CREATING ALIEN ALIENS Part 36: If We Altered Aspects Of Humanity, What Kind Of Alien Aliens Would We Get?

Five decades ago, I started my college career with the intent of becoming a marine biologist. I found out I had to get a BS in biology before I could even begin work on MARINE biology; especially because there WEREN'T any marine biology programs in Minnesota.

Along the way, the science fiction stories I'd been writing since I was 13 began to grow more believable. With my BS in biology and a fascination with genetics, I started to use more science in my fiction.

After reading hard SF for the past 50 years, and writing hard SF successfully for the past 20, I've started to dig deeper into what it takes to create realistic alien life forms. In the following series, I'll be sharing some of what I've learned. I've had some of those stories published, some not...I teach a class to GT young people every summer called ALIEN WORLDS. I've learned a lot preparing for that class for the past 25 years...so...I have the opportunity to share with you what I've learned thus far. Take what you can use, leave the rest. Let me know what YOU'VE learned. Without further ado...

At one of the sites I was skimming in preparation for this post, I was one written by Veronica Sicoe. Her site is linked below.

One statement leaped out at me, “Completeness – some things habitually get lost in worldbuilding, unless they’re specifically needed, and we ought to remember to at least give them a cursory glance, such as: the legal systems, burial rituals, infant care systems, medical systems, recreational facilities, etc.”

You can access her site and insight here: How To Create An Alien Species In 3 Stages – Veronica Sicoe (wordpress.com)

HOWEVER, what happened when I read this was something not AT ALL intended by the issue she was opining on. I TOOK IT TO MEAN, “In what way might aliens experience ‘completeness’ that would be entirely WEIRD to us?”

Let me examine my own Human self. I’m cis-gendered, a hetero husband happily married for the past 36 years (almost 37). I am also white, so (by implication), I have had every opportunity that this American society can offer.

HOWEVER…if you stop there, some people will immediately turn on me, vilify me, and make all sorts of assumptions about me that simply are not true. One (for example), is that I will be homophobic. I could provide proof that I’m not, but while it might be entertaining, MY POINT IS THIS: I was not MY OWN PERSONAL-AND-NOT-IMPLYING-THAT-EVERYONE-ELSE-SHOULD-BE-LIKE-ME…most complete. I needed to be in a traditional marriage with a traditional woman. Now again, please don’t leap to assumptions about what I mean by “traditional”. I could once again provide references that would refute many assumptions people would make about me.

MY POINT IS THIS: Completeness for ME MYSELF PERSONALLY is that to be complete, I needed to be in a permanent (as permanent as Humans can be!) marriage relationship to be my best self.

But no matter WHO YOU ARE OR WHAT CREATES THE BEST YOU THAT YOU CAN BE…what might truly ALIEN ALIENS need to “be complete”?

For example, what if instead of being born as I and my wife were – one each of a dual gendered variety of Humanity; aliens were born as followed:

At birth (we’ll make it a mammalian-style birth to keep this simple and something I can understand – if you’re going to accuse me of playing it safe and assuming all Humans are like me, please read this post: https://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2020/02/possibly-not-irritating-essay-other.html) I just don’t want to add too many variables into this intellectual experiment because I had difficulty imagining how a school of sharks might relate to each other…as I’m certainly not a shark, but I’m not a fish, either, and I’m really NOT an ancient fish…

So, let’s say aliens have a mammalian birth. Let’s say they’re triplets; not identically gendered. We already know that Human triplets – especially if they came from the same egg and are genetically identical. We already KNOW that creates all kinds of assumptions and comments in our heads when we see them. At one time, the Keinast Quintuplets made the news. “The quintuplets were the first American set of surviving quintuplets to be conceived through the use of fertility drugs.” They were SO unusual, that “Good Housekeeping magazine had an exclusive deal to publish four articles about them in their first two years.”

That was in 1970. They were styled “The Keinast Quints”. Today, they are in their fifties. After their father committed suicide in 1984 when the quints were fourteen. When they were all 31, they gave their last public interview. (If you’re interested and want more information, follow this link: https://www.mrlocalhistory.org/where-are-the-kienast-quintuplets-from-liberty-corner/)

What it DOESN’T talk about is the Quint’s perceptions of each other. They shared the same uterus until birth; they shared the same upbringing. How did that affect them? How did having the same birthday as four other people matter? WERE THEY PSYCHICALLY LINKED???? (JK)

But, oddly, there’s not really much about them besides a few magazine articles, interviews, and this and that. Wasn’t anyone interested in their mental/psychological/intellectual interactions? Apparently not. So, let me speculate.

I had two other brothers and a sister. Birth order among the Quints would have been irrelevant – but perhaps gender or even SIZE would have taken on aspects that we aren’t used to considering (though in many families, the “biggest kid” was the one who got the most things…)

What if, in aliens where multiple, simultaneous mammalian-style birth was NORMAL, something ELSE drove the development of relationships among themselves? What are some things that MIGHT drive their psychology?

1) First to kill a meal.
2) First to identify, choose, and latch onto the strongest being in the birthing tent?
3) First to feed the one who carried them until birth – with one of the other young?
4) First to escape a gauntlet?
5) Last to be born by forcing the rest out first to feed hungry family?
6) Birth is into a cage; first to solve the lock and escape?
7) All are delivered at once; the one who protects the mother best (obviously killed by the rest, which are disintegrated and the protector is resurrected)? Eaten by the father, and its brain joins with his and whose hormones regenerates the father’s body?

Each BIOLOGICAL scenario would generate an entirely different sociological structure leading to a particular civilization that makes sense with the prevailing biology. It would impact what a family is, how it’s organized, and what it’s FOR. In Human biology, take a Bible story as an example: the Hebrew infant Moses was destined for death. He was born, certain to bel slaughtered as all of his peers were. His mother puts him in a basket, he’s discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as an Egyptian…history is altered. For the rest of the story, if you’re interested, go to a Bible or a Torah or a Koran, locate, and read the story of Moses.

This is just one aspect of alienness you can explore. How does all of the above relate to how CLOSE the siblings are -- to their parent/s; to their society or protectors? Choose a few aspects and explore them, following the logic of what you image will happen.

You SHOULD come up with a really ALIEN alien!

Sources: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/27103/the-alien-perspective-generating-alien-pov-characters-via-twists-on-human-psyc; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kienast_quintuplets
Image: https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/alien-human-600w-136457129.jpg