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Howvabout Lizard people?
But what if the human form is a prerequisite for evolving into the space age? We wouldn’t need so many tools if we were strong as a crab to begin with
I’ve never seen a crab measure thousandths of an inch, or back a Phillip’s head screw out of a hole with their crab strength. Tools are still required.
I’ve seen a wasp unscrew a screw I thought was in pretty tight.
The premise is that they won’t invent advanced things such as screws because the survival pressure is less intense
Funny to think about it: Crabs are a huge local maximum of peak evolution
Taste like crab, talk like people.
Neal Asher’s Praedor Moon is a fun read if you want to see what advanced humans would do against space faring crabs.
Rumors say that the upcoming new Children of time book will also involve crabs
Do we explode them? Exploding them seems like something we’d do. Or maybe boil and eat them.
The entire Polity series is great, but my favourite parts are always when we follow a Prador perspective.
A fairly small number of known species evolved to the vaguely humanoid form, but 100% of known species with a human level of higher intelligence have had roughly this body plan, it’s really not unreasonable to extrapolate that this could be a common body plan for intelligent aliens.
Taken more seriously, having the evolutionary background to have:
- fine control over your limbs, like fingers
- 3D-thinking (throwing) and manipulation
- cooperation
another human-like civilization is pretty unlikely.
So the crabs don’t talk to you either
You know who’s not a coward? Captain James T Kirk.
Project Hail Mary got this really right. The aliens are big rock crabs
You guys should read the Stormlight archives. Fuckin everything is a crab, even the plants.
I couldn’t finish the first book. :(( Ironically, I liked how he finished Wheel of Time. I DK. It’s not terribly written; it just didn’t stick. Robert Jordan was a far worse writer lol.
Way of Kings is the best book in the series, so if you didn’t like that, then you won’t like the series.
Jordan tended to ramble (especially about women’s clothing), but I wouldn’t say he was a worse writer. Some of his writing was exceptional. It started tapering off near the end because he was dying. Book 11 especially is a hard slog. But when he was healthy he had some great writing.
Sanderson is a great writer too, but he uses a different pacing style, which is more modern. So his writing will click more with people today. I really loved how it picked the pace back up with WoT after the slog, brought it all together, and finished the epic story. Jordan had extensive notes, and he and Sanderson worked together to ensure the story was finished. I really love that Sanderson respected Jordan’s work, and finished it as Jordan would have instead of trying to make it his own thing.
I love both authors, and have read all of WoT and everything Sanderson has written. If you want to give an original Sanderson book a try, start with Mistborn. That book is very good, and isn’t a 1000 page introduction to a 14,000 page saga. It’s short and there are two more books that conclude the trilogy. He wrote more Mistborn books later, but they’re in a whole different era, and weren’t to my liking. The original trilogy is great!
I tired it too. Just don’t like him.
I have the same issue. I just can’t seem to be hooked by Sanderson’s writing. I’ve tried a few and I can’t settle in to them at all. I love WoT, but couldn’t even finish it.
Way of Kings is the best book in the series, so if you didn’t like that, then you won’t like the series.
Jordan tended to ramble (especially about women’s clothing), but I wouldn’t say he was a worse writer. Some of his writing was exceptional. It started tapering off near the end because he was dying. Book 11 especially is a hard slog. But when he was healthy he had some great writing.
Sanderson is a great writer too, but he uses a different pacing style, which is more modern. So his writing will click more with people today. I really loved how it picked the pace back up with WoT after the slog, brought it all together, and finished the epic story. Jordan had extensive notes, and he and Sanderson worked together to ensure the story was finished. I really love that Sanderson respected Jordan’s work, and finished it as Jordan would have instead of trying to make it his own thing.
I love both authors, and have read all of WoT and everything Sanderson has written. If you want to give an original Sanderson book a try, start with Mistborn. That book is very good, and isn’t a 1000 page introduction to a 14,000 page saga. It’s short and there are two more books that conclude the trilogy. He wrote more Mistborn books later, but they’re in a whole different era, and weren’t to my liking. The original trilogy is great!
Way of Kings is honestly a more like a prequel for the series. It’s pretty much ONLY setting up the characters and world building. So if you don’t get into that you might not finish.
Cytoverse too
Renaldo thinks that one crab is sexy at least
And the feeling is mutual
Fucking furries
Pretty sure they’re not at the fucking stage yet, but one can hope
Why don’t I remember this?
Axehounds, Parshendi, chulls, chasmfiends, songlings, rockbuds, etc.
Oh and the generic “cremling”
reminder:
The word is Carcinisation
Someone needs to rule 34 crabs. And then delete their Internet history as thoroughly as possible.
(V) OwO (V) What’s this? snip snip
If this post is awakening some weird feelings in you, there’s an episode of Futurama you might want to watch.
Oh yeah, that crab could definitely get it
Life can have infinite forms and can exist and evolve in the most inhospit environments. But an advanced tecnologig species only can exist in certain environments and with reduced posibility in their appearence. Aquatic beeings can be intelligent, but never can create advanced tecnologies. The basic condicion of advanced tecnology is the domination of fire and electricity, not possible in the water, it need Oxign in the atmosphere.
They must have limbs skilled enough to handle and construct this technology, a complex communication system, and a binocular vision system (for this reason the most used in all species) to perceive their environment. The humanoid shape is one that best fits these maxims and therefore it is quite possible that an advanced species would also have a more or less similar shape.
It is known as convergent evolution, when unrelated species have a very similar physique to each other by living with the same challenges in similar environments. Evolution always use similar solutions for similar tasks. A good example is the genet, which looks and behaves very similar to cats, even with retractil claws), but they are a completely different species (Viverridae)
Tech needs electricity and fire is not universal. That is what we use.
Our brain is lot more complicated and efficient than the computers we make and it uses ions, in liquid media. So something that lives in water could definitely be able to make something that would be able to use similar things to do processing. Water is also really good with doing things, it’s flexible but doesn’t compress/expand like air does. Think about hydraulic systems. You can make them smaller and smaller as your tech progresses. Mechanical things using metals and such would work in water as well. Think about gold and such that can be used for electricity as well, we don’t use it because it’s valuable, but an alien world could have abundance of gold for them to use.
Fire as base is needed. To make hydraulic or other tech, you need metal, and to work with metal, you need fire to melt and form it. An aquatic species can evolve to an advanced intelligence, but it can’t evolved to an advanced tecnology. Dolphinse have a great intelligence, not far from the humans, but they never can be a tecnologic advanced species, they don’t have even hands to manipulate tools. They use tools in a basic way, they even use old fishernets they found on the ground to hunt fishes (observed in the Mediterraneo). But manufactoring it is other thing.
Don’t care how smart you are, you ain’t shit without metallurgy followed by electricity. No metallurgy, no electricity, no tech.
Ever read a science fiction novel where the aliens evolved underwater? The author has to twist the story in knots to try and explain how they gained anything advanced without fire.
It can be cristals and photons. Carbon is the basis of life because it’s good for looooong molecules. But it’s not like it’s the only option. It may not even be the best option on planets with different temperatures or pressures.
Anyway life may not even need food or care about the passage of time.
It can be crystals and photons.
How do you build actuators that react to light without electricity?
Land octopi would be pretty cool though.
They must have limbs skilled enough to handle and construct this technology, a complex communication system, and a binocular vision system (for this reason the most used in all species) to perceive their environment. The humanoid shape is one that best fits these maxims and therefore it is quite possible that an advanced species would also have a more or less similar shape.
Elephants meet all of these criteria as well. A complex limb (their trunk), a complex communication, and binocular vision (although I don’t see why this is necessary).
You can’t compare an elephant trunk to the human hand
Elephant trunks are bigger than human hands.
See it’s not that hard
Not with that attitude
Nothing in nature comes close to the dexterity of human hands.
Raccoon paws and octopus tentacles both rival the dexterity of human - and other primates’ - hands in my opinion. They even have certain advantages.
Complex limb? Let me see an elephant tie a granny knot. Maybe with training? OK. Do a square knot.
Complex communication? Elephants have communication skills on par with a 3-4 year old human. An intensely trained dog might top 200 words. My vocabulary is an easy 50,000 words. Yours is too.
Binocular vision is a must, that’s a given. Damn near every animal on the planet has it, even some worms.
