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Hollywood films and science fiction literature fuel the belief that aliens are monster-like beings, who are very different to humans. But new research suggests that we could have more in common with our extra-terrestrial neighbours, than initially thought.
In a new study published in the International Journal of Astrobiology scientists from the University of Oxford show for the first time how evolutionary theory can be used to support alien predictions and better understand their behaviour. They show that aliens are potentially shaped by the same processes and mechanisms that shaped humans, such as natural selection.
The theory supports the argument that foreign life forms undergo natural selection, and are like us, evolving to be fitter and stronger over time.
[...] The paper also makes specific predictions about the biological make-up of complex aliens, and offers a degree of insight as to what they might look like.
[...] 'There are potentially hundreds of thousands of habitable planets in our galaxy alone. We can't say whether or not we're alone on Earth, but we have taken a small step forward in answering, if we're not alone, what our neighbours are like.'
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-10-31-aliens-may-be-more-us-we-think
[Also Covered By]: phys.org
Darwin's aliens (open, DOI: 10.1017/S1473550417000362) (DX)
Evolutionary exobiology: towards the qualitative assessment of biological potential on exoplanets (DOI: 10.1017/S1473550417000349) (DX)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @10:30AM (4 children)
Looking in our own back yard, the most intelligent species (that are not us) don't look at all like us: Donphins and some species of squid.
And they evolved on the same planet that we did, they just did things differently. Squid never left the water. Dolphins (well, their ancestors) left the water but returned.
That's the amount of difference evolution gives on the same planet with the exact same starting conditions (we, dolphins and squid all share a common ancestor - and dolphins are more closely related to us than to squid). Now imagine evolution on a planet that's just a tiny bit different, with a completely different starting point (for evolution they probably need something with similar function to our DNA, but it will not be chemically similar at all).
The closer they are to us, the less likely we are to meet them. Because statistically the tighter the requirements, the more rare they will be. The ones that are most likely to pass our planet will be the ones we won't even recognize as "living", if we are even able to see them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @10:55AM (3 children)
The point regarding dolphins going back to the water made me think. Lot of our daily technological advances don't mix very well with water. Yet, dolphins have not developed other technologies to generate a "technosphere". Let's say aliens also would return to their oceans somewhere in their evolution, how would that influence their "technosphere" and our ability to make contact with them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @02:02PM (2 children)
you can't have technology in water, because you cannot build precision tools.
or you need to learn how to take advantage of underground volcanoes in order to melt metal, but I'm not sure you can then convince the metal (while under water) to get into a precision tool shape.
water melting all around, turbulence and stuff.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pvanhoof on Thursday November 02 2017, @02:28PM (1 child)
A lot of underwater creators build their shelter underwater. Clams grow it, for example. I suppose other forms of 'technology' could then also be done underwater? We huumanz just didn't often need to create things underwater.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 02 2017, @03:22PM
Yep, the coral reef ecosystem is really impressive, and arguably the great barrier reef is a bigger construction than any human metropolitan corridor today - too bad they're all dying from rising temperatures and many are dissolving from acidification.
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