If intelligent life similar to that on earth exists on other distant worlds then they would have to be partly humanoid or have many characteristics and functions that humans have! – Think about it!

What if the world is a gas giant?

Then it is very unlikely that it would have intelligent life similar to that on earth – Think about it!

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~~Phlash~~

Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control... It is imperative that we learn where UFO's come from and what their purpose is..."

Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter Director, Central Intelligence Agency 1947-1950

From a physical aspect they may be very different. They may have different limbs, eyes, organs, etc. However, if they are similar in intelligence then they probably will created alot of the same things we have such as radios, computers, telescopes, etc. We presume that intelligent life equal or similar to ours will have the same technologies as us, hence we search for clues of these things.

It's hard to imagine what physical form or level of inteligence ET's will have. They will most probably be a product of their environment. They will have evolved according to what their surroundings require are best suited for survival. Survival of the fittest will most surely apply to them as it has to us. Since we don't know where they are or where they come from, if they exist, we have no way of knowing what they are or look like.

Artists, visionaries and moviemakers are partly responsible for the public perception that they will be physically similar to us. Since there is no basis for creating an alien physique, they chose to use an extension of what human evolution may be. Hence the enlarged cranium, absensce of hair, darker and more durable skin, larger range of extension of the joints. I don't blame them for going this route because the audience is more likely to comprehend and be intrigued by this physique, but it's probably way off! I find it interesting that aliens could be turtles (or any other animal on earth) and they are smart enough to convince us somehow that they are not. Maybe they can also change appearances. They may just want to observe and study us without making their presnce known for some reason. Maybe they have exposed themselves to other civilizations such as ours and had adverse effects. Or maybe we are the control group. Or maybe everything is just the way it seems.

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I'm thinking. And I think that's not true. The only things they'd need to have are large brains of sufficient complexity, some degree of social interaction and communication, and some form of tool-using manipulative organs.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

I don’t believe they would be very different. They would need fingers or tentacles that could engage in fine manipulation as a human can, to be able to make something like a watch movement and to forge a sword. Their eyes that aid them in making that watch movement would also have to be able to see the stars. They couldn’t be much smaller than humans, and to evolve to reach the same level as we humans would, they have to go through a Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. They would probably discover steam and electricity to eventually get to computers and would have to be at least as physical as we are.

If we still had the intelligence we do have, but were built like a dolphin or a parrot we would never have evolved as we have done. We would not have made it if we were like a slug or praying mantis.

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~~Phlash~~

Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control... It is imperative that we learn where UFO's come from and what their purpose is..."

Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter Director, Central Intelligence Agency 1947-1950

Again you are presuming that their environment is like earth. What if their planet had no land and it's surface was completely liquid. Then there is a good chance that they would not have hands. The only thing I would say is most likely similar is the brain as Noclever pointed out and probably a shell/skull or protective casing for it. Everything else is up in the air.

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Octopi have no fingers and yet they can perform fine manipulations as well as most people, and are smart enough to figure out how to open a jar unaided, for example.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Your statement is axiomatic. If intelligent life similar to Earth existed elsewhere, then, by definition, they would have many characteristics and functions as us, because they are similar! Think about it.

In any case, even if they were near 100% anatomically similar to humans, it doesn't follow that they would go through the same technological development as we have, or even at all. Take the Australian aborigines - one of the oldest modern humans (40,000 - 60,000 thousand years old). They were perfectly content to live off the land utilizing low tech tools and shelter for many millenia and still would be if not for the arrival of 'modern' white man.

Phlash - first of all, welcome to BAUT.

Second, ending posts with the words, "Think about it!" is probably not a good idea. Regular BAUTers are pretty much thinkers by nature; at the same time, the speculations you are putting forth are not quite as thought-provoking as you appear to believe. Speculation about alien life has been running for over 100 years now, and the "all intelligent aliens will be humanoid" argument has cropped up many, many times.

My own opinion is that we really cannot make any firm pronouncements about aliens. I expect they will have a single brain protected by something like bone, eyes, and some form of manipulator, but that's as far as it goes. I could be wrong even about that - the brain might be located in different parts of the body, and linked somehow; the manipulators might resemble hands, or an octopus' tentacles, or even an elephant's trunk (and they cannot envisage a lifeform that cannot suck water up its arm); and we can't be sure about eyes. We cannot "see" in infrared, radio and so on, but we still use these things.

All the elements that exist in distant galaxies and stars can be found here on earth, so wouldn’t it be correct to assume that intelligent life would have evolved and advanced by putting at least some of these to practical use as we have done and are still doing. They would have to have knowledge of physics and other sciences and the means to be able to keep records of what has been achieved in the past. If their planet had no land and its surface was completely liquid it would probably be more difficult to extract any of the elements. Imagine for a moment that mankind had never controlled or made fire, or invented the wheel – where would we be today?

What I am trying to say, (and I apologise for not being more explicit in my first post) is that intelligent life need not necessarily be similar to Earth, but be comparable, insofar that they can reason and look to the stars and have the same thoughts and wonderment in the world they live in. Wouldn’t they have to have had a Newton sitting under an apple tree, or an Einstein with a pencil and the back of a cigarette packet? Not literally a Newton or Einstein, but something or someone comparable. When I refer to intelligent life similar to Earth I am alluding to the present day intelligent of Homo sapiens, not that of a humpback whale or an Australian bushman.

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~~Phlash~~

Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control... It is imperative that we learn where UFO's come from and what their purpose is..."

Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter Director, Central Intelligence Agency 1947-1950

You seem to have a narrow definition of what is 'present day intelligent of Homo sapiens'. In fact, that's quite a slur against a whole race of people whose world view happens to be different from yours. Aborigines are just as biologically modern as any other race, being direct descendants from the final migration of peoples out of Africa that went on to colonize the globe. That also makes them just as intelligent as anyone else from any other culture. The fact that they saw no need to build skyscrapers, iPods or nuclear weapons is a powerful counter example to your assumption that intelligence has to be correlated with high technology.

Paul - first of all, thank you for your welcome.

Second, I did not intend to offend anyone with the words, "Think about it!" I was just attempting to get an intelligent response. I can see that there are many intelligent and thought provoking posts, and as you say, regular BAUTers are pretty much thinkers by nature.

Although - “Speculation about alien life has been running for over 100 years now, and the "all intelligent aliens will be humanoid" argument has cropped up many, many times.” -I still see today, in many science fiction films, TV programs and books glaringly obvious bloomers that have been given very little thought regarding known scientific facts.

When you say “…..the speculations you are putting forth are not quite as thought-provoking as you appear to believe.” Well, I believe they are thought-provoking, and should continue to be thought-provoking for many years to come. You could say the same of any thread started in this forum, but thankfully, (for all of you) not so “thought-provoking speculations” has keep this forum going and reaching 1,158,885 posts!
How many of them are “…. not quite as thought-provoking as you appear to believe?”

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~~Phlash~~

Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control... It is imperative that we learn where UFO's come from and what their purpose is..."

Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter Director, Central Intelligence Agency 1947-1950

Again, my choice of words and my attempt to put my thoughts across have been misconstrued; and again I apologies. Instead of saying 'present day intelligent of Homo sapiens'. I should have said 'present day technology and know how’

I did not intend to slur any race of people past or present. In fact I believe many cultures and races, past or present have been paramount in making the world what it is today – some good, some bad! My avatar says a little of what I think of certain cultures and races.

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~~Phlash~~

Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control... It is imperative that we learn where UFO's come from and what their purpose is..."

Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter Director, Central Intelligence Agency 1947-1950

This reminds me a bit of the debate a century ago whether other planets are similar to our own or not.
Many of those who thought they are,
went on to speculate that Mars had an advanced civilization and Venus tropical jungles...

Why?
It was just darn difficult to imagine conditions on other planets,
while deducing from a sample of 1.

Same is happening with life today:
We are speculating based on a sample of 1.
Chances are the universe will surprise us (again)...

We don't know how diverse intelligent lifeforms may be- but I'd guess that they could be very diverse. Only a fraction of intelligent life forms may be humanoid- and only a fraction may have a culture like ours.

In particular, a large fraction of civilised lifeforms (if any exist) may be far in advance of ourselves, and this could mean that their culture would be unrecognisably different to our own, even if they have been through a Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age at some time in the past.

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

Simon Conway Morris, by the way, is a leading proponent of the 'convergence' idea, and suggests that the solutions found by other biota on other planets may be recognisably similar to our own. I disagree strongly- but he does make a good case.
See his book Life's Solution for a look at his arguments. Personally I believe that life will be found in a wide variety of different environments, and some of that life will be intelligent, but not necessarily just that found on Earth-like worlds.

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

I've often wondered how similer to us in mind another intelligent species would be. What if their minds functioned in a different way? I imagine us encountering them only to find half of their words with no meaningful translation into human terms. It would be an eye opening experience to learn about alien ways of thinking.

Of course, it's possible that human modes of thought are the only way for thought to be, or that the conditions of life giving rise to thought would need to be similer enough to us so that aliens would think in much the same way. But given how much historical contigency has affected our history, I kind of doubt it.