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I wouldn’t be surprised at all that aliens that can do space travel are bipedal. It’s just a great way to manipulate things with arms. No manipulating equals
by Mistletoe 2y ago
I wouldn’t be surprised at all that aliens that can do space travel are bipedal. It’s just a great way to manipulate things with arms. No manipulating equals no spacecraft. Speaking would be the same. I always thought the aliens in Star Trek spoke their own language but the universal translators translated it?
> By the 24th century, universal translators had advanced to the point where a full-fledged UT could be built into the combadges worn by Starfleet personnel. The translation was so natural and seamless that beings unaware of them believed that others spoke their own language.
- hinkley 2y agoWhatever your body plan, I suspect higher order intelligence is a sort of snowball effect from having dexterous appendages you can use while walking and making noises at the same time. Without that trio it may just be too difficult to keep going up the ladder to tool user and sentience. That doesn’t eliminate crab people. It may not eliminate cephalopods. It may eliminate sea mammals without external help (David Brin gives dolphins prosthetic arms via human assistance). It may also be that we need combustion to advance, or that may be only a problem on planets with our parameters.
- FredPret 2y agoThere are creatures here on earth that would fit the bill if they evolved differently: - monkey - dry-land octopus - eagle with four claws (perch on the back two and handle things with the front two) - big raccoon (yikes!) - big spider - honey badger - many lizards have hands If any of these could be large enough and smart enough, they’d make a convincing alien. And these are based on Earth creatures - I’d expect a huge variety of much weirder things in a Star Trek universe.