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<blockquote data-quote="Binder Fred" data-source="post: 6098258" data-attributes="member: 63746"><p>Physically. The mind is another universe entirely, of course. Strangely enough, even the most foreign looking sci-fi critter usually has human-like, easily comprehensible intelligence (is, in fact, usually *less* alien in thought than any two people from different cultures here on earth: Star Trek's "Americans with one(1) randomly-selected 'weird' custom" is a good example, but star Wars suffers from this too). As one who'se travelled a fair bit, I can tell you that we have problems understanding the actions of people with the exact same genetic makeup (at 3 decimals) but slightly differing childhoods, beliefs and/or cultures. They're perfectly sane, and when they explain it to you (when they can, "semi-rational" pretty much defining the human condition <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />), it often makes a weird kind of sense, but it draws relations were you wouldn't have and comes to conclusions you wouldn't have even thought of on your own. So "human-thinking" aliens are not that surprising, really - people want to be told stories where they understand the players' motivations - but you'd think the writters could go at least as far as "alien X has a distinct *culture* from alien Y" (Cherryh has some very nice examples of this in, amongst others, her Chanur novels, where the Hani, Kifs, Mahendosat, etc each have their very own culture (and she even went above and beyond to include aliens with "still somewhat understandable but definitively non-human" logic systems (The matrix-thinking -ack, <has to look it up>- The matrix-thinking Tc'a, the unpredictable Chi))... That's my personnal sci-fi pet peeve right there. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>That said, I don't usually buy the "totally incomprehensible" alien concepts either (no offense, Jemal). As Shayuri pointed out, we do share a physical universe if nothing else. We might never agree on anything, but *some* form of communication, no matter how labourious, time-consuming and difficult, should always be possible. At least enough to say "hunger" or "1+1". And if you have that, well.... That very difficulty then becomes the beauty of true first contacts. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Binder Fred, post: 6098258, member: 63746"] Physically. The mind is another universe entirely, of course. Strangely enough, even the most foreign looking sci-fi critter usually has human-like, easily comprehensible intelligence (is, in fact, usually *less* alien in thought than any two people from different cultures here on earth: Star Trek's "Americans with one(1) randomly-selected 'weird' custom" is a good example, but star Wars suffers from this too). As one who'se travelled a fair bit, I can tell you that we have problems understanding the actions of people with the exact same genetic makeup (at 3 decimals) but slightly differing childhoods, beliefs and/or cultures. They're perfectly sane, and when they explain it to you (when they can, "semi-rational" pretty much defining the human condition ;)), it often makes a weird kind of sense, but it draws relations were you wouldn't have and comes to conclusions you wouldn't have even thought of on your own. So "human-thinking" aliens are not that surprising, really - people want to be told stories where they understand the players' motivations - but you'd think the writters could go at least as far as "alien X has a distinct *culture* from alien Y" (Cherryh has some very nice examples of this in, amongst others, her Chanur novels, where the Hani, Kifs, Mahendosat, etc each have their very own culture (and she even went above and beyond to include aliens with "still somewhat understandable but definitively non-human" logic systems (The matrix-thinking -ack, <has to look it up>- The matrix-thinking Tc'a, the unpredictable Chi))... That's my personnal sci-fi pet peeve right there. :) That said, I don't usually buy the "totally incomprehensible" alien concepts either (no offense, Jemal). As Shayuri pointed out, we do share a physical universe if nothing else. We might never agree on anything, but *some* form of communication, no matter how labourious, time-consuming and difficult, should always be possible. At least enough to say "hunger" or "1+1". And if you have that, well.... That very difficulty then becomes the beauty of true first contacts. :D [/QUOTE]
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