Are all ETs humanoid? If so, how come?

Considering the different alien species supposedly visiting and watching us, they all seem to be humanoid in shape and form. Meaning they are standing upright and have arms, legs, two eyes and so fourth.. If this is the case - what's the reason? Is it simply because this is the optimal shape for all species? Or do we all have a common source of some sort?

I vote for both reasons: optimal shape and common source.

Convergent evolution could be an explanation. An example of convergent evolution is how insects and birds both have wings, yet both took different paths to reach the same goal of flight. Noting that we don't really know how life works on this planet, trying to figure out the formation of life on another planet is fairly beyond our current scope of knowledge. As such this is all purely speculation.

Anthropologists currently claim that man became intelligent by first walking upright. This freed the upper limbs for tool use. Tool use spurred intelligence, and eventually spawned man.

This type of evolutionary theory could explain how other planets evolve intelligent species as well.

Of course, we could all just be created by aliens to look like them.

well it does make a lot of sense....

life is life anywhere in the universe so it will evolve in the way it can survive, so if its inteligent life it wants to travel, observe, use tools...

Body simetry for optimum movement,free top limbs for using tools, nose close to mouth so u can smell what you eat, eyes simetrical so you have a depth perception. If you stand tall on 2 feet, predators will avoid you becouse you look bigger, if you hold a stick, your chances of survival are even bigger...

Its all coded in us for optimum efficiency. Of curse there should be pretty big differences inside the body becouse of different air, food, temperature.... but the simetry and the beautiful logic behind it remain the same. So to be intelligent you should develop a body similar to ours. At least if you want to travel around the universe in metal cans.


its a miracle actually

Aliens seem to be humanoid in form is because it is humans that see them. What I mean is that people who see them want to give them a human shaped description because that is what thier mind is able to grasp. Humans are the most intelegent species on this planet so we would want the aliens to look like the most intellegent things we can think of. If we as humans had 4 arms and hopped on one leg and had 6 sets of eyes, we'd probably describe an alien we saw just about the same way.

With that said, if you haven't figured it out yet, I don't put much stock in the existence of aliens. On the other hand I love talking about them in theory. I will be the first to admit I was wrong if they ever make thier presence known to humans in mass numbers. Until then there aren't enough fake videos, pictures, and stories to convince me otherwise.

Interesting point, mpeake. Does that mean that you think all accounts of close encounters are hoaxes and or hallucinations? Wouldn't it make sense that at least some of aliens would look non-humanoid if that was the case? I mean if you look at early sci-fi flicks or litterature, a lot of the aliens really have some spectacular non-humanoid shapes - shouldn't the imaginary/hoaxed accounts be inspired by that at all?

The human body is an interesting subject, while it is probably evolved for optimum performance in our terms, how much use would it be to a bird? it's much to heavy, and apes often provide a nice contract to us, they use tools, but still use all four limbs to run, as for aliens, why not appear like us, they probably don't want to cause so much alarm, after all, they could just step out and say "we run the world, resist and die", there may well be a reason why they don't.

Hollywood can and will take alot of liberties when describing an alien, because that will sell tickets. They can afford to let thier imagination go wild because they don't make any claims that aliens are real. They don't have to explain how a blob with 15 tentacles and no opposible thumbs can exist on planet far far away in a ultramodern scociety filled with technologies beyond our wildest dreams and then build and operate starship cruiser on a mission to fly to earth. Why, because we don't ask them to. But if a person tries to tell you he saw some unhumanoid deformaty ooze out of a spaceship no one would beleive them. At least if you apply human attributes you can grasp the notion of such a being being able to perfom such feats as space travel.

I'm going to go a little further in what mpeake is saying.

Aliens take on humanoid forms because they are human mythology of higher beings. Much like most of the roman/greek and images of "God" take on a human form so do many other mythical creatures, at least in part, like centaurs, mermaids, greys, and so on.

They take on human-like forms because they reflect something about the people who create the stories about them. A desire for something greater, somthing comforting, something to fight against, is standard in theology and alien mythology.

This can be seen by comparing the stories of angels batteling in the skys and modern alien stories of nordics, greys, and raptilians batteling for space.

I'm not discounting the possibility that there is some truth behind the stories, or that people didn't see what they claim. But in a world with a long history of mythology and pschological need to have something bigger than ones own society, i find it amusing that some people claim to know alien motives and society when they can hide their very existance from science and the public.

Thanks for the followup post Quest!

I would have gotten into that eventually, but thought I'd keep it on a more present time explanation. Either way, the truth is we will continue to create alien civilizations in our mind that somewhat reflect our own but much more technologically advanced, and most likely much more in harmony with each other. Because that is what most of us strive for in our world.

Originally posted by Quest
I'm not discounting the possibility that there is some truth behind the stories, or that people didn't see what they claim. But in a world with a long history of mythology and pschological need to have something bigger than ones own society, i find it amusing that some people claim to know alien motives and society when they can hide their very existance from science and the public.

Don't discount the very likely possibility that our governments are playing a role in keeping the subject covered up. Its hard enough to find out information when one group hides it from you. Two groups makes it near impossible to find out anything.

[edit on 15-6-2004 by heelstone]

I'm not sure that it's necessarily easier to fool people with a humanoid looking alien. I mean it's pretty easy to question the fact that aliens look so much like us - right? Especially since most accept the laws of evolution. Fact is; we couldn't possibly guess the environment on inhabited planets in other galaxies. But it's at least probable that it differs from that of our own planet. Hence creatures could look like anything.

[edit on 15-6-2004 by Durden]

Originally posted by heelstone
Don't discount the very likely possibility that our governments are playing a role in keeping the subject covered up. Its hard enough to find out information when one group hides it from you. Two groups makes it near impossible to find out anything.

Exactly. IF there is any basis for intelligent life visiting Earth no one in the general public has any understanding of it. This would mean that all the books out there with claims like "Aliens Race #1 is here to feed on our emotions but Race #2 is batteling them for Reason X".

That part of its all is mythology. As you said, if the premiss is true the detail is false. And if the detail is true the premiss is false. Basicly, its just a lot of fun stories.

Is it possible that the gov't is hiding a massive alien conspiracy? Yes. Is it probable, Not quite. In an age where major gov't scandals are unearthed all the time, the likelyhood that the gov't could keep something as HUGE as the existence of alien life a secret is slim to none. In this day and age the gov't can't even keep a secret military strike from the general public. Heck, I know about a secret ops mission that is going to take place in Basra before the Secret Ops themselves do, just sittin gin my home watching CNN. It's rediculous the amt of things we are privy to. One could say that we are being protected due to the chaos that would erupt if the proof was leaked. But do you mean to tell me that there are no disgruntled scientists that have ever had personal contact in these secret operations that could have smuggle out a shred of undeniable proof out to the media? I just find it highly improbably that something of that magnitude could be kept from the media. But, like I said, I'll be the first to admit if I'm wrong. On a personal level, I'd almost like to get proven wrong cause that would be the greatest event in the history of mankind and I'd be there to witness it.

I haven't addressed this in this thread yet, but there are reports by some people of seeing aliens that are not humanoid. The ones I remember off the top of my head are an alleged spikey ball-like creature and some creatures sighted that looked like fleshy potato sacks. Those reports are less common among alien sightings reports, but if most alien species are more humanoid in form than not, the majority of reports at least reflects this.

[edit on 15-6-2004 by heelstone]

mpeake,

The most amazing things, get left out of the media way too often. The media doesn't care about giving out the truth. All the media cares about is ratings, and would rather bring you Michael Jackson, Laci Peterson, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and the war on terror, than anything out of the extraordinary. It's all about ratings, keeping the masses on a one track mind, and keeping the power in the hands of the few. All of that would fall apart if there came an announcement that UFO's are real and are here and that they might be piloted by aliens;

Cropcircles have not been debunked like most people think.

ESP is real and everyone can do it;

all people are creators and create every part of their personal realities (subconsciously and consciously), and the observer effect(.pdf file) in quantum mechanics supports this ;and that all magick, prayer (including christian) and rituals are forms of this; your wellbeing, wealth, quality of relationships depend fully on your core beliefs about them, and your core beliefs can be changed with hypnosis, NLP, EFT, 3d mind etc...;

Astral projection and Near Death Experiences are real;That there are people who are experienced astral projectors and that we are outside of our bodies (but not conscious of that) everytime we sleep;

there is some kind of energy that is always within and around us, and that there are different people who have called it different names, of which Wilhelm Reich was one who called it orgone energy (I have personal experiences with orgone energy, because I have an orgone generator). There was a huge conspiracy made (by especially the fda) against Reich in the 50's.

That we don't need oil and we don't need everything to be centralized to get our energy, because there are numerous, much cleaner alternatives, that are being supressed by the powers that be. We are actually lucky to know that the DOE is reviewing cold fusion again, after so many scientists have reported to have succesfully replicated the Pons & Fleischmann.

Btw... I came to conclusion of some of these things that I mentioned, based on my own research and especially my own experiences with creation, OOBE's, and orgone energy...

Almost all of the media in the world are owned by about fifteen corporations or less. And their only goal is to keep in control of the worlds wealth and power by being in control of what the people think. Herding them like sheep in a sense...

But, take all of my words here with a grain of salt and do research for yourself

[edit on 15-6-2004 by TheBandit795]

[edit on 15-6-2004 by TheBandit795]

TheBandit795,

You are absolutely right about the media. Even after I wrote that message I found myself questioning the use of the word media. As you said the media for the most part are money hungry sensationalist. They search for things that are scandal ridden rather than the truth. I wouldn't even be suprised if the major media corps were owned by less than 5 entities. But, what I meant when using the term media was totally different from that beast. I guess I meant to say that the investigative and inquisitive nature of man itself would not have allowed a gov't cover up of this magnitude. I don't know much about the alien beleiving community, but from what I've see, there are some that would die for the cause of getting undeniable proof out to the public. Maybe some have died and that's why it's not out there. All I'm asking is what is more probable, the gov't is covering up an alien conspiracy that no one has been able to prove throughout history, or there is no cover up at all.

Well honestly I think you're over estimating people. I've learned from experience that most people (and I mean over 95% of people) refuse to come out of the box that the media, religion and (the media controlled, and in lots of places religion controlled) society have placed them into and indoctrinated them with since birth. Mainstream people will refuse to even discuss anything that is considered fringe by society and will resort to ridicule the first chance they can get and dismiss it, or they'll just ignore it, plain and simple. I've seen this with every member of my own family, most if not all of my friends, and practically everyone else I know.

These people very often say phrases lik: "That's life", "the harsh reality", "we must always adapt to society" (of which the last one actually means "never question society" etc...

In discussion boards where people talk about mainstream stuff, I've experienced that they will simply ignore fringe stuff, or come up with excuses not to discuss it...


Edit: I forgot one of the most common phrases used by mainstream people: "Come back down to Earth!!!"

[edit on 15-6-2004 by TheBandit795]

Originally posted by TheBandit795
Well honestly I think you're over estimating people. I've learned from experience that most people (and I mean over 95% of people) refuse to come out of the box that the media, religion and (the media controlled, and in lots of places religion controlled) society have placed them into and indoctrinated them with since birth. Mainstream people will refuse to even discuss anything that is considered fringe by society and will resort to ridicule the first chance they can get and dismiss it, or they'll just ignore it, plain and simple. I've seen this with every member of my own family, most if not all of my friends, and practically everyone else I know.

These people very often say phrases lik: "That's life", "the harsh reality", "we must always adapt to society" (of which the last one actually means "never question society" etc...

In discussion boards where people talk about mainstream stuff, I've experienced that they will simply ignore fringe stuff, or come up with excuses not to discuss it...


Edit: I forgot one of the most common phrases used by mainstream people: "Come back down to Earth!!!"

[edit on 15-6-2004 by TheBandit795]

Actually Bandit, I think that people are coming more towards our way of thinking everyday. I mean, look at how much ATS has grown in recent months. It's phenomenal. I think people are beginning to see the truth, and are also getting tired of being babyfed this crap by all of these other 3rd and 4th party sources. We wanna see this stuff FIRST-HAND!!

Borg, I have yet to see that in my country...

Btw: you didn't have to quote my whole post, especially while posting directly after it.