See Do Aliens Smile? II which links to Do Aliens Smile?
Why fetch this up again?
"Aycharaych smiled." (p. 11)
"Aycharaych...smiled..."
-Poul Anderson, The Day Of Their Return IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, February 2010), pp. 73-238 AT 3, p. 89.
"[Aycharaych] smiled."
-ibid., p. 91.
"He smiled wider than before. His teeth were wholly nonhuman."
-ibid., p. 93.
At last a reminder that, despite all the smiles, Flandry and Desai are dealing with a nonhuman being.
We might start looking out for how many aliens smile.
9 comments:
Regard it as shorthand.
Incidentally, most mammals smile and laugh, though the precise form differs between species. Dog laughter is sort of a quiet breathy heh-heh-heh. Usually prompted by something like a human falling on his ass; their sense of humor is rather crude.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Ha! Well, I would not expect dogs to have a subtle and sophisticated sense of humor! (G)
Ad astra! Sean
I think Edie Brickell called this one, honestly. A dog is a dog.
Now, an intelligent alien being, if their anatomy allowed it, "could" decide to try and mimic human expression (and vice-versa) for anthropological and communicative reasons, of course.
Kaor, Dave!
I agree, it would simply be part of social/cultural interaction between beings of different species, as they observed and reacted to one another. And we see Targovi doing exactly that in THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
I also think it's not impossible some species will have body language similar in some ways to that of humans, such as smiles, and mean them, sometimes, as we do.
Ad astra! Sean
Non-human smiles are a bit of a problem for 'Florence' a major character in the SF webcomic "Freefall". She is a wolf genetically engineered to have human level intelligence & walk bipedally to free her hands.
In this and the next few episodes she is stranded in bad weather & looking for help. The 'smile' becomes relevant a few episodes farther on.
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff400/fv00350.htm
Kaor, Jim!
The idea of somehow raising animals to human levels of intelligence in a short time has been used by some SF writers, including Anderson and Stirling.
Ad astra! Sean
I think any such "raising" would forcefully drive home the point that intelligence is a tool -- a means to an end, not an end.
Mr Stirling
Actually that is a plot point in the webcomic, especially in the context of some other examples of such raising than Florence.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Jim!
And I am not so sure any such attempts at "raising" the intelligence of animals would succeed.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment