|
Anthropoid -> RE: Distant Worlds: Introduction of the alien races. (4/20/2010 11:00:05 PM)
|
http://www.currentresults.com/Environment-Facts/Plants-Animals/number-species.php
There is only one known species that has developed the full-blown capacity for creative syntax and advanced technology: a large-brained bipedal ape called a Homo sapien sapien. That is on a planet that has given rise to millions of species and at least 60,000 different vertebrates. Those numbers would at least double if we counted all the extinct species, most likely far more than that.
For hundreds of millions of years, many many vertebrate species did just fine with a brain that was good for learning and habituation but unsuitable for creativity. It is only during the past 25 to 40 million years that animals remotely resembling "sentient" in terms of creativity and language have started to exist, and of course, only the last 4 million or so that we have been recognizably humanlike. Indeed, if we restrict ourselves to clearly human culture, only about 50,000 years.
In sum, if how long, and infrequent it has occured on Earth is any indication the evolution of byzantine intelligence like our own, which would be a requisite to developing spacefaring technology, is a great rarity.
So any arguments about any of these alien species being "unrealistic" or not adhering to realistic principles are pretty much out the window right from the word go [:D]
The designers want furry reptiles wearing a Monocle and snow skiing wearing a bikini!? Who am I to argue!? [:D]
|
|
|
|
