Athiests: if Evolution is the key determiner of species what will aliens in other galaxies be like?

Question

Do you see them as likely to be social and cooperative, or highly dangerous? Or all varieties?
Like "Alien" , like "ET" ?

I believe in some kind of "guided" evolution.

Answer 1

There's a few suppositions you could make biologically and sociologically about any alien society, I'm assuming you mean a socially advanced or technologically advanced society, not just alien animals.

Firstly, they're probably bilaterally symmetric. Having a left and right side and a front and back is a prerequisite for being able to move in a certain direction, and its hard to imagine a society being formed by creatures that just float randomly or stay in one spot. They're also likely to have sensory organs concentrated towards whatever direction they usually move in. A technologically advanced society would also need some biological apparatus to interact with their environment, so they're likely to have something like hands, or at least have had them in the past. And they're probably not going to be any more intelligent than humans are; we're about as smart as you can get through evolution - since we're smart enough to understand and control our environment, there's no adaptive need for us to get any smarter.

Socially, its almost a guarantee that they would have evolved from social animals. Cooperation would be a necessity in the early stages of social formation, and most certainly necessary to develop technology past a hunter-gatherer stage. They could be peaceful or aggressive like we are - in fact, despite what hippies might say, its more likely that an advanced society will be aggressive. Ecologically, there's less incentive for a docile primary producer or primary consumer (ie, plant or herbivore) to develop heightened intelligence than for a primary consumer (ie predator) to develop it, so other intelligent life will likely have evolved from predators just like we did. And, aggressive species would have more incentive as a society to continue development.

Ultimately the next stage of evolution for a species around our stage of development would be artificial evolution, molding their own forms to whatever shapes suited their purpose best, be it physically or through a spiritual transcendence, but at that point all bets are off as to what they might become.

In short, though, any aliens we meet are probably going to be a lot like us :)

Answer 2

There are so many factors that influence evolution, and it takes so long and so many changes for intelligent life to evolve, it is likely that we can't even imagine what other species would be like. It is true that social behavior does seem to present itself as positive in many intelligent species. So much so that it is likely, that given a similar environment, it might be a good prediction that this would be present.

Answer 3

Why do you assume only atheists acknowledge the reality of evolution?

And it depends on the environment of the aliens. Some will be more independent and biological; others may be technological and social. The possibilities are endless in an ever-expanding universe.

Answer 4

they would have evolved to eat, move, and reproduce in the niches that their environment has. They may not see our spectrum of light at all, they may have no audible speech, they may have weird skin to keep their weird sun from cooking their weird guts.

If their environment includes a food chain or any kind of competition for resources, they could be dangerous. They may have diseases that would be dangerous.

I believe we evolved our particular type of intelligence and dexterity because of a long history of war, either between tribes and small societies, or even war with our close evolutionary cousins.

Answer 5

I see all varieties, but some types may be more well-suited to certain endeavors, like technology. I can see a hivelike but intelligent species doing great things with technology because they might work tirelessly without pay, where we operate below maximum capacity due to our selfishness. I think it might also be more likely that a hunter/carnivore will develop intelligence because they need more of it in order to eat.

Answer 6

Impossible to say. If we do manage to encounter an alien intelligence, they will more likely be inclined to be communicative than violent...but that can't possibly be proven until it happens. There would quite likely be wide varieties...some intensely curious, some might be militantly violent, and some might be so religious that they might be intent on converting everyone to THEIR faith.

Answer 7

They're likely to be ethical, because they have gone through periods of high technology and yet refrained from killing themselves. I hope we will be as fortunate.

That's for the space-faring ones. Re-reading your question I realise that's not just what you meant. Evolution is only guided by the need to replicate.

Answer 8

Depends on their environments. A lot of the better speculative fiction assigns harsh environments as the explanation for particular alien physiologies (as in 'Alien', although it's really because they make cool villains).

Answer 9

They will be just like me and you , but at different levels of evolution

Answer 10

I guess it would depend on what kind of environmental pressures their species had to cope with