Perhaps because of these awkward issues, Aliens with Forehead Ridges have become much less common in written SF (save for media tie-ins) than they were some decades ago. (Or else Earth Humans are descended from them, though this raises troublesome questions about chimpanzees.) This leads to some speculation that they may be of Earth Human descent. Often, indeed, they are INTERBREEDABLE species. Only their males have much facial hair, and their females often have bodacious figures. They have the same secondary sex traits - as species-specific as you can get. But Aliens with Forehead Ridges have much more than a general similarity to Earth Humans. Convergent evolution might well produce a generally humanoid body plan, just as sharks and dolphins have a similar overall configuration. Indeed, Aliens with Forehead Ridges raise a profound question in evolutionary biology. We can not only communicate, Trade, and fight, but form joint business ventures, cheat each other at cards, and even fall in love. (The Vulcans and Romulans of Trek fame are a rare exception.)īecause of the similarity (or at least comprehensibility) of cultures, Earth Humans can have far more complex and intimate relations with Aliens with Forehead Ridges than with Really Aliens. A particular race of Aliens with Forehead Ridges may all have a culture like that of medieval Japan, or one based entirely on music, but you will very rarely find more than one culture per species. Not only do Aliens with Forehead Ridges mostly look like Earth Humans, they tend to act like Earth Humans as well, or at least one particular (real or speculative) Earth Human culture. Sometimes they look rather less like humans, in which case (if friendly) they often resemble large teddy bears. HOLLYWOOD SCIFI - than Really Aliens, these are species that look almost exactly like Earth Humans, except for some distinguishing visible feature such as, well, forehead ridges, or odd-shaped ears, or whatever. This is partly because it is not clear what we would fight them over, and partly because they may have an alarmingly high TECHLEVEL, making war with them a dangerously one-sided proposition. TRADE with them is sporadic, and even WARFARE seems less frequent than it used to be in the GOLDEN AGE. Only rarely will anybody get to know one on a personal level. Relations between humans and Really Aliens are necessarily limited, since we have so little in common with them. Exosemanticists have their work cut out understanding them, and exopsychologists in figuring out what they're all about. What they all have in common is that they are Really Alien. Except for the Energy Beings, most seem to be hydrocarbon life forms, but methane breathers who thrive at -200 C will sometimes turn up. The occasional intelligent bear or radish may also appear, or practically anything else.
HIVE ENTITIES, Giant Insectoids (who may also be Hive Entities), and Blobs of Protoplasm. In general, Aliens fall into two distinct groups, REALLY ALIENS and ALIENS WITH FOREHEAD RIDGES. Nor is it used for Earth Humans who must register with the immigration service.
The term as such is never used for non-intelligent species, however unearthly, though in TECHJARGON these may be called Alien Life Forms. Intelligent races who are not EARTH HUMANS.
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