Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Aliens and Halloween: How Uncanny My Valley

"We've received a hailing frequency."
Thank you, Mr. Sulu.  Please bring up the visual.
"Men, I think it's a she."
What the f...
Let's risk a detailed scan.

Well this is an interesting development.  I would say our subject is a Type 1: Grey, but honestly, she's blue.  She is also noticeably a "she".  Unless, that is, on subject's planet males have rounded hips and breasts.
Here's the thing about breasts.  Breasts are a mammalian characteristic.  Mammals are endothermic across the board, but then so are birds.  Mammals have hair, they have highly developed brains, four chambered hearts and most, but not all, are placental.  Of all of these things I want to stress that mammals have mammary glands.  It sort of defines the name.  It is common in science fiction, well soft science fiction, to have all manner of aliens that are clearly of a non-mammalian origin (like Mon Calimari and Rodians and such) sporting knockers.  Adipose tissue in the pectoral region of sometimes inconvenient dimensions.  In short: breasts.  Either science is dead wrong about what breasts are and for what purpose they developed or science fiction fans are a disturbing lot.
You decide.
I digress and so back to our subject.  She (let's go with that) seems to be of an advanced mammalian, possibly related to humanoids, species.  Her blue skin and green-tinted eyes tell us she comes from a planet with a blue star or similar.  The lack of visible body hair only heightens the massive cranium which stands out from the otherwise human proportioned torso and limbs.  We can be assured that the larger cranium denotes greater intelligence by observing the much smaller upturned collar.  Fashion sense is, after all, a key signifier of actual intelligence.  Again we see robes, common to aliens that are not bred for war and out to eat your face and implant eggs in your intenstines but these have a certain old world charm.  Or maybe she's wearing an evening gown or we've interrupted her as she prepares for a function and that's a dressing gown.  Thinking and seeing are the hallmarks of what makes our species so successful, so we must assume that Type 1 aliens, having bigger eyes and bigger brains are ultra-successful at all the things we are.

Assessment: Probably harmless.  I don't think you are in for a probe any time soon, but maybe.  The probablem with a truly advanced species is that they can be very reasonable, like humans, and then they can be very irrational, like humans.  If they are truly so advanced as to see us as we see lower animals on our planet then you are probably in for some sort of scientific experimentation.  Of course I assume aliens have their own version of PETA and Greenpeace, so no doubt there's a few that are screaming "Save the Terrans!", so you might get lucky there.  And of course among humans there are those that like animals and then there are those that like like animals.
Follow me?

Warp back soon for more alien identification.

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