The character of the extraterrestrial in science fiction works is a complex character based on ancient human images, and influenced by the principles of modern science. What are the chances that the aliens will be like us and what does all this teach about us?
By: Uriel Brizon, Galileo.
Science fiction fans love stories about aliens. Various strange creatures that do not originate from Earth appear in the most popular science fiction books and movies. The figure of the extraterrestrial in these works is in many cases a complex figure based on ancient human images and influenced by principles taken from modern science. Examining the origins of the alien character in science fiction reveals the complexity of this literary genre and reveals something about the source of its great power.
Tribal creatures
Humans are tribal animals. We live in groups, work in groups, build cities and countries and raise armies to defend them. By nature, we have a fear of the "other". Anyone who looks different, speaks differently, believes in a different god and in general anyone who does not belong to our group - is suspect in our eyes. Despite the behavioral inhibitions we adapt to ourselves as members of a culture, the natural tendency is to firmly defend what is ours against those who are not one of us.
In many ways human history is a sequence of struggles and wars between different groups of people. But the other, just as he discourages the members of the group, is also the one who defines it. The other signifies what is beyond the border of the familiar and the known - the unknown. Human curiosity, which is a counterweight to man's tendency to withdraw, pushes him to look beyond his immediate environment and immediate group, to look for the other and the different and try to learn about him.
the "other" incarnation
Aliens are not an invention of science fiction; They are the modern incarnation of that ultimate "other" who accompanies man from the dawn of his existence, the other who is different from every person, the one who is not human but a creature of fiction. Demons and spirits, vampires and witches, winged gods and mythological monsters with multiple limbs - all of them have been rejected by man when he comes to define what is different from him, threatening to him or wonderful beyond his understanding.
Imaginary beings, which are outside the human group, rise from the innermost desires of man, his deepest fears are depicted as threatening monsters and his hopes resemble gods and angels shining in heavenly vision. The mysticism and religions of the past are based on the figures of imaginary creatures, creatures that were used to mark the limit of man's knowledge.
Instead of demons and fairies
In our time, where science and technology, more than any other factor, define and characterize our lifestyles, the creatures of the imagination of the past wore contemporary clothing. Extraterrestrials with strange biological properties and complex technological abilities have taken the place of demons and fairies in the role of the modern "other".
The quintessential representatives of the spirit of modernity, the scientists, traditionally object to what they recognize as mystical or imaginary. Despite the existing agreement in the scientific community, that this is one of the most interesting questions, for years there was almost no scientific discussion about extraterrestrial life due to the lack of actual research data. At a certain point there was a change. In 1950, Enrico Fermi, the renowned physicist and Nobel laureate, sat at the lunch table with his friends, scientists from various fields.
So where are they?
The conversation jumped from topic to topic and finally came to the question about life in the universe. Some of the scientists, who were probably influenced by the popular UFO literature of the time, came up with descriptions of extraterrestrials and foreign civilizations. Fermi, who had the amazing ability to examine a subject in general and quickly launch especially sharp diagnoses, immediately passed away: "So where are they? Why haven't we met them yet?" This apparently simple question that Fermi casually raised ignited the scientific debate on the question of extraterrestrials and earned the nickname "Fermi Paradox".
It seems that Fermi is making a far-reaching claim without a sufficient basis. It is implied from his question that he denies the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrials (or at least those with the ability to move through space and reach us) simply because we have not noticed them, and the required scientific answer to this is: we do not know - there is not enough data. But further examination of the paradox makes it clear that it presents a contradiction between the fact of the absence of data and a fundamental metascientific principle. One of the fundamental assumptions of science is that its laws do not change from place to place.
The modesty hypothesis
When scientists talk about a scientific law, the assumption is that it is as true on Earth as it is on the Moon and everywhere else in the universe. The laws of science are universal. From the principle of universality it is possible to derive what is sometimes called the "modesty hypothesis". According to this hypothesis it is unlikely that man is in a special place in the universe. Nature in the human environment is no different in nature from nature anywhere else. Since Copernicus it has been clear to scientists that we are not at the center of things.
The Earth is just another ordinary planet revolving around an ordinary star of which there are countless in our galaxy - which is one of billions of galaxies. In light of this, it seems that the assumption that life was created here and only here on Earth seems to be an assumption that does not agree with the spirit of science. Life, according to the foundations of the logic of science, being a product of nature should be found in other places. And if the human race has developed intelligence and technological capabilities why assume it is the only or the most advanced?
The distance problem
As part of the scientific discourse, which has accelerated since Fermi's time, hundreds of scientific articles containing various theories have been written. In some of them, scientists claim that life does not exist in space and excuse the special nature of the Earth. Others maintain that it is indeed probable that there is extraterrestrial life, and give scholarly reasons for the lack of evidence for its existence. One of the common explanations emphasizes that the mere existence of life is not a guarantee that we will ever be able to establish direct contact with them, and this is due to the problematic nature of traveling through the vast distances of space.
This explanation gave rise to theories and calculations that showed that even given basic space technology (which is no more advanced than that developed by the human race) a civilization with ambitions of expansion would be able to settle the entire galaxy within a period of time that is short in astronomical terms - hence the paradox in his eyes.
Drake equation
In 1961 another step was taken in the scientific debate. Astronomer Francis Drake (Drake) formulated an equation that attempts to estimate the likelihood of the existence of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy based on existing knowledge. The equation contains values that are well known, such as the number of stars in the galaxy, and values that are only a hypothesis, such as the percentage of evolutionary processes that will lead to the development of an intelligent race.
The estimates produced by the equation span a wide range but very low values must be placed to conclude that we are the only intelligent race in the entire galaxy. By the way, one of the interesting variables in the equation estimates the period of time in which a civilization continues to survive after it has achieved advanced technological capabilities. Drake here presents the possibility that the development of technology such as atomic weapons poses an existential threat to any advanced civilization.
Astrobiology
Following the legitimacy given by scientists like Drake, the scientific school that deals with extraterrestrial life grew stronger and today a new scientific field dedicated to the question is establishing its status: astrobiology. Research circles and institutes for astrobiology (sometimes the name "exobiology" is also used) are established in various universities in the world and are gaining wider recognition.
In terms of the philosophy of science, this is a unique field of research - a field without a primary research object, since no astrobiological factor has yet been discovered. The researchers in the field, who are now receiving more research budgets, are examining the conditions required for sustaining life and sharpening their estimates regarding their nature.
Jumping between two poles
The scientific preoccupation with the question of life in the universe feeds science fiction. Science fiction works dealing with extraterrestrials jump between two poles: between a fruitful imagination about the character of the other and the different, which defines our humanity, and between the scientific questioning about life in the universe formulated in the language of facts, principles and hypotheses. Images of extraterrestrials in the Madhav consist of these materials.
The images are many and varied and are used for different literary purposes. Sometimes the extraterrestrials are monsters, for example in the series "The Eighth Passenger", where the creature is not only terrifying in its form, but inserts itself into humans in order to reproduce - a terrifying image in itself. Sometimes the extraterrestrials are friendly and seek to help and provide the humans with the knowledge they have accumulated about the universe. For example, the Vulcans in the "Star Trek" series who help humanity become an interstellar race (by the way, in the latest television sub-series "Enterprise" the help of the Vulcans is presented in a more complex way).
Shallow descriptions
A lot of criticism is voiced against popular MDB works, such as the Star Trek series, in connection with the images of the extraterrestrials in them. In MDV books and especially in MDV films aimed at the general public, it is claimed, extraterrestrials are depicted shallowly. Most of the non-human races shown in Star Trek are indeed similar to humans in the way they think and are physically distinguished from them only by cosmetic trifles such as the structure of the ear or glands on the forehead.
The creators of the series do address this criticism in one of the episodes through an explanation linking the different races, but it seems that this is only lip service. Another examination of the creature from "The Eighth Passenger" also shows that it is not so alien. He has two eyes, two hands and two legs. He maintains bilateral symmetry (both sides of his body form a mirror image) like humans and many other terrestrial creatures. It reproduces on me by placing small offspring that grow over time, etc.
Are they like us?
The claim that there is no reason to assume that extraterrestrials resembled life that evolved on Earth seems plausible on the face of it and is supported by biologists and evolution experts. Critics claim that popular media does not make use of the existing wealth of possible images and behaviors for outsiders, but at the same time it must be admitted that in a creation for mass entertainment, complex considerations cannot always be a decisive factor.
In the more complex works of Madev, the writers use the flight of imagination to examine the limitations of man and the growing treasure of scientific concepts to perfect the images of the extraterrestrial. In these works we witness the great power of this combination. Out of the multitude of excellent works of the Madev, I will mention two here that may not be the first ones that come to mind in the context of extraterrestrials.
A planet-sized extraterrestrial
The first is the beautiful book of the Polish writer Stanislaw Lem "Solaris" (published in Hebrew by Keter Publishing in the excellent translation of Aharon Hauptman). In this book it seems that Lem stretches the diversity of the extraterrestrial to the maximum. It is clear to the reader that Solaris is an intelligent animal but has nothing in common with humans. Its size is the size of a planet, it produces patterns that are ordered but cannot be interpreted in any way, it is complex, but all efforts to investigate it scientifically fail, it affects the humans near it but it cannot be established that there is communication between them.
Solaris is a mind craft of presenting the other in both experiential and scientific terms. The second work is "A space odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke. The book does not include a direct description of the extraterrestrials and precisely because of this its power is great. The influence of the aliens is central to the plot but they are not present in the story. They influence through the enigmatic appearance of the black objects called "monolithics" that it is not clear if they are a type of technology or an instance of something completely different that is not fully understood by humans.
Lines for the image of reason
The missing description offers lines for the figure of a reason that is so different from man that it is on the threshold of his ability to understand. Both books, by the way, have been adapted into films (Solaris by the Russian director Andrei Trakovsky and recently again by Steven Soderbergh, and Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick) and are actually examples of a relatively reasonable transition from a literary medium to cinema.
The complex descriptions of alien worlds, races of extraterrestrials and their encounters with man exemplify the power of science fiction as a creative field. The materials that make up the character of the extraterrestrial are those that are at the base of the Madev as a literary genre: science and fiction. Stories that are well constructed from these materials provide a unique experience for the contemporary reader whose consciousness contains both the ancient human aspirations and fears as well as the structured world picture of modern science.
Occupation and dreams
A successful MDB story makes use of the strong emotions created by the images of the other, the strange and the unknown and stimulates the mind with a description based on scientific concepts and ways of thinking. The educated reader can find in the good works of science fiction a connection to emotion and intellect, reason and imagination. Physicist and author Freeman Dyson summed it up by saying: "Science is my occupation, but science fiction is the template of my dream landscape."
More of the topic in Hayadan:
One response
To. Ron Hubbard was one of the greatest science fiction writers in the world -
And something new and exciting is about to be released - really amazing collector's items.
http://www.amazon.com/Hubbard-L-Ron-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=15378
This is only a real part that exists at the moment, and amazing things are going to come out that will fascinate the entire community of science fiction lovers.
Where can I post it?