So many aliens in sf are so humanoid that we welcome any mention of unfamiliar body parts or sense organs. For example, when a t'Kelan approaches carrying a leather pouch filled with liquid, Joyce Davisson comments:
"'I see he found an ammonia well... That's what they have those tendrils for, did you know? Sensitive to any trace of ammonia vapor. This world is so dry. Lots of frozen water, of course. You find ice everywhere you go on the planet.'" (p. 20)
It should be possible to design an extra-solar planet, then to imagine organisms that have evolved from single cells in that environment as opposed to ones that look as if they are related to us and have merely adapted to living somewhere else. Ammonia-vapour-sensing tendrils are good but let's have more stuff like that.
Van Rijn and a t'Kelan are similar enough in body shape and size to be able to fight as if they were two men or two t'Kelans. We need speculations about really alien body shapes. Indeed, we might detect some soon.
5 comments:
There is a bit of a flaw in the scientific background to this story.
Ammonia as an *alternate* to water for the solute for life misses an important point.
Water ice dissolves in liquid ammonia, much like gaseous ammonia dissolves in liquid water, or sodium chloride dissolves in water.
Since water is a *very* common compound anywhere in the universe cold enough for liquid ammonia, you would not get water ice acting like rock minerals on earth, but more like salt deposits in water. Any place with plenty of ammonia that is cold enough for ammonia to condense, will not have seas & rivers of liquid ammonia, but rather seas & rivers of liquid ammonia-water mix.
Somewhat after Anderson wrote 'Territory', Hal Clement & Robert L. Forward wrote separate novels set on worlds with such ammonia-water rivers & seas.
Kaor, Jim and Paul!
Jim: Very good, finding an error in "Territory." I think Anderson would have appreciated being told about the problem you found. He might even have rewritten the story!
Paul: I expect many non-human races to be as peculiar as the alien seen in THE BYWORLDER. But I also expect at least as many intelligent species to be humanoid, meaning one head, two arms, and two legs. Because on many planets that's simply how I believe evolution works.
Ad astra! Sean
We don't know but we might find out soon.
Kaor, Paul!
I hope so.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Again I thought of Anderson's "Peek! I See You" as a light hearted example of how First Contact might occur.
Ad astra! Sean
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