No, not the movie.

The other night Betty and I were watching Ancient Aliens for lack of something better to watch.  It was a more interesting show than most of them are however.

They were discussing the evolution of intelligent beings on other planets.  What struck me was how would they have evolved on a planet larger than ours and with a dimmer sun.

They're eyes would be larger because of the dim light and they would be smaller because of the increased gravity of a larger planet.  And, of course, they brought up the greys.

But one thing never mentioned was how they would behave on our planet with reduced gravity.  Would they be able to run faster or jump higher like our astronauts did on the moon?  Would they be wearing designer sunglasses to shield their eyes from our brighter sun?

And would they all be of the same size unlike those who evolved on our own planet like the Masai and the Pygmies in Africa?  

The problem with the show Ancient Aliens is they stop examining the evidence one the hosts enough to SUPPOSE whatever they are trying to prove.  But in lieu of anything else it is sometimes interesting to watch.

Noel

Edited November 2, 20223 yr by birdguy

27 minutes ago, birdguy said:

 

They were discussing the evolution of intelligent beings on other planets.  What struck me was how would they have evolved on a planet larger than ours and with a dimmer sun.

 

Noel

Interesting!  Wonder if any of them are going by the name Kal-el?  Able to leap over tall piles of 💩 in a single bound!  Change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands.  He must be wearing a disguise. 🤔

 

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

they would be smaller because of the increased gravity of a larger planet.

They might be shorter but they would have to be sturdier to withstand the extra gravity.

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

Would they be wearing designer sunglasses to shield their eyes from our brighter sun?

 

1 hour ago, charliearon said:

Wonder if any of them are going by the name Kal-el?

If they are all wearing Superman tights plus designer sunglasses, it will be very hard to take them seriously.

6 minutes ago, dmwalker said:

They might be shorter but they would have to be sturdier to withstand the extra gravity.

Yep!  Extremely dense cell structure!  They'll be fast, virtually invulnerable!  Dang, Supe!  Where ya hiding?

Anybody remember the novel "Mission of gravity?"

The story is set on a very rapidly rotating highly oblate planet named Mesklin; its "day" is just under 18 minutes long, and its surface gravity varies between 700 g at the poles and 3 g at its equator. The story is told from the points of view of one of the local intelligent life forms and a human explorer. The locals are centipede-like, in order to withstand the enormous gravity (definitely not greys!) and terrified of even small heights, because in 700 g, even a tiny fall is fatal.

The native protagonist, Barlennan, captain of the sailing raft Bree, is on a trading expedition to the equator. Prior to the story's opening, a human scientific probe has become stranded at one of the planet's poles, where the gravity is too strong to effect a rescue. A member of the scientific team, Charles Lackland, is dispatched to the equator where he has met Barlennan by chance. Even machine aided, Lackland is barely able to function in the 3 G environment, one Barlennan considers incredibly light and a tiny fraction of what his culture is used to.

Lackland teaches the Bree crew English and arranges a deal with Barlennan; in exchange for the humans providing warnings of the violent weather which often plagues trips to the pole, Barlennan will retrieve the probe and return it to the equator where it can be picked up. Communication is achieved through an audio-visual radio built to function in a high-gravity environment, which is treated as magical by other intelligences encountered on the planet.

Along the way to the pole, the ship encounters and overcomes a variety of obstacles, some of which the humans help with using their superior scientific knowledge, and some of which rely on the cunning of Barlennan and his crew. They are captured by various lifeforms similar to themselves, but who live in the lower-gravity areas and have developed projectile weapons and gliders. Gradually, with human help, they gain an understanding of these and manage to escape.

Barlennan has been dissatisfied with the humans' efforts to seemingly avoid explanation of anything scientific, and almost withholds the probe when they finally reach it; but the humans convince them that a scientific background is needed to understand the advanced equipment in the probe, and a deal is reached whereby the humans will educate the Mesklinites.

The novel provides an exposition on how the weather, geology and atmosphere of the seas and the pole are affected by the local conditions, and sees the Mesklinites overcoming their fear of gravity as they learn to view it scientifically, eventually harnessing aerodynamics to make the Bree fly at the poles.

18 hours ago, birdguy said:

The problem with the show Ancient Aliens is they stop examining the evidence one the hosts enough to SUPPOSE whatever they are trying to prove.  But in lieu of anything else it is sometimes interesting to watch.

 

Cant stand the show to be honest. Mostly garbage. As you say Noel, lots of "what if" and "some think". Zero evidence and wild speculation and often exaggerating to push the ancient alien hypothesis. 

 

18 hours ago, birdguy said:

They're eyes would be larger because of the dim light and they would be smaller because of the increased gravity of a larger planet.  And, of course, they brought up the greys.

But one thing never mentioned was how they would behave on our planet with reduced gravity.  Would they be able to run faster or jump higher like our astronauts did on the moon?  Would they be wearing designer sunglasses to shield their eyes from our brighter sun?

 

I would say yes to most of that. If a being evolved on a planet with higher gravity, then yes, jumping higher would be a thing. In fact that's precisely what our astronauts experienced on the Moon. Smaller and stockier has been suggested and would seem logical on a world with higher gravity. As for sunglasses, an advanced spences would have all manner of tech to enable them to exist on a world they were visiting, the big one is breathing of course, if they had that physiological requirement.

For me, one of the biggest issues would be protection from viruses and bacteria, because their immune systems (if they had them) wouldn't be adapted to the microorganisms on a visited world. Nanotechnology, nanobots,. in their bloodstream (if they had blood) to protect them from microorganisms perhaps, an technologically enhanced immune system. 

 

16 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

and terrified of even small heights, because in 700 g, even a tiny fall is fatal.

 

Reminds me of the neutron star scenario. If you dropped an object from one meter high, it would hit the star at 1400 kilometers per second. That for a neutron star 12 kilometers in radius. Trouble is, the object would be be subjected to "spaghettification" by the tidal forces and just be a stream of bits hitting the surface. 

Edited November 3, 20223 yr by martin-w

18 hours ago, birdguy said:

No, not the movie.

The other night Betty and I were watching Ancient Aliens for lack of something better to watch.  It was a more interesting show than most of them are however.

They were discussing the evolution of intelligent beings on other planets.  What struck me was how would they have evolved on a planet larger than ours and with a dimmer sun.

They're eyes would be larger because of the dim light and they would be smaller because of the increased gravity of a larger planet.  And, of course, they brought up the greys.

But one thing never mentioned was how they would behave on our planet with reduced gravity.  Would they be able to run faster or jump higher like our astronauts did on the moon?  Would they be wearing designer sunglasses to shield their eyes from our brighter sun?

And would they all be of the same size unlike those who evolved on our own planet like the Masai and the Pygmies in Africa?  

The problem with the show Ancient Aliens is they stop examining the evidence one the hosts enough to SUPPOSE whatever they are trying to prove.  But in lieu of anything else it is sometimes interesting to watch.

Noel

Judging by current World events I would hazard a guess that as far as the existence of intelligent life on Earth, the jury is still out.....................................

Oh, oh! Everyone should start practicing their "gort klaatu barada nikto's" because they are on their way! 👽

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/02/prepare-alien-encounter-now-late-warn-scientists/

2 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

Reminds me of the neutron star scenario. If you dropped an object from one meter high, it would hit the star at 1400 kilometers per second. That for a neutron star 12 kilometers in radius. Trouble is, the object would be be subjected to "spaghettification" by the tidal forces and just be a stream of bits hitting the surface. 

At one time, there seemed to be an explosion of golden-age "hard" science fiction novels about humans encountering aliens living in extreme environments.

One of these occurred at a neutron star:

Dragon's Egg is a 1980 hard science fiction novel by Robert L. Forward. In the story, Dragon's Egg is a neutron star with a surface gravity 67 billion times that of Earth, and inhabited by cheela, intelligent creatures the size of a sesame seed who live, think and develop a million times faster than humans.

2 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

At one time, there seemed to be an explosion of golden-age "hard" science fiction novels about humans encountering aliens living in extreme environments.

One of these occurred at a neutron star:

Dragon's Egg is a 1980 hard science fiction novel by Robert L. Forward. In the story, Dragon's Egg is a neutron star with a surface gravity 67 billion times that of Earth, and inhabited by cheela, intelligent creatures the size of a sesame seed who live, think and develop a million times faster than humans.

 

Not forgetting Flatland. Although I don't recall the 2D creatures to be that way due to gravity. 

2 hours ago, martin-w said:

Not forgetting Flatland. Although I don't recall the 2D creatures to be that way due to gravity. 

I credit flatland as one of the books that helped mess me up as a kid. I started thinking about the world in ways the other kids could or would not follow/understand, and quickly was given the nickname "professor". 🧐

6 hours ago, martin-w said:

Not forgetting Flatland. Although I don't recall the 2D creatures to be that way due to gravity. 

Is that the one where they have to move iron rails from behind to the front of their mobile "city?" If so, I seem to recall that there was some sort of projected energy field that was the cause of their predicament.

30 minutes ago, n4gix said:

Is that the one where they have to move iron rails from behind to the front of their mobile "city?" If so, I seem to recall that there was some sort of projected energy field that was the cause of their predicament.

My memory of Flatland was the novel, exploring the concepts of dimensionality, while also making some digs at the closed-mindedness of Victorian society.

Later, Carl Sagan explained it all even more vividly, though I think my childish imagination was more fun:

Tangentially, again we are speaking of strange alien lifeforms in/from bizarre environments...