7.1 KiB
[Q] What are some examples of completely "alien" aliens in rational fiction?
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Author: u/holomanga *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2fhlyk/q_what_are_some_examples_of_completely_alien/
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Score: 18
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Created: 2014-09-04T20:44:41
Post:
Comments:
u/alexanderwales [+17] Time flies like an arrow*
One that I often see posted when people start talking about alien aliens are the Tines from Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep. They're dog-like pack animals that use sound to form a coherent organism made of individual members - very inventive, and very cool. Also the Skoderiders, which are a plant-computer hybrid if memory serves. Also, the obligatory plug for Three Worlds Collide, where I believe half the point is to have aliens with values systems that are far removed from human. The relevant trope is Starfish Aliens, also see this thread from /r/print_sf (though most of those novels are just science fiction and not actually that rational).
u/somnicule [+9] *
IMO, half the point of Three Worlds Collide is how, compared to the vastness of conceptual space, very small differences in values can still be incompatible, and that values are complex. Like, it's pointed out how similar children are psychologically, how we could have gone down the Superhappy path, how we share literature and art with the Babyeaters. It's more salient to think of something nearly like us with infanticide as a terminal value, than it is to think of a paperclipper with no terminal value crossover whatsoever. Of course they're still very alien, compared to other fictional aliens. It's just not the point to have them far removed from human. EDIT: Spoiler Ch. 4
u/Rhamni [+3] Aspiring author*
Also ugly. The superhappy sex obsessed aliens are not supposed to be ugly.
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor*
Well, there IS some literotica out there with people who have sexual encounters with aliens that most people would find grotesque, and specifically in hentai, tentacle-blobs are a fairly common kink. But yeah, the original "sexy aliens" trope was generally just about hyper sexual humans with green skin and blue hair. Side note, is your flair a reference to The Laundry Files?
u/Rhamni [+2] Aspiring author*
Yes it is.
u/othermike [+9] *
Peter Watts' Tumblers in Blindsight. Interestingly different in many ways, including spoiler. There's also an old-school classic story called (if memory serves) The Dance of the Changer and the Three, but I don't know that you could call it rational; the aliens' behaviour is deliberately never explained.
u/libertarian_reddit [+12] *
Careful guys. This is a huge fucking spoiler that WILL ruin the story.
u/Solonarv [+2] Chaos Legion*
Good thing I read it back when EY recommended it...
u/Subrosian_Smithy [+2] Nudist Beach*
Aaagh why am I compelled to read every spoiler I see
u/libertarian_reddit [+2] *
I warned you.
u/Subrosian_Smithy [+1] Nudist Beach*
I know :(
u/ulyssessword [+5] *
While not completely inhuman, I think the entire crew in Blindsight is a good look at different intelligences.
u/Newfur [+8] Crazy like a fox. Literally.*
They're Made Out Of Meat by Terry Bisson seems like an interesting inversion of this.
u/alexanderwales [+3] Time flies like an arrow*
u/superliminaldude [+6] *
Wang's carpets, from the story of the same name, by Greg Egan, which was then integrated into the novel Diaspora. Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" is also really fascinating. It is largely about a linguist in a first-contact situation and ends up at least partially a story about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
u/Chronophilia [+2] sci-fi ≠ futurology*
I just read that Ted Chiang story last week. Unusual. Was it recommended on here recently, or is this just a coincidence?
u/superliminaldude [+1] *
Dunno, I've seen Ted Chiang on here before, but I don't know how recently.
u/ShotFromGuns [+4] The Culture*
I think Banks does a decent job of creating some distinct aliens in The Algebraist (with references to other species that we can't even really communicate with). I actually am curious if the Dwellers' attitude towards their offspring was a partial inspiration for Yudkowsky's Three Worlds Collide.
u/EliezerYudkowsky [+2] Godric Gryffindor*
Nope did not read.
u/ShotFromGuns [+1] The Culture*
Interesting coincidence, then. Thanks for answering the question I was too lazy to track you down and ask!
u/ajuc [+2] *
I loved The Algebrais, BTW I have this one idea about Dwellers The Algebraist I wonder if anybody else got that idea as well? My arguments: 1 2 3 4 5
u/ShotFromGuns [+1] The Culture*
I like this theory. It's certainly 100% arguable in the context of the novel.
u/holomanga [+1] *
Do the Dwellers kill and eat their offspring, or push their offspring back into their orifices to prolong the joy of childbirth?
u/ShotFromGuns [+1] The Culture*
They hunt them, enslave them, and generally treat them fairly poorly.
u/aeschenkarnos [+3] *
The Ariekei in China Mieville's Embassytown. It's written like hard SF, where the "hard sciences" are linguistics and symbology.
u/ajuc [+3] *
Solaris by Stanisław Lem has the most alien Alien I've seen. It's basicaly book about impossibility of understanding between aliens.
u/dysfunctionz [+1] *
The Europan 'sunfish' in Jeff Carlson's The Frozen Sky are pretty darn alien. The only way humans have a shot at communicating with them at all is through AI, and even then the understanding is fragmentary.