The Theory of Nothing

What would aliens look like?

What would aliens look like?

This essay deals with intelligent extraterrestrial aliens, but it also applies to any extraterrestrial life on planets similar to Earth.

First of all one has to accept the concept that any life out there in the universe would be based on DNA. This may not be the case. There is the possibility that life could be based on some other reproductive process, including using silicon instead of carbon. However, I won’t speculate on these science fiction concepts because there is no evidence for their validity.

Now, if we assume that life out there is based on DNA and if the planet it evolved on is similar to Earth, then it doesn’t take much to understand what it would be like. Why is that? Let’s assume that the Earth like planet has water, and this is a critical assumption because life as we know it requires water. As a matter of fact, we humans are essentially bags of water walking around. We are approximately 56 % water by weight, and this water has salinity just like the oceans, but our blood has around 4 times less salt. I would guess that this is because we’ve evolved quite a bit since our ancient reptilian ancestors crawled out of the oceans.

If we assume that Earth-like planets have oceans that could support the evolution of life, then we should expect that this life would evolve into a fish form. The reason for this is that a fish is perfectly streamlined with the proper fins to maneuver quickly in the oceans. Fish have flotation bladders that allow them to submerge deep within the seas and their gills allow breathing of oxygen dissolved in the water. Fish have evolved to live in the oceans so if we go to an alien planet that has oceans we should find a species that resembles a fish.

However, an alien fish will not evolve to have intelligence. That requires the evolution of a large brain. The dolphins and whales have large complicated brains, but they haven’t established a technological society and there is one thing about them that suggests a problem. Whales and cetaceans did not evolve in the oceans. They came from the land. That sounds crazy, but it’s true. Cetaceans evolved from a land animal that resembled a hippopotamus. In fact, it was an ancestor of the hippopotamus. This ancient ancestor lived 49 million years ago and, because of being pursued by predators, dived into the sea to escape them. Eventually, this species evolved to stay in the ocean and because of that changed into the sleek sea mammals that we see today.

The bottom line is that mammals are the species that evolved into us humans, and it required evolution into primates that could walk on two legs for us to become smart enough to create technology. In any event, it’s questionable whether creatures that evolve in an alien ocean could become advanced enough to venture out onto land. For one thing, they need land, and that’s a problem. An alien Earth-like planet could have sufficient water, but if the water covers the entire planet, the sea life can’t evolve into something that resembles a mammal.

Let’s assume that the alien Earth has land. What could we expect to see there? That would depend upon the size of the planet, the temperature and the makeup of the planet’s atmosphere. In order to form life that we are familiar with the planet’s atmosphere would have to contain oxygen, and the only practical way that this could happen is if plant life formed. Plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen needed for life. So, if there is plant life than we should find oxygen and the animals that breathe it.

Let’s assume that oxygen-breathing animals exist. Could any of them evolve into an intelligent species? The answer is yes. All that’s needed is a big brain, appendages that allow for manipulations of things like tools, and eyes to see these things. I believe that the intelligent species doesn’t have to be a mammal. It could be a reptile or even a bird. I doubt that an intelligent alien would look like the monsters we see in science fiction and horror movies. If they were that violent and mad, they would kill themselves before they would create any advanced technology.

I find it amusing that some scientists are predicting that we are the only intelligent species in the universe because they can’t detect a radio signal from a star system close to ours. All I can say about that is that the universe is immense with hundreds of billions of galaxies that are too far away for us to receive any signals from an intelligent species out there. I wonder if the intelligent creatures in those far away galaxies are thinking the same thing: that they are the only intelligent species in the universe.

Thanks for reading.