5 ms·

Aliens may as well sort us by the colour of our pants as soon as the colour of our skin, but let's not pretend that such an obvious visual variation as skin ton

Aliens may as well sort us by the colour of our pants as soon as the colour of our skin, but let's not pretend that such an obvious visual variation as skin tone would be overlooked. White cat, tabby cat, grey cat, etc? We don't try to say one sort of cat is better than other, but we can tell them apart very well. Maybe what you're saying is that the aliens would not have the same prejudices associated with that marker as we have.

sillyquiet 5y ago
No, I am saying that skin tone would not be as important a feature. For example, lining up those dead bodies by skin tone alone would have Central Africans mixed in with South Americans, Austronesians, and South Asians, Northern Europeans mixed in with East Asians and Inuit, Southern Europeans mixed in with Indians,Central Asians, Native Americans, and Arabs, etc etc.
- heywherelogingo 5y ago
  But it's not limited to skin tone. Have you never been able to identify an albino African as African?
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    But you're moving away from the premise of the GP.
    - heywherelogingo 5y ago
      I don't see how.
benjaminjackman 5y ago
Supposing there are Aliens FWIW I don’t know that they would perceive the same visible spectrum that we do, which might effect their ability to differentiate by color. And they might not even perceive colors at all perhaps focusing on patterns or perhaps use some sort acoustical sonar system of high pitched shrieks or an electrocapacitive perception captured by elongated dactyltennae hands with which they can sense the world around them.
- mcguire 5y ago
  "But I take higher ground. I hold that, in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by colour, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two is, instead of an evil, a good — a positive good," John c. Calhoun said. "Nonsense," replied the thistleglorb. "You both have exactly the same capacitance."
- michaelscott 5y ago
  The alien is hypothetical, a proxy point of view that's theoretically unbiased and has no awareness of human social context, history, etc.
  - drdeca 5y ago
    Sure, but aren’t they just extending that to remove the “bias” of human-sensory-organs ? :P
kiliancs 5y ago
> Aliens may as well sort us by the colour of our pants as soon as the colour of our skin This made me chuckle. But it is a good example. I bet there is a lot we can infer from people based on their common go-to colors for clothing.
- nomel 5y ago
  I never realized how odd the concept of "blue jeans" were until I travelled outside the US.
CMCDragonkai 5y ago
That depends on the Alien's primary mode of sense. Which may not be sight. Sight is particularly strong for humans. But what if the Aliens primarily distinguish based on smell like many animal species with poor colour vision?

sillyquiet 5y ago

No, I am saying that skin tone would not be as important a feature. For example, lining up those dead bodies by skin tone alone would have Central Africans mixed in with South Americans, Austronesians, and South Asians, Northern Europeans mixed in with East Asians and Inuit, Southern Europeans mixed in with Indians,Central Asians, Native Americans, and Arabs, etc etc.

heywherelogingo 5y ago
But it's not limited to skin tone. Have you never been able to identify an albino African as African?
- pessimizer 5y ago
  But you're moving away from the premise of the GP.
  - heywherelogingo 5y ago
    I don't see how.

benjaminjackman 5y ago

Supposing there are Aliens FWIW I don’t know that they would perceive the same visible spectrum that we do, which might effect their ability to differentiate by color. And they might not even perceive colors at all perhaps focusing on patterns or perhaps use some sort acoustical sonar system of high pitched shrieks or an electrocapacitive perception captured by elongated dactyltennae hands with which they can sense the world around them.

mcguire 5y ago
"But I take higher ground. I hold that, in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by colour, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two is, instead of an evil, a good — a positive good," John c. Calhoun said. "Nonsense," replied the thistleglorb. "You both have exactly the same capacitance."
michaelscott 5y ago
The alien is hypothetical, a proxy point of view that's theoretically unbiased and has no awareness of human social context, history, etc.
- drdeca 5y ago
  Sure, but aren’t they just extending that to remove the “bias” of human-sensory-organs ? :P

kiliancs 5y ago

> Aliens may as well sort us by the colour of our pants as soon as the colour of our skin This made me chuckle. But it is a good example. I bet there is a lot we can infer from people based on their common go-to colors for clothing.

nomel 5y ago
I never realized how odd the concept of "blue jeans" were until I travelled outside the US.

CMCDragonkai 5y ago

That depends on the Alien's primary mode of sense. Which may not be sight. Sight is particularly strong for humans. But what if the Aliens primarily distinguish based on smell like many animal species with poor colour vision?