Alien popular morphology supported by... POOP?

[Ezechiel]

Ever wonder about the small mouths depicted by contactees? Well poop might explain it

Picture this ! You're a member of an interstellar crew injected into a tight saucer... with not a lot of space to move or poop for that matter. There's no ecosystem to process poop and the food available is mostly in liquid form and calibrated to meet the basic minimum requirements to support their organic frame through long voyages and stasis. You could be tempted to think that maybe their home planet is overpopulated and everybody's on a regulated diet ... but then this might just be the normal disposition of inter-stellar space travelers.

Thank insects and microbes that we aren’t over our knees in feces | Science News

Have you ever paused to wonder why we’re not all drowning in poop? Well, you should. After all, in the United States alone, cows produce 900 billion kilograms of poop per year. In Finland, 1 million cattle produce about 4 billion kilograms of dung per year, enough to make a cube 160 meter high and comfortably bury the Statue of Liberty. That’s just cows. It’s not counting the human waste. Take a moment to imagine how that might pile up.

Beyond poop...

The sense of smell... a remnant of prior evolution on a planet (smell is a survival tool in primitive competitive organic environments) is as important as our small toe and explains the small holes below the large eyes.

If I was forced to image a sentient being living outside an ecosystem, I'd probably pick the two guys below. The extreme technologies they master compensates for the limited physical strength of their organic shells. You have to wonder if this is what independence looks like ?

 

[Ezechiel]

These alien pics are really us in maybe 1 million years in the future ?

The development of large eyes ? Of all the senses, sight is probably the most used in technological societies...

Large cranial features (brain) ? Improved information storage and processing ? Imagine the effect of a few thousand years of Facebook LOL. And don't forget the extra space needed for synaptic interfaces enabling telepathic communications

Electronic telepathy breakthrough hailed - Science - News - The Independent

 

[Pygar2]

I can't imagine such large eyes as a good idea. Sunlight would be blinding, and accidents that wouldn't even bruise one of us, would blind such a person. And anyone who thinks a larger head is a good idea, has never witnessed a human birth... As far as telepathy goes, I wouldn't have one installed unless it was either wireless or smaller than a raisin. I wouldn't give a nickel for it, either- there's a reason we don't have telepathy! Remember those poor guys in the Douglas Adams book who had telepathy as a social disease?

 

[Ezechiel]

I can't imagine such large eyes as a good idea. Sunlight would be blinding, and accidents that wouldn't even bruise one of us, would blind such a person.

Good point, the eyes look manufactured. A much better idea is an implant covering the natural eye with connections to the optical nerve. The 'predator' series showed what a mechanical interface would offer: vision using different spectrum of light'. Instead of a helmet or Google glass, biological implants would be the solution further down the technological path.

And anyone who thinks a larger head is a good idea, has never witnessed a human birth... As far as telepathy goes, I wouldn't have one installed unless it was either wireless or smaller than a raisin. I wouldn't give a nickel for it, either- there's a reason we don't have telepathy! Remember those poor guys in the Douglas Adams book who had telepathy as a social disease?

Perhaps, the morphology could be manufactured for specific interstellar survey/catalog missions (apparently nothing beats organic complexity ). These things are the ultimate organic robots, initially frozen and revived in vats as their ship approaches its destinations. They get their consciences/programming from synaptic images taken from mission specialists back on their home planet.

Telepathy would work like our e-mails... think of a contact, choose the address from a list appearing in your optical implant monitor, formulate a message and transmit... but much quicker. While on missions they could use sustained open channel mode instead of 'e-mail' type communication.

 

[Wade]

Interesting thread, I would point out that such large eyes would be indicitive of a very low light environment...perhaps subterranean ???

Even if the eyes are manufactured or are artificial what would be the reason why there are so prominent? it seems to me whether real or artificial there would be a logical reason that the eyes make up a disproportional (spl?) part of the head.

Can you guys think of the other physical attributes of these guys and how they might be preferable in an underground environment ?

 

[Ezechiel]

Interesting thread, I would point out that such large eyes would be indicitive of a very low light environment...perhaps subterranean ???

Can you guys think of the other physical attributes of these guys and how they might be preferable in an underground environment ?

If these eyes are 'natural' then I proposed some time ago that their home world might be orbiting a low-light star (red dwarf) forcing a different configuration for the optics on their life forms
Barnard's Star - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An environment without light (underground) could support life forms that use other senses (echo locating bats... blind spider 'cave wolf spider'). In other words, no light = no eyes needed to decode reflected photons.

 

[Jeff Davis]

If anything, their physiology would seem to be indicative of an environment where physicality itself is irrelevant. They have no musculature so gravity itself could not enter into the equation of their specialization with respect for any level of evolution we are familiar with. Basically, they seem to have no need for nourishment or physical exercise. They seem very insect like to me.

In the movie Fire In The Sky that centers on the Walton experience, I like the idea that they throw out there. The Grey's external appearance is due to a suit that they wear when not in their craft/technology. The actual aliens themselves are even more spindly, emaciated, and the big almond shaped black eyes are lens that shield their actual eyes from intense light they find objectionable.

 

[Wade]

O.K. BUT ! My thinking would be for any planet to have a enviorment condusive to any life would have to be even closer to a red dwarf in order to make up for the lack of light, heat, photosynthesis, so even though maybe the source may have low light, in order for things to grow the planet would be closer thus large eyes would still be undesirable would they not ?

 

[Wade]

So we are looking for a small massed low lit planet with little in the way of external food sources...because it is not needed...and little in the way of entertainment so the aliens have to go off planet for their kicks.

 

[Ezechiel]

O.K. BUT ! My thinking would be for any planet to have a enviorment condusive to any life would have to be even closer to a red dwarf in order to make up for the lack of light, heat, photosynthesis, so even though maybe the source may have low light, in order for things to grow the planet would be closer thus large eyes would still be undesirable would they not ?

Requirements for photosynthesis: Photosynthesis requires water and sunlight. Photosynthesis also requires carbon dioxide to successfully occur. So minimum temp is 32c, Minimum light... guess that would depend on the plant ?
D.R.Geiger - LIGHTING REQUIREMENTS FOR PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Question is... does minimum requirement for photosynthesis force animal life to grow large optics due to lower lighting

 

[Ezechiel]

In the movie Fire In The Sky that centers on the Walton experience, I like the idea that they throw out there. The Grey's external appearance is due to a suit that they wear when not in their craft/technology. The actual aliens themselves are even more spindly, emaciated, and the big almond shaped black eyes are lens that shield their actual eyes from intense light they find objectionable.

Makes perfect sense... these travelers have adapted exoskeleton suits that allow them to operate on and explore planets that experience different levels of gravity (earth=9.8 m/s2.. barnard star planet = 5 m/s2 ? lol)

Should we eventually land humans on a planet that has higher gravity, we'll need these suits as our bone structure won't be adapted and will likely have been degraded by a long trip in space

If anything, their physiology would seem to be indicative of an environment where physicality itself is irrelevant. They have no musculature so gravity itself could not enter into the equation of their specialization with respect for any level of evolution we are familiar with. Basically, they seem to have no need for nourishment or physical exercise. They seem very insect like to me.

Here again, these organic beings might be genetically engineered as the ultimate interstellar traveler from the bank of genetic materials available on their planet. Optimized for long term survival with minimum food requirements, a scary mix of genetic material from the insect and animal world brewed into a sentient construct sent on interstellar survey missions.

 

[Ezechiel]

One weird nightmare vision here is a non-organic Artificial Intelligence entity messing around with alien genetic material to fill an organic construct optimization and survey mission. As the ship travels from one system to another the genetic bank from the original home system gets updated with new genetic material. Improved and optimized organic sentient beings are manufactured and emerge from this new contact.

In recursive fashion, 'Planet-based' organic sentient entities, that took millions of year of trial and error to shape, can be assessed as material to be used to improve an artificial specie called a galactic hybrid.

Thus the harvest continues

This would make an awesome movie... a non-organic AI entity trying to create an organic sentient entity that can compete or surpass it through optimization on a galactic scale lol

 

[Wade]

You really should consider taking up sci-fi writing if you are not doing so already.

 

[Ezechiel]

You really should consider taking up sci-fi writing if you are not doing so already.

Star Trek version 2 lol.. where Mr. Ebe below (Extraterrestrial biological entity) is the real captain Kirk. Why send humans when you can send a ship that can create sentient programmable life forms compatible with the planet you want to explore ... or conquer?

Imagine the existential shock-wave you'd get realizing that a machine created you out of genetic spare parts. I come in peace or not ?

Another strategy is cloning the existing life forms as in the Oblivion approach (copy/paste lol)...

Damn !! All this because of POOP

Now that I think of it... if such a machine were to be developed it would definitely send most religions centered around the human construct into an apologetic frenzy.