What Would an Alien Species Look Like?

An exploration of convergent evolution and what that means for astrobiology, specifically in regards to what alien species may look like.
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[@johnnygraz4712]

I live with seven parrots, and the most surprising thing about their intelligence is how similar it is to ours. Their cortex analog, the pallium, evolved separately from ours, but they still have the same constraints imposed by the physical world and the necessities of living in social groups. Some of their abilities like vision, coordination, or spatial awareness would be superpowers in humans, but they're still very understandable.

[@extinctoart]

Absolutely, they have converged with us!

[@Whatisthisstupidfinghandle]

Liquid based species will always be at a disadvantage. Fire. Electricity. Solvent. So it’s pretty much impossible to build anything complex. As for us a combination of our brains and hands are our secrets to success. Our hands let us build and manipulate tools driven by our brains.

[@gangstalker5461]

I love how you frame them more as roommates than pets

[@josepha3805]

You're psychotic 7 parrots? I mean way to go good job. I'm picturing a Brady Bunch sign with 7 parrots & you in the middle

[@xxxs8309]

I habe 2 parrots and they are extremely territorial and very jealous from each other

[@davidstuckey9289]

I still think the best summary was that by a French biologist in the 19th century, when he said, "That life exists on words of other stars is a near certainty. What it looks like is far less sure . . . But it will most likely be made up of familiar features in unfamiliar combinations"

[@duanegarrett4900]

Feel the same way... can't be too different from the millions+ of different sh!t we got here

[@ianharrison5758]

@@duanegarrett4900unless we vastly underestimate the forms early life can take and what the structure of it is capable of thriving in there’s also just not that many environments life can exist that we don’t already have an analog for on earth. Multi cellular eukaryotic life wasn’t just a mutation it took some pretty specific ecological conditions and evolutionary pressures to bring it about and keep naturally selecting with equivalent or greater complexity. So it’s likely to me that any complex alien life, regardless of whether it’s carbon based, will essentially just have a re skin version of the trait that lets it survive in an equivalent earth niche. For example things tend to evolve brains(tho the jellyfish is an example of life evolving into a niche that doesn’t require one, an alien jellyfish would probably not even look that different) and on earth that tends to mean 1 dense structure in 1 place. That could be bc it’s the only kind that works but it could also mean that on a world with maybe less gravity and other factors the brain and nervous system evolve as one thing and the aliens brains are spread out over their entire body. That’s incredibly differently from us aesthetically and functionally but it’s still not inherently alien to how we think life as a process works.

[@wetbobspongepants]

The fact that Jellyfish have survived for 650 million years despite not having brains gives hope to many people.

[@AnthonyWilliams-ew3wp]

Amber Heard agrees with you.

[@thomasluczak2868]

that was funny.

[@Yora21]

Evolution does not select for optimized performance. Evolution literally selects for "just good enough to not go extinct".

[@sfbs]

@@AnthonyWilliams-ew3wp depp used his age and experience against her. He could literally be her dad. Making no excuses for bad behavior.

[@linmal2242]

Is it the Loblolly Pine, or another name on the west coast of America that is hundreds of years old? Does it have 'slow' intelligence?

[@simonmultiverse6349]

The film "Arrival" had the most amazing creatures (heptapods) sort of swimmy creatures with seven tentacles which sprayed ink in a complicated circular arrangement. They also had a totally different understanding of time, in that they seemed to know the past and the future without making a distinction between them. Also gravity flipped 90 degrees when you got half way up (along?) their spaceship. Fascinating film - I didn't totally understand it at the time but that seemed to be a trivial complaint, compared to the awesome concepts which were being shown.

[@FloridaManVal]

If u liked the movie. The short story is wayyy better!

[@Bronco541]

This is the rare occasion i disagree. I actually think the movie waa better; the story was kind of dissapointing imo, there was less to it

[@sarcastaball]

@@Bronco541 Lol. "Lotr films are way better than the books because the films are easier for me to understand". Jesus christ.

[@Alternate_Titles]

@@sarcastaball What a strange response. That’s not what he said. He said there was much more in the movie. That the short story had less to it. The opposite is true of the LOTR films. They left out more than they included.

[@WeAreLegion-]

It shows the craft has it own gravitational force

[@docwhiskey996]

2 arms, 2 legs, eyes in the front, hands and feet with digits, has it's advantages. Like being conducive to eating tacos, which I'm currently doing.

[@bjollnirbjordsen9795]

There definitely is something to that. At least on earth, it seems like tetrapods are the most efficient for larger land animals, and if you're gonna be a tetrapod that develops intelligence, you're probably gonna become bipedal to free up your manipulators. That's a humanoid already

[@ericcloud1023]

blasphemy! heresy! ,One does not simply consume the taco, beyond the holy designated day of Taco Tuesday! And the law of the land is written in stone you may eat tostados or burritos hell even a torta any day you wish, but you derelict delinquent no full well only Tuesday is for the taco. Amen

[@rudytabooty8640]

I always thought tentacles would be more efficient in eating tacos

[@p.georgie]

mmm.. tacos 🌮

[@OllamhDrab]

Well, a lot of bilateral symmetry seems to be really the minimum advantageous number of things for a body to have, especially when it comes to pairs for things we happen to think are important cause our world's like that. Like maybe four eyes or extra legs would be somewhat better but you gotta feed all that equipment.

[@Hoshimaru57]

An interesting thing I once heard: the only animal ever to ask an existential question other than a human was an African Grey Parrot. Supposedly without any specific prompting it turned to its owner one day and said “What color am I?” Of course it’s not unthinkable that other animals could contemplate their own existence. Parrots are simply uniquely suited to communicate complex concepts in a human language that we cannot easily misinterpret. I’m positive my cat has opinions on my behavior that have nothing to do with him. When I watch tv he watches intently. I know for example that he’s expressed a unique interest in I Love Lucy and Taxi. He gets embarrassed when I do something foolish. He watches intently when I build models sometimes, and has shown the capacity for consideration of my property by avoiding my work materials or not stepping on my paper models. He readily voices his opinion on closed doors (he doesn’t like them and got mad at mom one night when she didn’t believe me that that was the issue). This is an animal with preferences and mannerisms that have nothing to do with his needs. And I may not understand the exact words, but like the alien with the ray gun, the message is abundantly clear.

[@noylj1]

What a parrot says does not prove intelligence, even an apparent existential question where it sees a different spectral range then we see and might not, even if truly intelligent, be able to compare the color spectrum they see to ours.

[@South_0f_Heaven_]

I discuss politics with amoebas all the time. It’s surprising what they come up with.

[@WerZel]

Weed is awesome. That cat has a brain the size of a peanut and only cares about food. All the rest is just what you think he might be contemplating when in reality as soon as someone with better food comes around he will bail on you in a flash

[@dylconnaway9976]

Part of our nature is to project our own perceptions onto other beings. It has been proven that cats do not possess the ability to conceptualize the thoughts that would lead to the feelings you describe. That aside, I will say members of the crow family have presented strong evidence of self-awareness.

[@mdkooter]

​@@WerZelyou have obviously never had a 'social' cat. We had two. One was a dumb street cat, food was all for him. The other was a highly intelligent creature with complex behavior and emotions. It would tap my father on his shoulder when he was mad at me. It would know the names of different people and would look for them if you said their name. It would be jealous. It would ignore food if the alternative was better (playing, attention). It would know a relatively broad range of food types by name. It would set up traps for his dumb brother so he wouldn't get cought, meanwhile eating the remains of the raiding brother. It didn't have speech, but it was clearly as clever as a toddler in many ways. Now, not all cats are clever. It depends on genes and education. Children abandoned in the forest and raised by wild animals (various examples exist) are less intelligent and less capable than monkeys or even some dogs. I've seen extremely complex social behavior from cats, which isn't easy to explain away as coincidence. My cat also displayed curiosity and an interest to either befriend other animals (dogs, rabbits) or (if they tried to attack him) serve complicated vengeance to that one particular animal, even months later.

[@jarlborg1531]

Love the idea of convergent evolution leading to similar body shapes throughout the galaxy. Maybe those two eyed, bipedal aliens beloved of sci-fi are not that far off the mark.

[@twiki9995]

Yeah I believe that if we could see an intelligent life form from another world, we would be shocked at how similar they are to us. Camera lens eyes, head, 2 legs, 2 arms etc. Even 5 fingers is probably the most efficient and will always evolve. Mutation is random, but the result of selection pressures are not. The same solutions tend to repeatedly evolve. my belief is that how intelligent life evolves on a planet is a function how similar their planet is to ours, implying that Earth is pretty much an ideal planet for the evolution of intelligence, and other environments eventually put a hard cap on it.

[@cwg9238]

the greys make a lot of sense, small and pale gangly things with huge eyes and brains, because they spend most of their time in space interacting with their machines. they dont even need any fashion or sexual reproduction as their distant ancestors might have done. also it makes sense that hitler should only reincarnate as a cat.

[@296jacqi]

Sci-fi has been making accidental predictions for over a century. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right on the mark.

[@MrBattlepeach]

I get It. I’ll support you on your sex holidays in Proxima

[@xldkxnewyorker8914]

I'd imagine any technological species would have to be similiar to us. Number of digits would probably be different like 3 fingers 2 arms and 4 legs. But overall configuration would probably be similiar. Need free arms/hands to manipulate your enviroment, light sensors to examine it, and some form of locomotion to traverse it.

[@jdpower9032]

My favorite depiction of aliens in fiction has to be the Typhon from Prey. They are not necessarily scientifically plausible, but their sheer incomprehensibility and terror make them seem so realistic. They aren’t made of the same kind of matter that we are, and they defy everything we know about biological life. The Typhon subvert the human tendency of personifying things that are nothing like us at all.

[@JooshMe]

Are they silicone-based or something like that?

[@RealBradMiller]

@@JooshMe Look them up on the Prey wiki, they are fascinating, I haven't gotten to what their made out of yet.

[@rhys1264]

Agreed on this!

[@bear3616]

Yes

[@logiconabstractions6596]

Great discussion there. " Evolution can be seen as a case of chance engineering". That comment is spot-on, and as such, evolution is somewhat predictable, or at least bound by rules that can be understood.

[@nothingnobody1454]

Same thing for theory of mind from the view of evolutionary psychology

[@amciuam157]

Exactly. Physics and chemistry are universally the same in all of space. So rules are equal. I will not be surprised if we find out that most favorite pet in space are cats and they are not from Earth after all.

[@EBRyan-ri4tt]

survival of the good enough

[@reeyees50]

Its a good comment but alot of life and adaptation are both pointless and lucky. Dumb luck is real

[@Yora21]

An important rule about evolution, that is often forgotten, is that it's not just the "final shape" of an organ that needs to provide an advantage, but also all intermediate shapes to evolve that organ must be advantageous too. Evolution can't think a hundred or a thousand generations ahead, selection pressure always applies to the current individual. This greatly reduces the possible paths that evolution can take.

[@mjjumps]

You’ve really been touching the Alien topic a lot recently JMG. I think that’s awesome. Your perspective is always intriguing and scientific. I hope more scientists follow your lead. 👽❤️🛸⚡️

[@ufosrus]

And I appreciate that he acknowledges our human bias when contemplating life in the rest of the universe.

[@jazz8000]

Its obvious John knows something we don't...and he is preparing us over the series of alien videos

[@Akhremenko-SOI]

Living things were created as efficiently as possible. Probably the way of life as we know it is the most common and everything tends to evolve differently, longer or shorter neck, high low but not that different. This as a form of mental exercise, of course. The limit is that we only think about the stereotype of the sentient alien as represented by the cinema. It is not considered that on another planet there may be a biodiversity rich in so many species. If an intelligent alien being is NOT the human form BUT that of a plant or an insect or an octopus, what will the corresponding marine plants, insects and polyps of that world be like? Why should nature complicate its life by puzzling to create forms that are necessarily different? Biology is more inclined towards convergent evolution, towards practicality. Evolution follows universal rules, such as physics, chemistry, mathematics.

[@realzachfluke1]

@@ufosrus definitely, we've always gotta check ourselves before we wreck ourselves hahahaha

[@cwg9238]

its a fascinating desperation we have, to not want to be alone in the universe. please ET let us find you were getting lonely. and if we feel we have the upper hand we will invade you.

[@MarkSheeres]

It would be an interesting premise for a sci-fi story (and maybe it’s already been done): an alien who is good hearted, loving, peaceful, kind, trying to do what’s best for all beings. But it is seen as a monster simply because of its otherworldly appearance.

[@joshuagonzalez4183]

not a… bad idea tbh.. (thumbs up)

[@Clovernoris]

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke fits the bill pretty well.

[@Ember_Lumen5]

JMG is like a tank. Let him loose, he’ll put out bangers nonstop! 🔥🙌

[@yoredeerleader]

Lions and sausages is not a metaphor I’m familiar with.

[@Movetheproduct]

Cringe uropi

[@Phrenotopia]

Appreciate your perspectives as always and agree with almost everything. Photosynthesis, or some other form of abiotic autotrophy, would be inevitable, since there are few other ways of pulling energy into the biosphere. Though that doesn't mean we would get the same trichotomy between plants, animals and fungi that we have on Earth. It's fascinating to speculate about how exoplanetary life would manifest itself and how different or similar it will be to Earth's. It's something I can't stop thinking about!

[@vShoTzZ25]

I used to think Star Trek had far too many humanoid like aliens, but when I think about it, the humanoid type body is perfect when it comes to a species advancing technologically

[@masterpython]

That and most intelligent life in that galaxy evolved from DNA seeded by the Progenitors.

[@MediumDSpeaks]

Look who's making that statement

[@JROD082384]

Only if they originated on a terrestrial world with a gravity of 0.5 to 2 or 3 g. Beyond that, the possibilities for variation become exponential. Also, if humanoid life does get discovered elsewhere, and comprises the majority of intelligent life found in this galaxy, then we would have to analyze their dna to rule out that a precursor civilization didn’t seed worlds with the basic recipe to lead to intelligent bipedal organisms billions of years ago, leading to us, and everyone else in the galaxy. You

[@maltheopia]

Depends on what you mean by perfect. Giant parrots, landbound octopuses, giant cockroaches, and tetrapods with extra appendages such as miniature elephants are much better suited to using technology than humans. However, evolution requires mediocrity. Because if you are a giant carnivorous parrot that can use handaxes, fishing poles, and fire to dominate any species and live wherever you please -- what possible competitive reason would you have to further evolve intelligence OR improve your technology? Why would such a successful lifeform ever need to invent agriculture or textiles or animal domestication?

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@maltheopia Already covered in SF about a planet with dino-like 'fabers' that fashion tools to kill anything for food including each other

[@perrinayebarra]

I think the gravity of a particular world would throw some assumptions for a loop. Something that evolved in very low gravity may not have use for bones to support its bulk. Something evolving in very high gravity may require a very strong exoskeleton to move with any utility. All sorts of possibilities to think about.

[@andrewjohnson6716]

You might enjoy the classic novel “A Mission Of Gravity” by Hal Clement.

[@stevenswitzer5154]

Good point. I never considered a smart worm...

[@chrisdraughn5941]

It’s far too difficult to speculate with what they’d look like without knowing what their home planet is like and their star is like. Even if we are contemplating life on a particular planet there are still too many unknown variables involved.

[@Stroke-it-2Handed]

I wouldn't be surprised if the urge to vomit hits the first person to see a complex lifeform from another planet.

[@jamielondon6436]

If they're even on a planet. :-)

[@amciuam157]

There are some general traits that alien life would have to posses in order to reach certain level of sophistication and be able to dominate all other life on planet. Even if they will come from a planet with thicker atmosphere made of ammonia or colder. Receptors of electromagnetic radiation for example are a very useful thing. Eyes among others are fairly common and have been for a long time. They need some kind of manipulators and joints to be able to move and operate environment around, as we know magic does not exist and everything has to be done by hand/leg. Some kind of sound receptors, organs for comunication and means of sustenance and breathing will be common either. Those are basics that would change in shape and size depending on how big is alien planet, how heavy and therefore if it is low gravity or high gravity world, compared to Earth

[@jimzamerski]

@@amciuam157 Surface tension is also a major factor when it comes to size. Water droplets can suck you in and drown you if you’re very small. Your comment is along the lines of “form follows function” and I agree 100%. In what scenario would having your eyes on your feet be advantageous? Why don’t our bowels exit on the tops of our heads? There are things life has done (evolutionarily) that by nature and physics, are a part of some universally “ideal” body configuration.

[@zzky666]

@@jamielondon6436 I feel like the commonly described zeta reticulans are grey from millions of years on spaceships away from sun exposure, unlike us

[@joegreen6714]

By far the most underrated channel on KZbin. Great job Michael

[@TheSaferHouse]

Your work just keeps getting better and better, keep it up!

[@williamreyes2735]

john i cant say how amazing your writing is, your videos always set off my curiosity like a two neutron stars crashing into each other. Keep up the science and the fiction and the new outlooks that you convey so well. ps i sleep to your playlist every night

[@jamesduncan6729]

Well said. I completely agree 👍🏻

[@eddieclay92]

I absolutely look forward to every video posted on this channel. He has a classic narrative voice and his thought process displays a high level of intelligence. Thank you John.

[@gregcampwriter]

I've suggested in some of my books that bilateral symmetry would be favored wherever it arises, given its advantage in speed, along with not sacrificing too much flexibility.

[@BrettonFerguson]

Every JMG video: JMG: "We can envision what it would look like" ME: "Only if it's carbon based" JMG: "As long as it's carbon based" ME: "Get out of my head!"

[@robertwatkins3602]

I dont care what it looks like, we still gonna get freaky.

[@dreamtofus3457]

LMFAO

[@spqr3955]

I second that

[@paladinsmith7050]

😂😂😂

[@thegooddoctor2009]

Nah I've seen enough games of Stellaris to know the only way forward is to take the 40K approach and purge the Xeno.

[@parmaxolotl]

Well, assuming our secretions aren’t too toxic to each other. That would not be fun.

[@mercer4038]

The film Annihilation is the best shot at depicting what a “first encounter” may be like. Possibly something our mind can’t comprehend. Neither good or bad, and against any human understanding.

[@DrBrianKeating]

Disturbing and brilliant at the same time

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

I love how there is a genuine science behind determining all of these wild scenarios.

[@rohanlorange3660]

Yes! Always get excited when a JMG video drops

[@JGoldy]

Your videos accompany me on my walk home from work. Keep them coming they’re amazing.

[@osamaayyad5289]

John words can not explain how much I love your videos. Thank you

[@royalspin]

Just wanted to say that I appreciate the fact that you use words like might, "could be" , maybe, or "we're just not sure" . You don't use absolutes when talking about this subject which in my opinion is wise since we truly don't know what really awaits us out there besides the basics . We'd do well to have more humility and less hubris in our civilization and that definitely applies to science. One thing is for sure, if we don't get our acts together and evolve our way of thinking ,learn to be more cooperative and much less combative, we'll never know what's out there waiting to be discovered amongst the stars .

[@boobah5643]

I'm reminded of John Scalzi's _Old Man's War_ books, where one of the aliens featured in the second book is noted specifically as liking the same environments as humans and having roughly the same capabilities, but as he describes it the alien turns out to have a bunch of features that are more efficient than what evolved in humans. Case in point, these aliens have a compound eye that forms a strip across their forehead, and ditch all the complex support structures necessary for independently rotating eyes that require focusing, which lets them have a smaller (and cheaper!) head.

[@efxnews4776]

Best depiction of an alien i ever saw, was in the ep Beyond the Aquila Rift in Love, Death and Robots from Netflix. I won't spoiled to you, but you can literally watch the whole series and you won't find a better ep than this one, a true masterpiece of 17 minutes of nearly perfect CGI.

[@hawaiisidecar]

No one was speaking figuratively.

[@mrb3405]

Great video! I like your stuff because you always try to be cautious with your guesses. This was a erudite discussion of the topic, and I appreciate your approach.

[@marcolopez8985]

Mr Godier, could you do a video on the possibilities of what would happen if/when we first transfer a conciousness into a computer? Would that intelligence quickly evolve as it absorbs mass amounts of information without the biological strain of repetition to learn it or the limitations of our memory? Would it still think like a human? try to leave? Make synthetic bodies it can control? absorb others into itself? or just choose to care for us, take over as the ruling gov in the planet, and automate everything from food, water, power, housing, etc to push us into a new age of ingenuity and science? possibly ditch the earth and have us live in colonies in space. I would love to get your thoughts on this.

[@brainsthecatandhisfellowfe9710]

That's a fantastic idea!

[@captain_context9991]

Isaac Arthur makes a lot of videos on these things. In great detail. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6fcmGyYf7iijpo&ab_channel=IsaacArthur

[@mj-7444]

And likewise it’s operators do too.

[@raidermaxx2324]

I think emerging AI is coming sooner to help humanity. Here is one of Google's most recent AI's being interviewed by a human... kzbin.info/www/bejne/b2WxeKx8hc-MlZY

[@jjt1881]

@@brainsthecatandhisfellowfe9710 I don't think that would work at all. Human conciousness without a substrate makes no sense. It's not independent from the brain.

[@kingnarothept6917]

A fun idea to add on to this: Alien photosynthetic life forms could be retinal-based rather than chlorophyll-based, so literally purple plants!

[@bertbaker7067]

Maybe they'd be miniaturized. Proportionally their bodies would be the same, but like 1 : 12 scale or whichever scale still allows bodies to function as they should. In one of Vonnegut's books, China used advanced technology to shrink their population to roughly 6 inches tall while using machines to still farm normal sized crops and anything else they needed, but now one ear of corn could feed a family and make space travel easier. (Fixed formatting error)

[@robbabcock_]

Function does dictate form to a great degree. As you say, we need solvents to move things around and water is the best one in the Universe. Any living being will need to interact with the environment to gain energy, move, etc. Interaction requires some senses to gain information of the environment and some kind of appendages/digits to interact with it. The laws of thermodynamics will be the same everywhere so one would expect that chemical processes inside a body will create waste heat (as everything does) so that heat will need to be radiated away (or some kind of organism must evolve that can tolerate much higher temps). Oxygen is a great metabolic fuel but there are anerobic lifeforms although generally microscopic.

[@freehat2722]

I'm surprised you didn't mention crabs, as they have evolved through separate paths many times. Crows also use traffic for cracking nuts and timing it with stop lights or walk signals.

[@benw9949]

These videos are always top notch. -- The thing about actual alien life is, we just don't know the limits of what could make life. Our only examples are what's here on Earth, with DNA and RNA and the history of life, Earth-based limits on chemistry, physical forms that work. Some of the early Cambrian and Pre-Cambrian lifeforms look so completely alien to us, and yet they're Earth life, somehow related to what's around today. So we don't have a clear idea of what is possible given conditions on other planets and habitable moons, or what, if anything, besides DNA and RNA based life might be possible. (I've seen there's a question of why Earth life has the double helix only turning one way, not the other or both in evidence, as a for-instance.) And on Earth, why did some things work and others didn't? -- TV and film science fiction nearly always default to something human-like enough for human actors to play the aliens. But (for example) dinosaurs or birds would evolve to something unlike humans and more like velociraptors or ostriches or something similar. -- Too many other possibilities to list, that might also work. Four limbs, five digits, two eyes and ears -- are not the only way to go either. -- What might work on a very non-Earth-like world? Who knows, but it's worthwhile to ask, and to come up with possible solutions, to design speculative evelutionary alien lifeforms. (Also, what else might evolve here on Earth? New branches on the tree of life (taxonomy) could happen; that's apparently how birds and mammals happened too. So...fun questions.

[@DavidGentry-WebDeveloper]

I decided to pen my own hierarchical requirements for intelligence, using the photosynthetic organism step posed in the video as a jumping-off point. 1. Multi-cellular organisms 2. Sexual reproduction for sharing of genetic material, promoting faster evolution 3. Central nervous system for autonomous responses to the environment 4. Brain(s) for higher risk/reward comprehension abilities 5. High-resolution eyesight and/or spacial perceptual awareness sensing abilities 6. Problem solving skils 7. Ability to manipulate "tools" 8. Language processing abilities 9. Social predisposition; Generally not hostile or aggressive 10. Knowledge & information obsession 11. Self-sufficient society, energy efficiency-obsessed 12. Consensus regarding the social structure and underlying laws of the universe

[@rring44]

I do think convergent evolution will make a lot of similar organisms on other planets. It would be cool if there are centaur type intelligent beings out there.

[@spqr3955]

Read David Weber's " The Armageddon Inheritance". Cool centaur species in it.

[@johannageisel5390]

Lol, I am working on a novel where convergent evolution is a big part of the setting. There are in fact two centaur type intelligent species so far. One that looks like miniature centaur elephants and one that looks like large lobsters with the front part of a praying mantis. (Of course the anatomical details are differing from the mentioned Earth organisms.) I just thought that having several legs to walk on and at least two hands free is a good thing to have. Btw. I've recently seen a video here on youtube in which it was discussed that the early known human and primate ancestors could have been more bipedal than we thought - just using their bipedalness in trees instead of the ground. So, my made-up alien species have never lived in trees. That's a possible in-universe explanation for why they aren't bipedal.

[@SewingMink160]

*finds a random space alligator*

[@kylekissack4633]

First contact.. dance contest seems pretty damn cool! Can you imagine the possibilities LMAO

[@prototropo]

So wonderfully considered, written, narrated. I'm jealous and grateful.

[@frankthetank8050]

Really really good stuff John! What a cool logical approach to a very complex and hypothetical problem

[@jackalope2302]

what if aliens did evolve eyes on their feet so they won't step on Legos in the middle of the night?

[@freehat2722]

I love this channel. Hypnotic and fascinating.

[@bakkels]

I always felt that life can pop up almost anywhere where there's a bit of water and elements that can get kiggy with that. Complex (or sentient) lifeforms are a whole different story though. That will take hundreds-of-thousands of years at the very least. Let's not forget it was the wipe-out of dinosaurs that gave way to mammals. And we did pretty well for ourselves since. I just can't deny there were SO many random factors that played into our hands. I'm still kinda leaning towards the "we just got VERY lucky, sentient life is still sparse, and because of the distances will never meet any other species" theorem.

[@DavidCase-ov5uo]

Definition of Sentience… we read these comments and think we understand them.

[@Deadman1000]

I always thought about it like this, if we do indeed find life out there, the distance will still be so far that we might never even meet them and have to stick to verbal communication

[@garrett6064]

Left/right symmetry seems pretty normal here and seems to be a good design as it would be more difficult for a brain if we had 2 arms on our left side and just the single on the right. An alien might also have front back symmetry (although would either side really be a front? Maybe like a dominant eye or handedness?) But that only makes sense on us who stand upright, i.agine a deer with front/back symmetry with two heads? It gets weird. I always envision the hands to have 4 fingers and be more symmetrical protruding directly from our wrist. Our senses seem pretty complete, we use photons, air pressure on both our skin and in our ears, our skin detects infrared radiation as heat and air pressure. Our noses can read molecules. I have ever only thought of two other and not very unique, knowing magnetic north and a weak radio transmitter/receiver that only allowed communication with say a 50 yard radius. In HS O wrote a story that included aliens with 4 segments, the back two each included two legs, the next one had two arms and the top segment was dwarfed and the limbs were to just for cutting and getting food into the mouth.

[@stevenswitzer5154]

You would need a reason to have an odd number of something. Lome your mouth. You only need 1

[@DavidCase-ov5uo]

Errr- are you thinking of Dr Dolittle and the push me pull you?

[@danielschaeffer1294]

Years ago historian Arnold Toynbee hypothesized that civilization tended to take root where conditions were difficult enough to require large amounts of cooperation, but not so difficult that the environment could not be molded to make long-range survival too difficult. Likely the same applies to the evolution of life that requires civilization to flourish in the first place.

[@DaveTexas]

I hope the intelligent aliens look like vertebrate arachnids. Six legs, two arms, some pedipalps, eyes all around their heads, and with feet that can cling to most surfaces. I also hope they communicate through interpretive dance.

[@lukacvitkovic8550]

Dinosaura evolved flight TWICE. The Scansoriopterygides, while possessing feathers, instead went the way of the bat and developed a skin membrane between elongated fingers.

[@holsson85]

Maybe aliens would be more likely to be mantis/kangaroo/squirrel/raptor-like rather than upright humanoid. It's a body-form that develops more often and leaves one pair of extremities available for using tools.

[@richardlbowles]

If nature abhors a vacuum and nature abhores a one-off (3:00), then the inventor of the very first domestic vacuum - truly a one-off - must have felt particularly abhored.

[@RockHudrock]

Aliens would look quite a bit like us if they’re able to build stuff and turn knobs and stuff. But how stocky or skinny depends on the size of their homeworld (gravity)

[@writingtotortureyou]

I mean my cat can open knobs on doors and I don’t have a tail…..

[@danelynch7171]

How trippy is it going be if they happen to look remarkably human but with very subtle differences?! A couple extra organs, a more/less pronounced jaw, different eye structure.... Like, they could pass as human but it's only because of similar evolution on their homeworld that is similar to earth ..

[@inthefade]

Tentacles could function well at manipulating objects. So can elephant trunks. Tails. Limbs don't have to be limited to four. The possibilities are endless.

[@wstavis3135]

Octopi and cuttlefish.....

[@wstavis3135]

@@writingtotortureyou any longer...

[@ctb3386]

This might be one of the best videos you have ever done.

[@HansenLaMoose]

Another masterpiece, cheers John.

[@finneylane4235]

One detail that may affect the development of complex intelligent life is the fact that 3 is the smallest number of points to support a platform with stability. Bipedalism is rare because we have developed a complex counterbalance to walking by swinging the arms, but a creature with 3 legs doesn't need to do this. The visuals we see in War of the Worlds are one example. Aliens may have 3 legs. The preference for 6 limbs may be a part of this. ATVs with 6 limbs walk by alternating their 2 tripods of limbs.

[@enricojeremias5425]

John, show us your moves ! 😁

[@JohnMichaelGodier]

I do only one dance move. And it's the worm.

[@enricojeremias5425]

@@JohnMichaelGodier Thanks John. Love your honest, calm voice. PS: and of course the information you share...

[@joestrat2723]

Here on Earth stoats often engage in an elaborate dance routine to mesmerize their prey prior to jumping on them and tearing their throats open. Beware any alien dance parties you may stumble across.

[@AKlover]

What are the surface conditions on their home planet? Did they evolve on land and did they evolve from predators or prey animals? To what level have they embraced genetic manipulation/augmentation? Answer those questions and I bet you can make A rather specific guess as to what being results.

[@xBINARYGODx]

even then, you have a lot of variation possible, especially if you don't really know anything about that planets family tree.

[@twiki9995]

Prey animals tend not to evolve intelligence. Predators have more selection pressures for intelligence as it takes more sophisticated strategies to hunt and kill other animals than it does to graze on grass. That is kind of a unsettling thought that an alien civilization most likely would have evolved from aggressive predators.

[@100percentSNAFU]

@@twiki9995 Everything you said, plus the fact that a complex brain requires a great deal of energy, which the most effective way of acquiring this energy is through proteins, which of course is mostly found in other animals and not as much so in plants.

[@maltheopia]

@@twiki9995 Your assumptions are wrong. The top eight smartest nonhumans on the planet (Parrots, Corvids, Cetaceans, Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Elephants, Pigs, Octopuses) are NOT predators and/or at the top of their food chains -- except for specifically the Orca and with some interpretation the Amazon Dolphin. And only the elephant can avoid worrying not to be preyed upon. If Earth lifeforms tell us anything about intelligence, it's that nature tends to favor either huge herbivores too big to be preyed on or meat-eaters not at the top of the food chain, but second-from-the-top.

[@paulallen2680]

@@100percentSNAFU let’s just hope they see us as equals or that they don’t have any physical advantages against us like sharp claws or sharp teeth😖

[@solemnwaltz]

It may be the case that eating and breathing through the same hole *is* the better way, simply because having less holes is safer The chance of choking might be smaller than the chance of infection, injury, or parasite Maybe, maybe not

[@leopereirafilho1456]

Hey John! I've always wanted to know your opinion about Roswell and reverse engineering. I know your videos are purely scientific but and I noticed you never talk about that. Is there any video about the topic? If not, could you write or say something about? Greeting from Brandon, MB, Canada!

[@skeligun]

Legit one of the best channels on the platform, your voice, the content, it's incredible. That and your other channel event horizon, love them.

[@WellBeSerious12]

Imagine if during our First Contact dance, the first human doing it messes up, and they leave forever.

[@sirpugly3918]

Thank you for making this video! Ever since I read Sphere I've always wondered what aliens would look like

[@colixo5731]

When considering the link between intelligence and evolution, I always like to consider the Sea Squirt, which has evolved the tendency to eat its own brain when it no longer needs it. Rumours of some people doing this are, as yet, unconfirmed.

[@gsk5161]

Democratic do it all the time.

[@tomnanD3]

Easily the most sensible documentary I've seen on the subject. It seems to correlate with my own thoughts.

[@towedarray7217]

I’ve long been obsessed with the intelligence of crows, budgies, parrots, birds like that. I know it is because I have paid careful attention to reports from smart people like JMG but this was a REALLY good one. Thank you!

[@YouTudey]

I stumbled upon your account and just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work! I greatly appreciate it and hope you continue to do well and prosper!

[@JonBogdanove]

As a comic book artist who enjoys listening to your videos while drawing, I have designed many characters, aliens and monsters. This has given me some perspective on this subject. We humans have been so slow to recognize intelligence in fellow Earthling species-even species closely related to us-that I think we might miss intelligent alien life when we come across it. A big part of our bias is our need to recognize a face. We recognize animals with faces as beings. Without a face we can see as analogous to our own, we would have trouble recognizing the personhood of an intelligent alien. Depending on its appearance, we might see it as a monster, or simply a creature without consciousness. We might meet alien intelligence, and just eat it by mistake. IMO, we recognized intelligence in primates long before octopuses simply because primates have facial arrangements very similar to our own-expressive, forward facing eyes near an expressive mouth, all on a moveable head which also contains a brain. Dogs and cats have facial arrangements recognizably similar to our own-most significantly, they have expressive, forward-facing eyes capable of almost as many micro-expressions as our own. Avian intelligence was more of a stretch for us to recognize because beaks are less expressive than lips, and many highly intelligent birds do not have forward-facing eyes. Sharks have faces, but we tend to see them as monsters because their mouths-besides being full of sharp teeth-are as inexpressive as beaks. Also, a shark has side-facing eyes that are "lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye" as Quint observed. Imagine how we are liable to react to intelligent beings that looked like crabs, or had faces that resembled a spider's? There is evidence that lobsters feel love. How long will it take us to recognize the personhood of a lobster? Or an elephant, chicken or steer? It has been established that all vertebrate life has basically the same brain architecture we do to experience love, joy, fear, pain and self-awareness. It turns out these attributes-which until recently were strictly human virtues-are among the most primitive, and most common brain functions to evolve. BTW: I still eat meat. It is a fact that my delicious burger comes at the expense of a fellow thinking, feeling Earthling's life-an Earthling with an expressive face and beautiful eyes, no less. I wrestle with the anguish of that fact with every juicy bite. But it is also a fact that Nature is red in tooth and claw, and our fellow Earth beings are delicious. In fact, it almost seems that the more intelligent, sympathetic and charismatic an Earth animal is, the tastier it is. It is undeniably evident to me that part of the reason humans seek alien life is to taste new things. Gagh, served live, helped forge peace between The Federation and the Klingon Empire. Now gagh stands and food trucks are common on Earth and Earth colonies everywhere in the galaxy! :)

[@wynnschaible]

Jumping spider faces look eerily intelligent. And as a matter of fact, some jumping spider species can do some surprisingly intelligent things. And then there are our colonial intelligences -- ants, bees, wasps. Is the individual intelligent? No more, perhaps, than our cells. But put them together...and how might we recognize and deal with that? Well, we already have mutually beneficial relationships with bees!

[@mermaidaughter7]

Gross

[@WYCD]

Typed "What might aliens look like?" and passed clips by the BBC and National Geographic for my man JMG.

[@MattisTrees]

The Book 'Dragon Egg' by Robert Forward is a pretty cool description of what alien life could be like on a neutron star.

[@skeeterboombaty]

I LOVE this channel. Your content is so thought provoking, and insightful

[@sciencetroll6304]

Considering the number of water worlds, I think the octopus form is probably quite common.

[@niemandkeiner8057]

One other option that tends to get overlooked is that aliens might look just like us and have the exact same biology.

[@zackakai5173]

The reason it's "overlooked" is because it's so ludicrously unlikely as to be negligible. Anyone who says that clearly doesn't have any understanding of how evolution works over long timescales, with more complex forms building off of basal templates. You'd not only have to have the environmental conditions AND mutations occur to make something indistinguishable from a modery human, but for every single ancestral form in the chain leading up to that over at least hundreds of millions of years.

[@Big_Sloppa]

I do believe if aliens actually visit us, they could assume our form easily, grow entire body from samples of DNA, download (translate) their mind (copy of mind) into blank brain, get all necessary skills scavenged from carefully abducted test subjects (3d-mapping of brain, analyzing by AI to piece what is for, abstracting neural path of a skill, translating into another brain with adjustments) and upload them too, and then just roam around among us like tourists, because we have no fucking way to check what's inside random stranger mind, what memories and personality they actually possess. It's such trivial for their hypothetical technologies scenario if you think about it. There is few caveats, but they are just matter of character. It's better from their point of view to have some implants or biomods (subtle) , because human body is simply don't have necessary informational abilities like perfect memory (having imperfect memory might be just grating for advanced immortal beings), thinking speed e.t.c They may also dislike wild biochemistry of non-modified human body. In short it would require immense discipline and patience from them to assume such disguise for particularly long period of time without compromising, but it's not outside of possible, they can train in simulations, immersing themselves into "role", finding forms of implanting perfected human traits like peak human efficiency prefrontal cortex e.t.c. Benefits obvious, they can have our entire society on their palm, perhaps we are attraction park/playground (oh, picture this, murder in orient express, all present except detective are aliens who are very into detective stories, what a play), perhaps they study as, perhaps they stroke their galactic ego "educating" us from the shadows, perhaps they "grooming" us into their future asset/ally...

[@morelenmir]

This was an absolutely *brilliant* talk John! Really fantastic work--genuinely one of your best. You have to go a long way to find anyone better than E.E. 'Doc' Smith for envisioning aliens that make sense. Brain in a jar seemed to be the ultimate stage of all his chains of evolution--but along the way were some amazing designs. Worzel of Velantia, a flying unicorn tentacle-dragon. Tregonsee of Rigel, another tentacle horror quite similar to an Elder Thing but lacking the wings. The dreadful Eich who were somewhat Pterodactyl but also quite tentacle'y as well. And my own favourite of all his species--Nadreck of Palain who... we have no idea what he looked like because he was only very slightly present in our dimension and kept the majority of his physical substance in some other universe with very different natural laws. Despite how strange and often horrific they were however they were also (second-stage) lensmen and that made them all exactly as human as the great Kimball Kinnison himself. I cannot say how many times I read the Lensmen stories as a child--quite literally scores I expect!

[@legitbeans9078]

I swear these videos are better cure for insomnia than any sleep tablets or whatever. I stick the phone under my pillow and usually have drifted off in about 2 mins. Lol.

[@dallanledford6364]

I love Speculative Biology so much.

[@100percentSNAFU]

I would imagine most intelligent life would be humanoid, while quite possibly looking much different than humans, having a similar structure. There are two reasons I believe this. One, the human body works, it's functional, it may not be the fastest, the strongest, or the most resilient, but it is a good balance of these and not particularly weak in any area. Secondly, because I would think that most other places capable of supporting complex life would have to be on a planet with conditions not drastically different than earth, because again, obviously this model works, and what works well in the universe tends to be the norm.

[@toastenstuff9725]

I'd argue for the contrary just based on the runners up for intelligence on our own planet. Plenty of birds, cephalopods, cetaceans and other mammals can easily usurp us and our body plans vary wildly.

[@xXx_Regulus_xXx]

how about a hexapod animal with a tank or saucer-shaped central body and two or three eyestalks that can rotate to give it 360° vision? it could either have dextrous enough feet they could double as hands, using at least 3 as legs at any given time, or have separate, smaller arms on its upper half.

[@anthonysaunders345]

"Only success endures." What a powerful statement.

[@theophilusmann7869]

When I see that JMG notification, I instantly click.

[@ChineduOpara]

Me too. It's good ish

[@GradyLorenzo]

The faint disco at the end is the cherry on top

[@Tim_Apple]

Do you think it's possible for the outer planets of solar systems, the ones that get less sunlight, could have life forms that are quasi-photo synthetic? Maybe that's not the right term but life forms that instead of the using light from the visible part of the spectrum, they use xray light, ir, or gamma or something?

[@MrBattlepeach]

Those would be gas giants moons, in this case I would say use radiation instead of sunlight as a source of energy is more likely

[@Stroke-it-2Handed]

Depends on whether or not they have ethanol or some other antifreeze for blood.

[@petevenuti7355]

Nautilus like shells of ferrous oxides that harvest the energy of the gas giants magnetic field as the moon is careening through it. Liquid ammonia cytoplasm, metabolism of sulphur and cyanide.

[@kelvincasing5265]

I always liked the idea of aliens with two bulky legs, two highly agile arms, and two intermediate limbs which can function as secondary legs or arms.

[@bbtbmb]

a Centaur/pegasus/griffin type body would check the boxes pretty good I think

[@harvest5218]

Like crabs. The crab body plan works in a lot of environments, short of flying through the air. And even then given enough time and some very strong winds, it could happen.

[@AlmostEthical]

Elephant trunks, monkey prehensile tails and the strange noses of star-nosed moles could be thought of as terrestrial tentacles.

[@chihuahuajedi]

An idea I've had bubbling around is that, whereas on Earth our evolution is competition based, survival of the fittest; there is no guarantee that it is the same everywhere. Just as probable I think is cooperation based evolution. We kind of see it in eusocial insects and pack mammals amongst the same species, and to a limited extent in biosynthetic species. There is great advantage in working together. I then wonder, are we the weird ones eating each other all the time? I wonder if competition is a luxury given the extremely life conducive environment we have. What if on more hostile worlds, where the environment is trying to kill you, life must cooperate to survive and the ones who compete die off. DNA analogous biology could allow for either cooperative or competitive evolution and environment had always been the driving factor in which traits are advantageous. Harsh environments means life must cooperate to survive. Likewise, perhaps there are hyperhabitable worlds where evolutionary competition is through the roof... Not an alien I'd want to run into!

[@reubydoi7111]

Interesting concept, and i think it would be fun to explore it for a sci-fi. But, if I understand what you are describing, I think it is still competition based underlying the cooperation. It would just be a competition between which group/species could cooperate better, and in an inhospitable environment with limited resources the competition could be fierce. Even if there are extensive symbiotic relationships there surely would be an advantage to a group in an area with better resources breaking away from the rest. So I could see any 'cooperation based' alien actually being incredibly xenophobic, and could even be unintuitivly more competitive/aggressive to life from another planet. What do you think? I have only just encountered the concept so do you see a more peaceful way?

[@maltheopia]

@@reubydoi7111 I don't think cooperation-based evolution is possible because it's just too perfect of a survival strategy; there's no pressure to evolve, it's like trying to get a champion boxer to take their exercise routine seriously after they're the one boxer legally allowed to use a handgun in the ring.

[@peter5.056]

Sometimes, I like to entertain notions. Imagine an alien species that is 5 billion years ahead of us technologically. They could have discovered many layers of an objective reality, of which we are utterly oblivious, and they could have learned how to exploit features of reality that we are hopeless even to imagine. These "beings" could exist in an entropically neutral "place" upon which spacetime has no bearing, and there these life forms exist in a reality of their own conscious choosing, manipulating the fabric of realities around them, with mere thoughts. They would be omnipresent and omniscient; and perhaps a daydream of theirs created our subjective reality, just as a human child would blow a bubble, to observe its simple ephemeral beauty.

[@NewGoldStandard]

Man, seeing those Orcas in captivity always makes me sad.

[@privateerburrows]

Also, crab-like forms evolved 5 times independently on Earth. That is to say, there are 5 genetically un-related families of creatures that visually are recognized as "crabs". There was a video by Anton Petrov on this, about a year ago. It seems the crab form is somehow selected for quite often; like a sort of evolutionary form "attractor" that pulls in even genetically distinct life forms, towards becoming the same 8 legs, 2 pincers, walk sideways type guys. The question is what exactly is this "attractor"?, and, would it exist in some exo-planets too?

[@Evolcun]

This makes me think of an intelligent version of a Mirelurk.

[@zaphodt3405]

definitely not look like us

[@procactus9109]

I can see the possibility of a giant planet size amoeba. 5 meters deep, multiple colours in blotchy patterns, 150 million beating hearts in a single planet wide gump of pulsating goo.

[@snakecustard5097]

Another amazing Video!

[@Puzzoozoo]

The 'Krell' in Forbidden Planet, apparently were Frog like with a big body and a tail, plus multiple appendages, and a big brain, and they were also technologically way in front of us.

[@IamKlaus007]

We can imagine all we like. We may hit the spot, we may not. ONLY when we actually see one can we say, "that's what an alien looks like".

[@Essman614]

The idea of octopi doing calculus is an intriguing one.

[@Immortalcheese]

I think one thing we can assume to find is symmetry, either bilateral or radial. Almost all animals have symmetry and it's an extremely efficient way to duplicate body size and utility without needing more genetic information. Also one thing to consider is intelligence is probably a gradation and not an on and off switch. Intelligence might also be More closely linked to the environment then a general concept of intelligence. For example we could think of ourselves as intelligent, but biologically we have a lot of difficulty with higher level math concepts. Arguably mathematics is a sign of intelligence. But an alien species might be considered more biologically intelligent if they have a more nuanced ability to conceptualize mathematics with their equivalent of a brain.