The Betan, Fidelio (not his real name), is not from Beta Centauri or from any other second star in a constellation but from the second planet of a star which human explorers called "Centrum" after a T machine had transported them to it.
Fidelio has two Betan names:
"K'thrr'u'" on land;
"Gaoung Ro Mm" in water.
OK. That is really alien. Human beings have to say "Fidelio." However, Fidelio has two eyes and two ears. That is too terrestroid. I know that two is a sensible number of eyes and also of ears but extraterrestrial evolution is going to find different ways to deploy sense organs. An sf writer like Poul Anderson knows how to alienize. The eyes are large and uniformly blue with nictitating membranes for underwater sight. Fidelio is furred and unclothed, although his reproductive organs are retractable, and three times the size of a Betan female.
His chemosensitivities do not correspond exactly to either taste or smell. Finally, without listing every other detail, he is a six-limbed biped which means that he has two sets of arms like some other fictional extraterrestrials that are known to us. For a cover illustration featuring Fidelio, see here. I think that he is insufficiently alien but this will be a continual debate until we meet some.
11 comments:
OTOH, some alien life-systems -would- have two eyes, if there are enough of them. Chance would ensure that.
Likewise, if they're on land, they need manipulatory appendages. If they're six-limbed, centauroid; if four-limbed, bipedal.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly, what Stirling said. I don't expect all non-human races to be absolutely alien.
Ad astra! Sean
Even if another intelligent species communicates by sound, I would be surprised it all the sounds it uses can be made by human mouths. If they aren't those sounds would not be represented by the symbols from any human writing system.
Anderson got it very plausible with the Ythrian Planha 'language'.
Kaor, Jim!!
Of course, and not only the Ythrians. Over and over we see mention in Anderson's stories of intelligent races whose ways of audible communication could not be reproduced by humans, such as Rax, in A CIRCUS OF HELLS. In such cases artificial means were needed.
Ad astra! Sean
Jim: for that matter, we have different hearing ranges from cats and dogs. They can hear things we can't.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
To say nothing of how vastly more sensitive the noses of dogs are than ours. They can smell things we can't.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: about 15,000 x more sensitive, in fact. Cats and dogs exist in a universe of scents to which we are largely blind.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
It makes me wonder what we would "see" if we had the noses of dogs and cats!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, we're 'exaggerated primates'. Primates don't have very sensitive noses by mammalian standards, chimps and gorillas less, and we -much- less. We're focused on visual info.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree.
Ad astra! Sean
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