He mentioned that the aliens pictured on the covers of pulp SF magazines looked humanoid, they often had outsized heads, because we thought that more advanced people would have bigger brains.
And before the advent of computer generated imagery most aliens were 'men in rubber suits'. They were the same shape as we are, with a few superficial tweaks. But as technology expanded we became fascinated by the idea of robot aliens.
Our scientific discoveries have always driven our ideas of the alien. In the 1990s the rise of CGI imagery let us create aliens in the computer that had no analogue basis on earth. More recently, with the discovery of many new planets, we've begun to realise that life might be able to exist in many different places. There could be whole ecosystems swimming around in oceans under the frozen surfaces of planets. There might be creatures that can breathe methane atmospheres.
And when we got to exploring the deep ocean we saw many wonderful alien forms swimming around. We've found extremophiles that can live in sulphur, scalding hot temperatures, and impossibly cold temperatures. We've found creatures that don't need to breathe oxygen. And Oxford University scientists have recently created a flexible silicon gel that can swim. The boundaries between life and not-life are much more fluid than we once thought.
But there are some universals. Eyes will probably appear. Fur is probably a constant too. Flight may also be universal. And sexual reproduction is also likely to be common. And a last sobering thought comes from Kevin Warwick, who wonders if intelligence might be a disadvantage for long- term survival. After all, these so- called intelligent humans are hard at work destroying their planet.
Wendy Metcalfe is the author of Panthera : Death Spiral and Panthera : Death Song and the short story collection Otherlives. Find out more at www.wendymetcalfe.com
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