 10,000 calories a day to keep working and stay warm. (Caveat: They lie about all kinds of things, including food intake. But if you watch their meals they do wolf it down.)
 
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  • #53
Khatti said:
I didn't know that you could have gene-porn as a sub-genre until I read Smith.
Do you see a difference between sci-fi as a shell for porn, and porn as an element of serious sci-fi? Which do you mean by "gene-porn"? Which one is Smith?
 
  • #54
EnumaElish said:
Do you see a difference between sci-fi as a shell for porn, and porn as an element of serious sci-fi? Which do you mean by "gene-porn"? Which one is Smith?
E. E. "Doc" Smith, in Children of the Lens implied that the only appropriate mates for his genetically perfect Third Stage Lensman, Kit Kinnison, was his four sisters.

Given that they are all five genetically "perfect" there's no medical reason for this not to be an appropriate match. New species is new! But in the 1940s this was either shocking or just plain invisible to the readers, I think.
 
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  • #55
Khatti said:
The assumption is that the kilt simply came back into fashion. Fashion was different three hundred years ago, why will it not be different three hundred years hence?
This was something Heinlein was good at, dealing with the idea that mores, fashion etc. can swing like a pendulum and don't follow a straight line. Too many times you see the future portrayed as being just like today, just more so. It is tricky writing about the future, you have to consider what changes to society might occur, but you still have to have the readership of today be able to relate to it. To be honest, would a reader from 1850 be able to relate to a character from story set in 2016 who was panicking because they misplaced their cell phone? They might be able to get the idea that this device was important, but not to the idea that not being "connected" 24/7 could cause someone distress.
I'm a Minnesota farm boy, and I know from stories handed down that people routinely ate that during the horse-drawn days of agriculture and didn't gain an ounce. .
Out of curiosity, what part of Minn.? I was born and lived the first 11 yrs of my life on a farm up in the Iron Range.
 
  • #56
Janus said:
I was born and lived the first 11 yrs of my life on a farm up in the Iron Range.

I was born and raised in Brown County MN. The southwestern part of the state. I'm about eighty miles from the South Dakota line and about forty from the Iowa line. New Ulm is the county seat if that helps. Now I have a question for you Iron Ranger: any Finnish blood? Finno-Ugrics figure in a space opera I'm writing. The Finns were renowned as sorcerers back in their pagan days.
 
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  • #57
EnumaElish said:
Do you see a difference between sci-fi as a shell for porn, and porn as an element of serious sci-fi? Which do you mean by "gene-porn"? Which one is Smith?

Pardon me while I pry my tongue out of my cheek. Smith was something of a eugenicist, and was fascinated by the idea of creating the perfect genetic specimen. I read part of a story ( I never finished it) by Smith where the Hero and Heroine go around and around about what a perfect, genetic match they are before they get to the boffing part of the part of the arrangement. It was both funny and annoying.
 
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  • #58
Khatti said:
I was born and raised in Brown County MN. The southwestern part of the state. I'm about eighty miles from the South Dakota line and about forty from the Iowa line. New Ulm is the county seat if that helps. Now I have a question for you Iron Ranger: any Finnish blood?
Every bit of it. My grandparents all immigrated from Finland.
Finno-Ugrics figure in a space opera I'm writing. The Finns were renowned as sorcerers back in their pagan days.
 
  • #59
Q
 
  • #60
GW150914 said:
Q
Interesting PITAs.
 
  • #61
Noisy Rhysling said:
Interesting PITAs.
What does "PITAs" mean?
 
  • #62
GW150914 said:
What does "PITAs" mean?
Pain In The A..

Urbandictionary is a handy tab for me.
 
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  • #63
GW150914 said:
Q

Q was one of many reasons why I didn't get into STTNG. Omnipotent beings who seem to have nothing better to do with their time than test the rats to see it they live up to their moral standards...let me add a new acronym to this discussion: BTCOOM: bores the crap out of me. Roddenberry had this unending fascination with the question of whether the rest of us could live up to his moral standards. If you shared those moral standards I suppose the question seems only reasonable. If you don't share those moral standards, if you are off by even a fraction of a percent, it seems presumptuous. I never cared much for the feeling that I was being preached to for what everyone assumed--and no one asked me about--was my own good.
 
  • #64
Khatti said:
Q was one of many reasons why I didn't get into STTNG. Omnipotent beings who seem to have nothing better to do with their time than test the rats to see it they live up to their moral standards...let me add a new acronym to this discussion: BTCOOM: bores the crap out of me. Roddenberry had this unending fascination with the question of whether the rest of us could live up to his moral standards. If you shared those moral standards I suppose the question seems only reasonable. If you don't share those moral standards, if you are off by even a fraction of a percent, it seems presumptuous. I never cared much for the feeling that I was being preached to for what everyone assumed--and no one asked me about--was my own good.
The last TOS I watched had Frank Gorshin as a White-On-The-Right/Black-On-The-Left who was oppressing Black-On-The-Right/White-On-The-Left people. It was as clumsy a social commentary as I had seen in my 17 years.
 
  • #65
Noisy Rhysling said:
The last TOS I watched had Frank Gorshin as a White-On-The-Right/Black-On-The-Left who was oppressing Black-On-The-Right/White-On-The-Left people. It was as clumsy a social commentary as I had seen in my 17 years.

Sincerity was supposed to make up for a lot in those days.

Khatti said:
Omnipotent beings who seem to have nothing better to do with their time than test the rats to see it they live up to their moral standards...let me add a new acronym to this discussion: BTCOOM: bores the crap out of me

The thing about writing about the Devil is that I want to see how the Devil's self-interest is served. Does the Devil not have to worry about eating? What does it cost a Devil a month to keep the heat on? How does he get on with Mrs Devil and all the little Devillettes? Does annoying Jean Luc Picard answer any of these questions--and how?
 
  • #66
Khatti said:
Sincerity was supposed to make up for a lot in those days.
I noted that it wasn't making up for awkwardness and absurdity. Jonny Quest was much better written.
 
  • #67
Noisy Rhysling said:
I noted that it wasn't making up for awkwardness and absurdity. Jonny Quest was much better written.

...And a lot more fun to watch.
 
  • #68
Khatti said:
...And a lot more fun to watch.
My first serious relationship in high school started when the neighbor girl started coming over to watch Jonny Quest. At least that's what she said...
 
  • #69
Archaea.
 
  • #70
rollete said:
Archaea.
Aliens?
 
  • #71
Yes, aliens.
 
  • #72
rollete said:
Yes, aliens.
I know of the microbes by that name. Am I on the verge of learning something new?
 
  • #73
Maybe, but probably not.
 
  • #74
rollete said:
Maybe, but probably not.
An interesting alien race... Help me out here.
 
  • #75
Two interesting alien species in Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" are: (1) A "hive mind" creature whose components are dog-like creatures who synchronize their actions through ultrasonic signals. (2) A plant-like creature with electronic devices to give them short-term memory.
 
  • #76
Khatti said:
My theory is that Krypton is, in fact, in a different universe. Possibly a parallel Earth. I think the only way that Superman could have the powers he has is if he came from a universe that reacts exotically with ours. Little Ka'el brought that universe with him in the person of...his person. How else can you explain his ability to survive in the center of a star?

My theory for superman's powers is that our universe is actually an enormous video game, and the kryptonians found a way to hack it.
 
  • #77
Old UK space comic zero-x had an episode with alien tobacco-like plants. Each had an eye. They were seeking to capture humans because that would confer the plants mobility somehow. The most imaginative detail was, the photographic (celluloid?) film on which the astronauts recorded the plants' images would come alive (upon being developed in the spaceship's dark room?) and attack the crew like snakes on a plane. The exact mechanism was not disclosed, so it was like magic. Now I think of it, it may have had to do with the film being made of essentially cotton fiber (nitrated cellulose) and the plants having the gift of telepathy.

Here's an image:
flowereye.JPG
 
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  • #78
In "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", one alien was described as a "sentient shade of the color blue".
 
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  • #79
stevendaryl said:
In "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", one alien was described as a "sentient shade of the color blue".
He also had a very philosophical bowl of petunias.
 
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  • #80
stevendaryl said:
My theory for superman's powers is that our universe is actually an enormous video game, and the kryptonians found a way to hack it.

Fair enough...got any thoughts on the plus and minuses of building a Dyson Sphere around a blue giant?
 
  • #81
I remember I liked the idea of a sentient planet in the novel Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, because it was a very unusual and eerie idea which I had not encountered before in science fiction. It was a long time ago I read it, though...
 
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  • #82
how about the "Vashta Nerada" or even the "time lords" hmmmm i wonder if their are related to the
asgardians
 
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  • #83
All of Ursula Le Guin's alien races are great because she makes their strange cultures real. If I am required to pick the one I like best, it would be the Hainish because they are anthropologists who recruit other races to do research for them. See
 
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  • #85
The Vulcans.

They are enough like humans so that I can see myself as one of them. On the other hand, although they are not perfect, they are intellectually and spiritually superior to humans. Therefore, they are something to strive for.

I think much more advanced beings, such as the Organians, are fascinating. But they are too advanced for me to see myself as one of them at this stage.

My goal now is to eliminate as many undesirable human attributes as possible. This is one reason I am becoming interested in meditation, because it is indispensable for the Vulcan to maintain a logical mind. When a Vulcan stops meditating, he or she opens the door to emotion, which results of course in deviations from logic.

I admit I am still an emotional and impulsive human. But at least I'm trying to improve.

Nothing unreal exists.

Live long and prosper, humans!
 
  • #86
When you're no longer human check in with us.
 
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  • #87
Noisy Rhysling said:
When you're no longer human check in with us.

I am a transhumanist. I think transhumanists in general see themselves as continuing their development as humans. It's not that we wish to stop being human. We want to become a better human. In fact, one could say we wish to become more fully human, by living up to our potential.

It's not a binary condition, in the sense of either being human or not being human. I think we are on the continuum of progress, somewhere between the first beings we would call human, and what we can become in the distant future. Perhaps at some stage we will cease to call ourselves humans, but personally I like the idea of tracing myself back to my earliest civilized ancestors. They were human, but not as far along on the continuum of progress as we are.
 
  • #88
A better human wouldn't be human.
 
  • #89
One cannot become Vulcan by getting more like them. They would never consider you as one of them. That's okay, because they are not better than humans intellectually or spiritually. "Better" is so value laden a term right off the bat that we'd go nowhere with it. So, logically (ahem) your goal must at best be one of sideways movement. I guess one can define transhumanism that way, which is no plume off my back. Also, meditation does not lead to logic, or eliminate or control emotion. Not in my experience. Best wishes, and thanks for all the plomik.
 
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  • #90
Yggdrasil tree ships
 
  • #91
I think Farscape had quite a few of the most interesting alien species, with Babylon 5 a close second.

Farscape - characters listed, race/species name not available.
1. The Pilot
2. Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan (a plant humanoid)
3. Ha D'Argo
4. Dominar Rygel XVI
5. Scorpius
6. Chiana
​
Babylon 5
Character - Race
1. Delenn - Mimbari
2. Vir Coto and Londo Mollari - Centari
3. G'Kar - Narn​
 
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  • #92
Buzz Bloom said:
Babylon 5
Character - Race
1. Delenn - Mimbari
2. Vir Coto and Londo Mollari - Centari
3. G'Kar - Narn

I loved B5. Belong to a Facebook fan group. The Physics Forum thing about the show I found most interesting is how Straczinski dealt with the FTL problem. Don't build a starship, build a universe the ship can access to get to other points in the galaxy quickly.
 

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