What Mass Effect Tells us about Aliens and the Galaxy we Live in

Ok so I'm a gamer and currently engrossed in Mass Effect 3 , like any Sci Fi epic Aliens are a big part of the plot and there are many different species , but most if not all have a commonality with life here on Earth .
So is it possible that life in the Mass Effect Galaxy reflects the reality of life in our real Galaxy ?

According to Professor Simon Conway Morris the answer is yes , he believes as do I that evolution is to a certain extent constrained and life on other planets will reflect the evolutionary path taken by life here , with minor changes to reflect the conditions on that planet .

Aliens 'will be like us'

Simon Conway Morris FRS Bio

What Mass Effect Taught Us About Aliens


So maybe the reports of Human like Aliens visiting our planet aren't as out there as some would think and shows like Star Trek and games like Mass Effect are closer to reality than we know .

So there you have it , hope you enjoy and now I'm back off to save the Galaxy

As long as another planet has bipedal gas-breathers with opposable thumbs, one can postulate that humanoid sentient life could evolve there.

I personally don't believe this to be the case, but if those precise conditions are met, it's not impossible.

reply to post by gortex


One thing I really liked about Mass Effect is that they will cast "ugly" aliens in a positive light. Not just Garrus but also Wrex and those big dudes that always had to say their emotion before a sentence. The series showed that these beings had both good and bad people among them, which we rarely see in film. In movies, we are usually given ugly alien creatures as an antagonist, we instinctively are wary of them so they make easy villains. Most films don't even bother explaining their motivations, they're just jerks that picked the wrong planet to mess with!

I know that every time there is a new movie with aliens, members here like to claim that it is some form of soft disclosure, or a disclosure preparation. I don't buy into the idea that it's intentional, but entertainment like Mass Effect that remind us not to generalize, and that ugly and unorthodox doesn't equate to evil may help us see past our own prejudices and one day be accepting of ET entities.

all i can say about this statement:

Originally posted by gortex
evolution is to a certain extent constrained and life on other planets will reflect the evolutionary path taken by life here , with minor changes to reflect the conditions on that planet .

edit on 3-4-2012 by gortex because: (no reason given)

is i totally agree.

These are my favourite aliens.

Volus!
like a little asthmatic darth vader with a better sense of humour.

We can see examples of Convergent evolution here on earth. It's likely the same processes are abundant throughout the universe. So there are probably many beings very similar to us out there, even whole biospheres that mirror our own. Having said that, i do not believe that evolution is constrained at all. There must be worlds and creatures out there which are completely alien to our present understanding of biology.

reply to post by DaTroof


Not picking your reply apart, but symmetry in life forms will win the evolutionary struggle. That's not to say asymmetric life doesn't stand a chance, just that symmetry aids deliberate locomotion, balance, coordination, and depth perception. Does that mean a starfish can't survive evolution? Is a starfish asymmetric? Well no, if you cut it in half through one of its five appendages, but I can't ask one to paint my house.

Lets consider the most abundant elements in the Universe by mass, carbon is 4th after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen and uniquely distinguished in its ability to form long molecular chains, limitless. Bound with 4 hydrogen atoms is the most basic molecule considered 'organic', being methane. Now oxygen is a highly reactive nonmetallic element that readily forms compounds, and nitrogen bonds are nearly unbreakable. now should all of that stumble upon highly reactive phosphorus, we have most of what makes our DNA, with sprinkle of salt and sugar.

So to me it isn't a stretch to consider that life forms of this elemental makeup wouldn't be most likely to survive evolution to the top of the food chain, and subsequently look similar to us.

Or not.

What's the possibility of a Reaper Invasion?

Seriously though, ME does an excellent job at portraying what life may/is like in the greater, galactic community.

reply to post by Illustronic


Great teacher you would make (or maybe you are). You have the ability to explain complicate matters with ease. I enjoy your replies and learn very much from it. Thanks for that.



Gortex:
Thanks for the video, I also believe it to be highly probable that aliens look very much like humans. We are ourselves those aliens that other life forms try to reach.

StringTh

Evolution is to a certain extent constrained and life on other planets will reflect the evolutionary path taken by life here, with minor changes to reflect the conditions on that planet. Aliens 'will be like us'.

I tend to disagree with that statement. I would think that the evolutionary history of this planet is quite unique in the galaxy, and evolution elsewhere, on other planets and even beyond the boundaries of an atmosphere, more versatile and broader than we might concieve of. I think it would be naive to think that the most efficient and thriving form of life resembles more or less that of a human (hands, two arms, two legs etc..), and we don't even have to look far beyond our own homeworld to understand that there are various other forms of life that could have the potential to supersede human capabilities if they only had something called self awareness, consciousness and intelligence. So in my humble opinion species (especially insects and arachnids) like the praying mantis, an ant or a spider have more potential of being the dominant species on another planet or even earth if evolution only took a slightly different path.

this thread

made me lol.

A for try

Methinks, though limited to our own biosphere, examples of convergentand parallel evolution in non-related species could support this.

Toss in the Panspermia suggestion, and all life here could bery well be 'related' to life elsewhere, or else-when.

Similar building blocks may result in finite solutions as exampled by many modern species morphology paralleling morphology solutions in long extinct dinosaurs.
The porpoise, for instance appears very similar to some prehistoric aquatic reptiles adapting similar solutions in morphology for ideal locomotion with speed through water.

Similar can be seen in several other species all along the time tline separated by thousands, or millions of years, yet re-evolving in different species as ideal solutions for whatever niche that species is filling.

Due the vast enormity of our galaxy, and beyond that the known universe itself, I'm certain there is other life somewhere else, and even intelligent sentiant life.
I don't consider it improbable that there's a possibility they could very well not be too foreign looking to us.

Then there's all those other wonderful possibilities of silicon based life, cyanide based life, self organizing self aware magnetic fields, and then the potentially scary borg/machine intelligence.

In regards to machine intelligence, I'm partial to Iain M. Banks ideas framed in his 'Culture' series.

Actually with what scientists are learning about the universe it turns out that it's very likely that aliens will be very similar to us. Scientists have found our DNA nucleobases in meteorites, which means chances are that if said meteorites landed on a planet similar to ours, which we're finding are out there with the Kepler satellite, then life would develop along the same lines as it has on this planet with some variation due to differing levels of gravity and radiation. So yes it's entirely possible that if aliens are out there, they're quite similar to us, humanoid aliens are not as far out of the realm of possibility as we used to think they were. This also seems to me like almost complete validation of the Panspermia theory. Here's the article from Space.com that talks about the find....

www.space.com/12569-meteorites-dna-building-blocks-discovery.html

I've thought about this in the past. I think that ET life could evolve into all sorts of possible forms, some beyond our imagination. Having said that, any life form that uses technology to leave its planet and travel the cosmos is likely to share certain traits.

A technological species will have evolved using technology to survive in its environment. We would not be where we are today if we were a four legged predator with large amounts of muscle mass and massive teeth. We are what we are today due to the fact that we were tree dwelling creatures that started walking around the ground on two legs which allowed us to further develop our nimble tree climbing hands into tool making hands, which happened to aid greatly in survival on the dangerous ground level of africa. As we developed those tools and came to rely on them, we underwent physiological changes to our bodies (became physically weaker) This allowed and or required our brains to grow, making us more intelligent.

Any sentient beings travelling the cosmos will likely have gone down a similar evolutionary track to us imo as they will almost certainly be physically inferior, technologicaly superior tool makers (relative to the other species on their planet). They will likely have a large brain and nimble hands as they would have evolved to use tools rather than their bodies to survive. Otherwise they would have never have been able to leave their planets. (I think its safe to say tools are required to achieve this feet)

2 things

Originally posted by gortex
Ok so I'm a gamer and currently engrossed in Mass Effect 3 ,

1. Im sorry, but just stop playing when you can. Once you reach the last mission just start over, trust me.

So is it possible that life in the Mass Effect Galaxy reflects the reality of life in our real Galaxy ?

According to Professor Simon Conway Morris the answer is yes , he believes as do I that evolution is to a certain extent constrained and life on other planets will reflect the evolutionary path taken by life here , with minor changes to reflect the conditions on that planet .

ahhhh

reply to post by DavidWillts


It would seem you missed the point of the thread

Its obvious. There are different types of ETs, perhaps some more jelly or gaseus, but human types and many that could blend even, with our societies, they look human.

AAAAAAAAAaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!

I was fighting this urge for years, don't know why maybe it was the control system in the 1st one, whatever.

Now I shall depart fot the journey through all of them. The story is what means most for me, I'm sold.

The story, is awesome....through all three....until the last 5 mins, which is one of the biggest flops/degassing/stupid, endings ever.

What does it tell us about the universe? Maybe that no matter how much time and effort nor how much you enjoy your journey, the ending is going to suck. period.

Originally posted by Vardoger
The story, is awesome....through all three....until the last 5 mins, which is one of the biggest flops/degassing/stupid, endings ever.

What does it tell us about the universe? Maybe that no matter how much time and effort nor how much you enjoy your journey, the ending is going to suck. period.

edit on 3-4-2012 by Vardoger because: (no reason given)

OH but wait!! do i hear fan outrage has made the developers re think th eending a bit. A new ending is scheduled to come out within a month or so,and should be included in new pressings of the game. Then 6 months later a special edetion will come out i bet.