Aquatics don't really look aquatic

[majikero]

I don't see what the problem is. You got your standard humanoid, standard multi-armed bug thing and the long boi worm. The only truly alien is the coral thing.

 

[firenze419]

I don't agree that there's too many humanoids now that we've seen them all. But I do wish there was one that looked like a regular fish, fishing around <><

And how would that regular fish manipulate tools?

I like that stellaris made some effort not to shatter disbelief

 

[Bergest]

And how would that regular fish manipulate tools?

I like that stellaris made some effort not to shatter disbelief

Exactly. People act as if humanoid aliens were just a consequence of popular culture and are unrealistic, while the opposite is true. If we ever meet different alien species, there is a great chance, that a lot would have a body form that would be recognizable to us as humanoid.

 

[Surimi]

Exactly. People act as if humanoid aliens were just a consequence of popular culture and are unrealistic, while the opposite is true. If we ever meet different alien species, there is a great chance, that a lot would have a body form that would be recognizable to us as humanoid.

This is not an awful argument, it is one people have tried to make quite seriously, however the tide has kind of turned against it over time as our understanding has increased.

There is only one actual example of intelligent life that we know of, which is humans. Humans, however, are the result of a very particular evolutionary path deriving from apes. A lot of things changed about humans as they became more intelligent, but our bodyplan didn't fundamentally alter from apes. We now know that the upright body we have isn't required to support our brains, walking upright is beneficial for walking or running long distances, which became more important as the climate changed and East Africa became less forested. There are adaptations which are distinctively related to intelligence, humans have a pretty unusual level of manual dexterity and are better adapted than any animal on the planet to throwing things, but assuming that the only way intelligence could develop is in a humanoid bodyplan doesn't have much evidence to support it other than the fact that the only intelligent species we know of has those features.

Ultimately, if the benefits of being more intelligent outweigh the energy cost of supporting greater intelligence within a given environment, then there's an evolutionary pressure towards greater intelligence. I think you could argue that having the ability to manipulate the environment is important for maximizing the benefits of intelligence and thus creating that evolutionary pressure, but that doesn't have to equate to human hands, and just like apes and humans, another species evolving to intelligence probably isn't going to fundamentally alter its bodyplan just to accommodate features which humans needed to survive on the plains of East Africa.

 

[firenze419]

This is not an awful argument, it is one people have tried to make quite seriously, however the tide has kind of turned against it over time as our understanding has increased.

There is only one actual example of intelligent life that we know of, which is humans. Humans, however, are the result of a very particular evolutionary path deriving from apes. A lot of things changed about humans as they became more intelligent, but our bodyplan didn't fundamentally alter from apes. We now know that the upright body we have isn't required to support our brains, walking upright is beneficial for walking or running long distances, which became more important as the climate changed and East Africa became less forested. There are adaptations which are distinctively related to intelligence, humans have a pretty unusual level of manual dexterity and are better adapted than any animal on the planet to throwing things, but assuming that the only way intelligence could develop is in a humanoid bodyplan doesn't have much evidence to support it other than the fact that the only intelligent species we know of has those features.

Ultimately, if the benefits of being more intelligent outweigh the energy cost of supporting greater intelligence within a given environment, then there's an evolutionary pressure towards greater intelligence. I think you could argue that having the ability to manipulate the environment is important for maximizing the benefits of intelligence and thus creating that evolutionary pressure, but that doesn't have to equate to human hands, and just like apes and humans, another species evolving to intelligence probably isn't going to fundamentally alter its bodyplan just to accommodate features which humans needed to survive on the plains of East Africa.

That's all very true, but there are limits. You don't need hands, you could use tentacles or a trunk or even talons but you cannot use fins or wings or what have you.

And you act like intelligence and technological development go hand in hand. There have been , iirc, 19 species of homo some of which had our intelligence or greater, but none of them evolved technological civilization. One doesn't automatically lead to another. You could have supersmart fish (or even that sapient ocean which already exists in the game). But it's not going to be building spaceships because it physically cannot do any of the things needed to do so.

 

[klopkr]

And how would that regular fish manipulate tools?

I like that stellaris made some effort not to shatter disbelief

Use your imagination. Give it a tongue that manipulates, or two arms next to its fins, or specialized trunk, or a lamprey type appendage with a hand. Common that's not a real excuse when we have way weirder portraits already.

 

[xking]

And how would that regular fish manipulate tools?

I like that stellaris made some effort not to shatter disbelief

I agree

 

[Aepdneds]

And you act like intelligence and technological development go hand in hand. There have been , iirc, 19 species of homo some of which had our intelligence or greater, but none of them evolved technological civilization.

Depends where you put the term technological civilization, tool- and firemaking (even multistep with charcoal for higher temperatures), clothing and primitive woodhousing are predating us by several hundreds of millenias.
The oldest known tools are 3,3million years old while the homo sapiens evolved 300k years ago.

Stone tool - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Human taxonomy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Edit: There should be really some portraits which would look like a species which is living in the ocean and not above the ocean.