I'm not saying we haven't, but, just take as a hypothesis the idea that all conceptualisations of people from space are imaginary.

Where do they come from?

How do they evolve? How did we go from little green men with antennae on their heads (why would anyone assume an alien had antennae on its head?) to beautiful blonde Amazons from Venus to the "greys" of modern myth? And before anyone starts talking about "The Outer Limits," I just looked at the aliens from "The Bolero Shield" and, while there certainly is a resemblence, they look just as much like the Mariabot from Metropolis. Do they just emerge out of our subconscious?

__________________
I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?

It's gotten to the point where careful investigation is needed just to tell parody from reality. I think that means reality is broken.- Noclevername.

Oh, I wish I had saved it. In probably CSICOP's Skeptical Inquirer many years back there was an article that documented the evolution of the aliens reportedly seen (and perhaps their spacecraft, too). I distinctly remember a graphic chart of year versus alien-shape.

I believe -- weakly recall -- the conclusion was that the sort of alien that was seen over time was highly-correlated to the type of aliens then-portrayed in popular media, books, movies, TV. (But then the true-believer would counter that the aliens portrayed in popular media are the ones that are then reportedly seen.)

But, it could all be a false memory.

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0....

They evolve just like anything else. Somebody thinks up a good one and it sticks. Wasn't the movie Close Encounters the first time we saw the Greys?

__________________
Why did the cat fall off the roof?
Because he lost his mu.

I just destroyed the periodic table. I only recognize the element of surprise.

Without good evidence, I see no reason that needs to be only a hypothesis. It is, rather, a reasonable conclusion that "greys" and so forth are imaginary. Frankly, if there are ETs, I would be quite surprised if they were humanoid.

Where do elves, fairies, demons, angels, dragons, minotaurs, kappas and all the other mythological creatures of many cultures come from? This is nothing more than a modern mythology, more acceptable today than some of the older ones. In any mythology, the creatures will often have a combination of human and animal features. You can find green and grey skin as well as antennas in nature.

__________________
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Why? It's a very handy form. If there are millions of alien races waiting for us out there im sure a good number of them are humanoid as well as the other forms we have seen in Science Fiction.

__________________
Why did the cat fall off the roof?
Because he lost his mu.

I just destroyed the periodic table. I only recognize the element of surprise.

That's a very big "if."

With a different evolutionary path, you are going to expect other creatures with two legs, a trunk, two arms, two eyes, etc. walking upright? It isn't impossible, but it isn't the only way to do things either. If and when we find other complex species on other worlds, I would think it far more likely we would find many body forms we didn't think of or expect.

__________________
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

I have been convinced for a long time that we can blame H.G. Wells for the idea of the humanoid alien with a big head and underdeveloped body;
this chappie agrees with me it seems.

Wells no doubt came up with the idea by imagining the future evolution of humanity, and this motif may have originated even earlier during the debates over Darwin's controversial books on evoluton.

Olaf Stapledon notably imagined a future species of humanity with huge heads and vestigial bodies in his books written in the 1930's; several similar creatures appeared in Fifties SF, including the green coloured Mekon from Dan Dare.

Certainly the grey alien motif seems to have become popular after the Hill case 'abduction', perhaps helped by the weekly appearance of this chap on TV during the end credits of a certain TV show for much of the Sixties and afterwards.

__________________
Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set