Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: oliver_p on 22/03/2005 15:41:13
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hullo
it always make me chuckle when on Star Trek the captain beams down to an alien planet and ends up punching him
it seems to me a pretty slim chance of an alien being bi-pedal, 6 foot tall, oxygen (at 1 atmosphere) breathing, same gravity strength etc
any hoo, what i've wondered for a time is, what would they actually have in common?
bipedal?
DNA?
oxygen breathing?
top of the food chain?
i'm guessing gravity will play a big part...
and it'd be pretty difficult to communicate with them as well, what could we say? pythagoras's theorem? the periodic table of elements?
regards
ol
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im not even entirely conviced that all forms of life require water. they may be able to subsist on other liquids, onyl soilds, or just off of solar energy. Life will find a way, nearly anywhere. we may be talkign to some wierd looking mercury drinking gamma ray spittin freak a ziod with 3 consiousness and indefintie lifespan.
Until we actually find one, i think that practically any ET is possible, even a bipedal, oxygen breathing, 6ft tall human lookin thing with wierd forehead bones.
...you know i had a dream that Kinglons stuck a wierd knife into my leg, stapped me to a metal device and turned me into godzilla with some electiral device. Coinkeedink? :P
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"If i cannot have company whose minds are clearly free, I would prefer to go alone." -Dr. Gideon Lincecum
The BPRD rejected my application becuase their brain-controled by Cthulhu Rip-offs. And im sure "Sparky" is sleeping with them too, kinky little firecracker she is...
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I think that's funny too - humanoid aliens are by far and away the most represented species on Star Trek. I think that's one of the weaknesses.
We only look the way we do because our evolution has been moulded by continuous selective pressure from our environment. We are optimised to accommodate the habitat in which we reside. (Hence in America people are fast evolving genes to help them burn off calories at the rate of 5 billion a second - unfortunately these mutations take some time to acquire, but they're working on it !).
A series of lucky chance events have also had an impact on our development - stars exploding near the earth altering the climate and forcing us onto two legs through climate change, huge meteor impacts sufficient to chill the climate and wipe out the dinosaurs...if things had been slightly different we probably wouldn't exist.
Any other world is unlikely to present the same selective pressures in the same way, so it's silly to presume that all life will look like us. You can only say with certainty that it will be well adapted to its environment in order to be successful.
Chris
"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx
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How can you guys forget the Horte? The volcanic rock man? The light force community? Tremain? The Gorn, for crying out loud?
"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here."
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Posted - 23 Mar 2005 : 08:52:51
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I think that's funny too - humanoid aliens are by far and away the most represented species on Star Trek. I think that's one of the weaknesses.
it's called saving money on stage make up you ninnies!
( lord, are we geeks, or what?)
smeep smeep
live long, and tamster
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What? What was that? My opinion? Well, ok, if you insist.
I believe that Mr. Chris is right on the money here with this evolution thingy. I'd bet you'd find alot of bi-pedal creatures out there. Some say that we are "created in God's image". Well, who's to say that She's not a Tri-pedal mercury drinking gamma ray spittin freak a zoid (according to our standards) and we're still in the early stages of evolution. My belief is that the numerous images of aliens make sense. Outside of our atmosphere there would be no need for mouths / vocals due to the lack of oxygen, atrophy due to no gravity would cause for some pretty lanky extremeties, the lack of light would cause for some big-a$$ eyes and no melanin equals green or grey.
However, Kirk only punched the males... he got freaky with the females. Maybe the blonde bimbo is actually more evolved than we thought. It seems that on other planets, the females are hot and stupid. Aint evolution cool?
Just a thought.
Ronnie
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quote:
Originally posted by tamster
Posted - 23 Mar 2005 : 08:52:51
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I think that's funny too - humanoid aliens are by far and away the most represented species on Star Trek. I think that's one of the weaknesses.
it's called saving money on stage make up you ninnies!
( lord, are we geeks, or what?)
smeep smeep
live long, and tamster
My favourite on that score:
'when the crew beams down to yet another planet of Californians garbed as if for a community theater production of Julius Caesar, or confront futuristic space women sporting Nancy Sinatra hairdos and weaknesses for Capt. Kirk. '
sums it up nicely. There's another element there besides saving money. We just want to see 'us', talking about stuff that 'concerns' normal people.
Anthropocentric to the core, that's us allright... [:D]
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in an earth like world (same water, same minerals and gasses, etc) hypotheticly evolution should take a similar course, disincluding the planet specific disasters (extinction of dinosaurs and other ice ages, etc) since what worked well in one enviroment should work the same in another enviroment that is the same.
However some of evolution is due to very specific settings. For example our moon allowed the evolution of land animals and plats (or at least aided greatly) through the causing of tides.
These tides allowed this to happend: creatures swim inland at hi tide, water recedes, the ones least able to survive with no water died, the ones able to survive a bit longer till the tide came back lived.
No moon would have drasticly changed earths evolutionary pattern.
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All the aliens in Star Trek being humanoid was explained in 1 episode. A super race of beings seeded the galaxy with a common DNA
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Thats how Stargate get away with it also, since they are all human...
wOw the world spins?
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quote:
Originally posted by Ians Daddy
...However, Kirk only punched the males... he got freaky with the females. Maybe the blonde bimbo is actually more evolved than we thought. It seems that on other planets, the females are hot and stupid. Aint evolution cool?
Just a thought.
Ronnie
Kirk got randy with every female alien in the galaxy, and tried to with at least one blondie robot. How was that supposed to happen if the aliens were mercury-spittin gamma-ray bitches? And how would he use the Kirk Voice if the aliens couldn't hear it? Come on, dudes, (and dudettes) this was entertainment. If you wanted reality, you could always have tuned into PBS and listened to Carl Sagan say, "...billions and billions and billions..."
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I penetrated an Alien last night !!..ooops...soz....that was wifey !!..still...aren't you all glad you know that ?
Anyway, I think Aliens are great !!....hang on !!..aren't WE all aliens too ?
Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.world-of-smilies.com%2Fhtml%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fmini%2Fmini018.gif&hash=43d4f680fb1e52aecb14b539cb9eba2c)
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I didn't read all posts so I don't know if anyone has said what I'm about to say, I apologise in advance:
Have people considered how much cheaper it is to stick some latex and makeup onto a person versus computer animating a creature, plus all the imagination as to how and why the creatures evolved, plus all the different creatures/species the star trek series relies on? Loads more expensive!!
P.S. Neil, I think the term "alien" means a life form evolved on a planet other than earth ;)
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It's probably cheaper to do computer graphics now... well crappy computer graphics at least. When multi media computers were new and not very "fast" its true CGI was expensive, but now with blue/green screen being done all the time its cheap. The original Startrek didn't have computer effects at all since they didn't exist. If you look at later Startreks like Voyager etc. they did make an effort to put in some better aliens, but the major limiting factor is time not money, it takes lots of time to do key frame animation on a computer, compared with getting an actor to prance about. If you have to make an episode a week, you need to plan ahead for CGI stuff.
wOw the world spins?
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Coming back into California from a brief trip to Mexico last summer I see that the Americans are well used to interloping extraterrestrials - a sign up at customs emphatically demanded that "ALL ALIENS MUST SHOW IDENTIFICATION"
Perhaps it's because we were not so far from Studio 54 / Area 51 or whatever it's called ?
Chris
"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx
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Well there certainly were time and money limitations on the original Star Trek series. The network never understood the series, and the mediocre ratings didn't help either. There was a "no overtime" limitation for most of the shooting, so exotic, first-time-ever, stuff was pretty much out. Speaking of rubber pasties being cheaper... even Spock's ears almost didn't make it. The company making the rubber/plastic miniatures for the series couldn't make Spock's ears. The network would not spend $500 to have a company experienced in rubber appliances make them. After a number of failed attempts, Leonard Nimoy's make-up man called a company he knew could do it, and paid the $500 out of his own pocket to have the ears fabricated! With restrictions like that, it is amazing the series ever happened, let alone had ground-breaking special effects.
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Sounds like an episode of The Naked Scientists radio programme...
"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx
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Of course if it weren't for the original fan base the Star Trek phenomena would never have taken off. It was due to be cancelled but under pressure from the fan base they continued the series.........which is nice !!
Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.world-of-smilies.com%2Fhtml%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fmini%2Fmini018.gif&hash=43d4f680fb1e52aecb14b539cb9eba2c)
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quote:
Originally posted by Quantum cat
P.S. Neil, I think the term "alien" means a life form evolved on a planet other than earth ;)
Yep...me knows.....but there is a theory that our origins hitched a ride on an asteriod that hit good ole Earth, which in the strictest possible way probably makes us non-indigenous to Earth..[:)]
Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.world-of-smilies.com%2Fhtml%2Fimages%2Fsmilies%2Fmini%2Fmini018.gif&hash=43d4f680fb1e52aecb14b539cb9eba2c)
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Interesting idea ... does that mean we're adopted? I want to meet my REAL planet! :'-(