We've seen what aliens might actually look like from a lot of movies over the years, but what do you think aliens look like?

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"Try not to become a man of success, but rather, try to become a man of value." -- Albert Einstein

Mostly like bacillus bacteria.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Absolutely. The most widespread form of life in the universe is probably deep crustal extremophile organisms of some sort.

But for an idea of what I think they might look like here are a couple of images...
Eburacum alien worlds

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense- Novella Contest Issue! . OA Flickr set

A critical juncture seems to be the invention of the cell wall. Most possibilities for "our" type of life vanish without it. Separation forced speciation, which forced competition. After competitive evolution came cooperative association (different types of cell hanging out together to use each other's products and/or wastes. See the writings of Lynn Margulies). The rest is history, as they say.

Back on topic, I think the default lifeform for the cosmos is pre-cell-wall. Hard to imagine a starfaring (on an intentional basis) race of that sort. Might be a sci-fi story in there somewhere-- how would we interact? :unsure:
Regards, Steve.

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Ignoramus et ignorabamus.-- Reymond

Wir mussen wissen. Wir werden wissen.--Hilbert

Pick one.

Given that they are probably intelligent like our selves. They would most likely be bipedal, have numerous digits at their extremities, have some sort of stereo vision,are capable of storing energy; ie (food), and reproduce. I believe they would look a lot like us. Their facial features, skin texture, location, of their head, limbs, sexual organs, eyes ears etc., could be different.

I figure they original poster was talking about what *intelligent* life would look like. I don't know about your, but all those bacteria look the same to me.

My take on it is that they would need to be mobile in order to go and get food. They wouldn't neccesarily have to be bipedal, IMO. Most mammals are quadrapes, aren't they? so we're certainly in the minority within our own mammalian class.

They would need some way of manipulating objects, tools, and food. Fine manipulators that are flexible and grip well in a stable grasp.

They would need to eat. There are various ways of absorbing stuff into the body, so I'm not sure a "mouth" per-se is a pre-requisite.

They would need to have some sort of metabolism, and produce waste products.

They would also need some means of observing the world around them. It doesn't neccesarrily mean that they would have "eyes", but they'd need to be able to determine distance, speed, recognise other individuals of their own kind.

And importantly, there isn't going to be much spaceship building going on if you can't communicate with one another.

That's about all I can think of that's a neccessity.

-Cheers

Frisbee

Probably SETI porject can find one of them and we will all know how aliens may look like. It would be a real fun to find some of them and get to talk to them.

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Think big, start small, but integrated[color=red]

You didn't mention the effect of the natural selection process that continually filters the large number of "plans" attempted by the "change and test" forces of evolution. It is not only necessary that the mechanism function adequately; it must succeed in the competition with its "siblings". Bipeds with arms containing from 4 to 10 digits each, a face near the major organ of the central nervous system, and not encumbered with an awkward skin or skin covering will have significant advantages over those not so equipped. Watch out for the weasels and their kin! Natural selection is working with the same focus all over the universe and will produce critters all over the place that won't find each other too scary. The first "species" in a system to assess its survival a month or so in advance, by reasonably comtemplating the forces at play to terminate it, will rise to dominance and develop technology in order to be on their way to modifying the universe to suit themselves. Once galacticly established, its longevity will be asymptotic to perpetuity, an important term in the Drake equation.

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For those inclined to oppose human meddling with the structure of the universe or the composition and configuration of objects and groups of objects within the universe, consider:
Whether there is a limit to the magnitude of a modulation of chaos below which order remains invariant? Or, is order but a fiction invented by perspectives applied over finite, however large, time intervals?

I don't care about how do they look as much as where and how to find them!

Well, i imagine them having larger brains and smaller bodies; similar to us but a bit mutated. Or maybe something else?! :huh:

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Classifications of alien life: 1. lowlife (bacteria-like); 2. static (plant-like); 3. active (animal-like); and 4. highlife, from one or more of the other groups that we might communicate with. What else?--Sentient oceans and clouds?

I remember reading an article about aliens that are coming! and are coming here!! in that most something-or-other of intellectual and scholarly journals, the Weekly World News, which came complete with a photograph of ... dust mites. Oh well, ho-ho.

Distance is too wide, and space too cold, except for suns too hot; and so we really can only view and calculate prior to communicating. Meanwhile, on a roguish sort of planet-comet travelling around our sun are the Nibiru, preparing to return to Earth, while other secretive sentient entities, already here!, crush cryptic motifs into European wheat fields. What do these aliens of the 4th classification look like?--clowns?

Cheers and green cheeze to yezorl.

I also think that they will resemble us "loosely". I am assuming that mother nature is a universal lady and not localised to planet earth, therfore i am also assuming that the natural processes of evolution will end up with the most intellegent species of all planets being roughly similar to ourselves. I am assuming intellegence to mean capable of asking "why" and the capability to plan and explore space. h34r:

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[font=Times][size=7][color=purple]Supermc of partypoker.com [quote]knowing is not enough,we need to understand !

Perhaps a few species of intelligent life will be upright bipeds; but with a radically different evolution to our own they will look bizarre and inhuman;

the quasi-humanoid species will probably be more disturbing than the non-humanoid species, in my opinion.

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense- Novella Contest Issue! . OA Flickr set

:huh: "They will look bizarre and inhuman". Well of corse they will, they are. I have trouble believing the things I see in this forum. Where have you been? Do you read any of this stuff. You should. You might learn something... scroll back and read Mr gourheads and other postings in these colums... you will be enlightened. and dont get all prissy and affended, open your eyes and mind to the science. and continue to question and enquire. Its good for all of us.
:blink: The very thought that an alian might look like us is redicklyiouse ( silly ) The upright biped sentiant beings are probebly alone here on planet earth. Other intelagent beings capable of technoligies simular to ours may look very diferent indeed. Just looking around this planet we see other life forms that have developed comunitive skills and none of them look like us. Octipuse, whales, and Ants., get the idea....

I'll answer why that is. Our upright stance, colour vision seeing only what we call as the visible spectrum - all have been developed to adapt to situations here on earth. The upright stance for surviving on the plains using our most sensitive organ, the eye. Colour vision ( development of the eye ) because the sun emits most of it's light in the visible part of the spectrum. I agree that the upright stance set the hands free that helped develop tools and civilisation, but the limbs themselves are an adaptation for walking on land.

That a certain adaptation was chosen by us does not mean it is the only one which makes intelligent life possible , for there might be infinite other pathways. That's the reason that I don't believe in alien incidents - The aliens in them have two eyes, mouth, two free hands and walk uprightly and bipedally. These adaptations have been developed by man for purposes other than intelligence and civilisation, and are surely not the only ones developed by aliens , who, on their planet, might have faced other situations, and developed something akin to an eye on their lower body, and might have some other combination of traits that made them as advanced as ( or superior than ) us.

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Limericks, written by me: http://limericker.blogspot.com

some other mold into verternary aspect like a neck like jiraff, the eyes like a frog, stomatch like ceal,and the tounge like a snake of 8 feet. legs are thin and small in height, the head and neck moves like a table fan but stopless, moving round totally. don't worry these are my ideas, finally they can be shape of birds like, but the head is of man over the body of bird, taking a take of like a giant flying container plane, some are small in sixe like a sparrow, having no head but the head is on the back, and expanding a large wings, then sparrow we can change into vulture...
we can imagine lot more aspects.still you wait when they [aliens]will meet then only how they look into appearence that only can be imagine later, i don't when they are reaching to earth, may be they are in the middle distance, or may be they are taking rest on different stars.....

sunil.

all I am saying is that I am hopeful that many varied species of intelligent life live in our universe; but they are probably very distant from us, in every sense of the word. The closest intelligent upright biped species apart from ourselves might be hundreds of thousands of light years away.
And if we met them they certainly would not resemble humanity as much as Klingons seem to, or Cardassians, or Ewoks, or any of the alien species we see on TV or in the films.

I strongly believe in nonhumanoid aliens, as most of the posters here know; but there is no rule of the universe prohibiting upright bipeds.

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense- Novella Contest Issue! . OA Flickr set

I've already read quite some good remarks here in this thread.

If you want to make a global assesment you can use the following:

- Must use limbs to handle tools.
Depending on the number of limbs, this will mostly lead to a bipedal lifeform.

- Must convey information in short time span
Signlanguage just does this, though out of sight communication is more probable. This implies hearing, and speech. Chemical/Biological exchange of information is just to slow.

- Must be able to gain information
Smell is also an important asset, as it warns about food, places etc. Of coarse, sight which reveals info nescessary for survival will be important to. Depending on the star, world, this might show some variations, and most probably will benefit lifeforms which live during daytime.

- Agility.
Exoskeletons are actualy quite heavy and limits the mobility. Larger insects (like Xindi in star trek serie) would have to have quite a thin exoskeleton, making them vulnerable.

- Land living
watercreatures have some drawbacks. Just imagine the invention of fire. Amphibians might do the trick, though over time, depency on swampy places will limit them and will probably make them less likely to go beyond a simple tool age.

- Omnivores
Both carnivores and herbivores lack interrest in one aspect of nature. Carnivores would not directly benifit from limbs which do not aid their hunt. And intelligence would only make them better use what they have, and not change their limbs into tool using objects.
Herbivores lack the possibility to remove dangers from their world.

- Management
Any large project requires that someone has the idea and others aid to accomplish it. This will always lead to some form of hiarchy.

- Clothing
Clothing for protection, (and surely for ceremonial wear), will be common.

Beyond this, almost everything is possible. Nature has a way of coming up with interresting ways to solve problems. Also psychological aspects will influence cultural traits. For example mating and nursing behaviour. As for missing a voicebox, which might lead to whistling and clicking for communication.

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Have you found the loop or the loophole?

I think that land creatures may be in the minority. Consider: whenever water is in adequate supply to form life, there is usually too much of it! Our own rock is only 23% land area (currently growing smaller). On a thalassian world, the most successful design, from the standpoint of promoting intelligence and tool use, is the cephalopod. Octopi, squids, and nautili all have the manipulating members, jet propulsion, and image-forming eye as well as adequate image-processing brain space. This last is a real puzzling case of so-called parallel evolution-- nobody can figure out how eyes which are essentially identical to our own evolved independently in such diverse creatures. The major difference is that our sclera is an elastic membrane, whereas in deep-sea creatures it is a sesamoid bone. I don't consider dolphins because most of their evolution took place on land. Intelligence in a fire-free environment may focus on other disciplines-- chemistry, electrophoresis, magnetohydrodynamics, metals science based on electroplating rather than forging/smelting. We can't really say how such an intelligence might approach interworld communication or travel-- the negatives here reflect only our own inability to achieve those ends by means presently known to us, in an environment we didn't "complete" our evolution in. That last sentence looks a little twisted, even to me, but I hope you all know what I mean. Steve

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Ignoramus et ignorabamus.-- Reymond

Wir mussen wissen. Wir werden wissen.--Hilbert

Pick one.

By bypassing dolphins, you already admit yourself that, how strange it may seem, aquanautic creatures don't evolve beyond a certain point.

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Have you found the loop or the loophole?

I think they'd almost definitely be green.

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Climate Change Australia