Bloo Leader & Star Trek Aliens

On March 28 Bloo Leader (one of my mostest favoritest members of the Cantina) asked a question on his status update:

Why does every race in star trek humanoid, and have some kind of mountain/bump on their face?

The answers my fellow scum and villiany gave were good, but there's an angle that I feel needs to be addressed for the answer to really be complete.

Disclaimer - we're about to get nerdy. If your fragile ego can't nerd up and take it like a nerd, leave now.

First, imagine a bottlenose dolphin, a sunflower, and streptococci bacteria. Got it?

How different are they? Can you imagine a meaningful conversation between the three of them? If you had never seen any of them before and you saw the three of them together would you even believe they came from the same planet?

Well, they did. Same planet, same atmosphere, same level of radiation, same temperature limits, even the same common ancestor.

Now imagine a Star Trek alien. Different gravity, different chemical composition, different ecological challenges, even different molecules.

I don't know what life in space will be like. I'm not an expert in the field. But whatever it is, I'd bet a lot of money that it's orders of magnitude more different from us than a sunflower is different than a bottlenose dolphin or bacteria.

Ten fingers, humanoid, bipedal, air breathing, same size, communicates through vocalization, and the only variation is the bumps on the face? Less difference between them and us than the difference between us and chimpanzees, with whom we shared a common ancestor just two million years ago and evolved in the same environment?

Dude, Hollywood thinks so small!

The Fermi Paradox goes something like this - if life in the Universe is common, where is everybody?

My answer is pretty simple. Trees communicate by releasing chemicals through their roots into the ground. Bees communicate by dancing. Ants use pheromone trails. Dogs communicate by urinating on fire hydrants. Bears leave claw marks on the bark of trees. And we think we're alone in the Universe because we don't hear any radio broadcasts from alien species.

That seems really human-centric to me. Why should we expect alien races to use radio broadcasts just because ONE species on Earth uses them? We've lived in close companionship with horses and dogs for 50,000 years but we still can't speak horse or dog. Why do we think we would understand - or even recognize - an alien race's attempt to speak to us? Isn't it probable that aliens trying to talk to us are using a method more different than a sunflower trying talk to a bottlenose dolphin?

Expand your mind, Bloo. Don't let Hollywood limit you. If it's out there, it's probably more different from us than we can imagine.

 

I bet Rigby communicates by sniffing butts, too.

Really, it's amazing what a dog can learn about people by sniffing butts. Like who had sex with who last night. A butt sniffing dog would be deadly in divorce court.

But we keep searching the sky for radio signals. SMH

 

Looking at the complexity of DNA I suspect it's not common. But even more importantly, all DNA on Earth is made up of four proteins. Another planet would have to be ridiculously lucky to be the same distance from a star the same size, with the same chemistry and atmosphere and ozone layer etc. to have those same four proteins in the same proportions as we do on Earth.

Possible, yes. But the odds are pretty astonishing against DNA arising anywhere else we've ever seen.

 

I'm a math and physics guy. I defer to your biochem expertise, and thanks!