Aliens!

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i have to disagree. the opening post was coming from a hypothetical viewpoint with the intention of invoking thought. nothing there is required that we know whether or not something exists beyond what we know exist. our thoughts and current understandings exist.
whether or not the entity in our thought exists never enters into the question.

assuming we knew that they exist but had no other knowledge about them beyond that, the thought process would be the same.

this is somewhat limited thinking. for example, if they possessed an adaptation that gave them precise electromagnetic control then they could manipulate tools and other materials without having to come into direct contact with them.

many tentacles would equal a couple of hands

I thought they were saying Mind Mold. I looked it up on the some trekkie site and you're correct, it's Mind-meld.

Not likely.

Them having human hands isnt likely either. But assuming they have advanced technology, then it is reasonable to assume that they have some capability of manipulating the physical world directly and easily.

Its not likely that bacteria can survive 500+ degree temperatures, but some do. Its not likely that animals can electrocute others, but some do. Its not likely that an animal is capable of surviving quasi-indefinitely by simply reverting to its "infant" stage and growing up again, but (at least) one species does.

And thats just a small sample of the crazy stuff we know about here, on our own planet. Ferromagnetic appendages seem reasonable.

What music they could make on a Theremin!

I am well aware of the diversity of earth life, but it would take a mighty strange world for electromagnetic manipulation to be the way to go.

If you look at earth life, humans did not become what they were by chance. Many aspects of our evolution from mammality to sociality to tree climbing to upright walking have led up to us as a techno species in a way we should probably not expect any other animal too. Being technological is a distinctly human product; we should as much expect completely alien lifeforms to be technologically advanced as much as we should expect animals to fly which have no wings.

Yes but the universe is a big place. Even if one in a million planetary systems holds life, and one in a million of those holds technologically advanced life, then there are about a billion solar systems home to technologically advanced life.

In an environment where many things are ferromagnetic it makes sense that life could evolve to manipulate it. And how many of the planets in those billion solar systems would be rich in magnetite, lodestone and the like?

I think we will find the "mighty strange" to be common place. Just look at our solar system. Which planet is normal?

as presented, that was an example. maybe an unlikely example, but one representing an extreme of possibilities.

Here's another take, which explailns why I think the initial argument doesn't always hold.


Man evolved, roughly, from tree-dwelling apes, who gradually found their forest habitat changing to savannah a couple million years ago. Instead of being perfectly adapted to their environment, they were actually imperfectly adapted to it.

Therefore, intelligence, and the ability to adapt to different environments quickly, became a winner in the Darwinian evolution of the species. Greater intelligence gave us the ability to evolve further, and create civilizations.

So it's the necessity of developing intelligence that made us what we are today. Therefore, it's likely that other alien species would be generalists as well, since there wouldn't be as mch evolutionary pressure to adapt and change if you were perfectly suited to your initial environment.

that being said, once you can manipulate genetics, you could probably add all the biological gizmos you wanted...