BBC Focus Magazine

[Lateralman]

Hey you guys. I know that. Really, I do have thicker skin and believe it or not I do dig your feedback. I still haven't got the smilies sorted out. You guys are cool. Like I said earlier "I know nothing!"

[M Paul Lloyd]

Like I said earlier "I know nothing!"

Now that simple statement is the most intelligent thing anyone can say, and a willingness to learn is all anyone can ask.

[Shadowwolf]

Come to think of it I think they would look like you "Shadow Wolf." Faceless machines capable of going anywhere, regenerating on every post, gaining more power from our failures, living on for all eternity.

Creating havoc in the minds of us mere mortals.

Poorly played Mr Lateral.

[Lateralman]

Sorry about that, It was poor show.

You are faceless but not a machine. The response was born out of pure frustration to all of your so very logical well informed responses.

I have the rhino in the jungle grasshopper effect at the moment. Hopping around everywhere. Trying to stamp out too many fires!!

I will endeavour to keep my enthusiasm more focused in the future.

[Shadowwolf]

Bygones

So, is there any reason to expect that aliens will be by and large, intensely diverse entities with roughly comparable humanoid types being no more likely than any other?

[Lateralman]

To be honest, no. I 'm inclined to feel that they will be very diverse.
I just don't think that we are anything special.
I look at my dog, a prime example of a smart none humanoid life form. With a wag of her tail she has got us sussed.
Warm house, good food, long walks, no stress, log fire to sleep in front of.
Who has got the superior intellect? Me? Us?

[Jamie]

Anatomically dogs, cats, humans, cows (most mammals in fact) are all the same on a very basic level. Arms, legs, heads, bodies - all a variation on the same basic design.

I would imagine that how ever intelligent a dog is (even if he could speak and think like a human) the basic design of his body would not be practical when it came to the fine motor skills required to enable the efficient design and use of tools. The lack of any free limbs without opposable thumbs for example.

I would think that there are some basic attributes that would be needed by any alien. Ideas anyone ?

[Shadowwolf]

I look at my dog, a prime example of a smart none humanoid life form.

There I am inclined to disagree, I have a dog and have observed many others and smart is not a word I would associate with dogs, capable of often limited repetitive task learning sure but not much else. From my experience most canine smarts are the result of humans anthropomorphising the animals and not any great intelligence on the pooches part. Though I'd reckon that different breeds may demonstrate differing levels of capability. So we would easily have the superior intellect, we can appreciate our situation, can use tools, mitigate our environment as opposed to being in its thrall, improve our situation, leave the planet and so on; note, that superior intellect does not mean must live in complete harmony with nature.

I just don't think that we are anything special.

Indeed we are not but I'm not suggesting that we are the exemplary template that all must follow to have success, merely that the very basic set up works self evidently. I'm just approaching this purely from a biological point of view, one which makes no judgments on the moral merits of humanities actions so far.

[Lateralman]

Dunno? It could be some supremely intelligent ploy by dogs to out wit and out 'fox' us!

They are probably partying and playing cards after we go to bed? Either that or I'm barking up the wrong tree?

[Shadowwolf]

It would be an impressive ploy given how willing they are to sacrifice their lives to maintain the illusion.

[Lateralman]

Hey, did you see that recently discovered fish from some part of the deep ocean? The one with the see through head? Wow! Now there is something new on are own planet, that really does have Alien looks!

If NASA had said that they had just discovered it with a space probe that had splashed down on a waterworld somewhere I would have believed them.

[Shadowwolf]

I have seen that odd looking beastie, truly weird from our own abode.