EXTRRTERRESTRIRLS HMD UFOS HI
2. Some sort of thumb used for grabbing-it could also be a
tentacle or claw;
3. Some sort of communication system, such as speech.
These three characteristics are required for sensing our environment and eventually manipulating it-both of which are the hallmarks
of intelligence. But beyond these three characteristics, anything goes.
Contrary to so many of the aliens shown on TV, an extraterrestrial
does not have to resemble a human at all. The child-like, bug-eyed
aliens we see on TV and in the movies, in fact, look suspiciously like
the 1950s aliens from B-grade movies, which are firmly buried in our
unconscious.
(Some anthropologists, however, have added a fourth criteria for
intelligent life to explain a curious fact: humans are vastly more intelligent than they have to be to survive in the forest. Our brains can master space travel, the quantum theory, and advanced mathematics-skill
sets that are totally unnecessary for hunting and scavenging in the forest. Why this excess brainpower? In nature when we see pairs of animals like the cheetah and the antelope that possess extraordinary
skills far beyond those required for survival, we find that there was an
arms race between them. Similarly, some scientists believe there is a
fourth criteria, a biological "arms race" propelling intelligent humans.
Perhaps that arms race was with other members of our own species.)
Think of all the remarkably diverse life-forms on the Earth. If one,
for example, could selectively breed octopods for several million years,
it is conceivable that they might also become intelligent. (We separated
from the apes 6 million years ago, probably because we were not well
adapted to the changing environment of Africa. By contrast, the octopus is very well adapted to its life beneath a rock and hence has not
evolved for millions of years.) Biochemist Clifford Pickover says that
when he gazes at all the "crazy-looking crustaceans, squishy-tentacled
jellyfish, grotesque, hermaphroditic worms, and slime molds, I know
that God has a sense of humor, and we will see this reflected in other
forms in the universe."
2. Some sort of thumb used for grabbing-it could also be a
tentacle or claw;
3. Some sort of communication system, such as speech.
These three characteristics are required for sensing our environment and eventually manipulating it-both of which are the hallmarks
of intelligence. But beyond these three characteristics, anything goes.
Contrary to so many of the aliens shown on TV, an extraterrestrial
does not have to resemble a human at all. The child-like, bug-eyed
aliens we see on TV and in the movies, in fact, look suspiciously like
the 1950s aliens from B-grade movies, which are firmly buried in our
unconscious.
(Some anthropologists, however, have added a fourth criteria for
intelligent life to explain a curious fact: humans are vastly more intelligent than they have to be to survive in the forest. Our brains can master space travel, the quantum theory, and advanced mathematics-skill
sets that are totally unnecessary for hunting and scavenging in the forest. Why this excess brainpower? In nature when we see pairs of animals like the cheetah and the antelope that possess extraordinary
skills far beyond those required for survival, we find that there was an
arms race between them. Similarly, some scientists believe there is a
fourth criteria, a biological "arms race" propelling intelligent humans.
Perhaps that arms race was with other members of our own species.)
Think of all the remarkably diverse life-forms on the Earth. If one,
for example, could selectively breed octopods for several million years,
it is conceivable that they might also become intelligent. (We separated
from the apes 6 million years ago, probably because we were not well
adapted to the changing environment of Africa. By contrast, the octopus is very well adapted to its life beneath a rock and hence has not
evolved for millions of years.) Biochemist Clifford Pickover says that
when he gazes at all the "crazy-looking crustaceans, squishy-tentacled
jellyfish, grotesque, hermaphroditic worms, and slime molds, I know
that God has a sense of humor, and we will see this reflected in other
forms in the universe."