Alien Psychology
Pop xenopshrinkology. Essay. 1300 words, 7-minute read.
Alien Psychology
By Ray Tabler
How do aliens think? Good question, and one which has frustrated more than one science fiction writer over the years since the genre began. Lacking any real information, writers have speculated all over the place as to what makes extraterrestrials tick.
That wild speculation grows from two distinct roots. What will entertain the reader/viewer, versus what will make the reader/viewer think. If you can manage to do both at once, more power to you. But usually, a choice has to be made. Do one or the other.
An entertaining story is probably the way to go, more often than not, if the author wants to make money. So, aliens are just human characters with some bug eyes and tentacles duct taped on, and the keys to a space ship in its slime-oozing pocket. And, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. This approach greatly simplifies the writer’s world-building task, because the aliens’ motivations and reactions to inciting incidents and plot twists are predictable. The audience immediately drops right into the story as well, because they’re comfortable with the aliens and can concentrate on the unfolding story.
Full disclosure, I am guilty of dressing up human characters as aliens, for the above stated reasons. My aim is to entertain. It’s not lazy, it’s a creative choice. Or so I keep telling myself. 🙄
That said…
Actual aliens, if they exist, are not very likely to think and behave as we do. Other environments shaped them. Different biologises motivate them. If it’s any comfort, they’re probably just as puzzled by human behavior. I often am.
There are some authors that do manage to create convincing aliens, and be entertaining along the way. Larry Niven is a prime example. In his Known Space universe, is an alien species called the Puppeteers, because they have two heads which look like sock puppets, on separate, prehensile necks. Evolved from herd animals, Puppeteers are, from a human perspective, extremely risk adverse. That’s a polite way to say cowardly. Their “leader” of Puppeteer society has the title of “hindmost,” indicating that he stands at the back of the herd, nominally the safest spot. The vast majority of Puppeteers curl up into a catatonic ball in the presence of other species. We are predators, after all. Only psychopaths, as defined by Puppeteer standards, can interact with humans, albeit in a constantly agitated and fearful state. Puppeteers are a craven species, but it works out very well for them.
The Mote in God’s Eye is a novel Larry Niven coauthored with Jerry Pournelle, and introduces us to the Moties. The Moties’s home star is located in front of a red giant star, both within a nebula resembling a hooded figure. As such, the star looks like a mote (a speck) in the eye of God. The Moties are intelligent, but have always been stuck in their solar system. They are mired in an endless cycle of civilizational collapse and slow, painful rebuilding. When a human FTL ship arrives, the Moties see a way out of trap. At the core of Motie troubles is their inability to not reproduce. Moties must periodically become pregnant or die. Human choice whether to have offspring or not might as well be a superpower in the eyes of Moties. Even when they manage to build a technological society, uncontrollable population pressures, and the competition for scarce resources result in a general nuclear exchange between factions, and the cycle begins anew. This has been happening for hundreds of thousands of years. The sudden arrival of humans, and their FTL capability, sets off a desperate struggle, each Motie power block scrambling to control the humans and their ship.
This essay was inspired by an online discussion thread about whether the Moties are morally bad. In my view, the Moties aren’t evil, simply different. Of course, moral ambiguity wouldn’t stop the Moties from conquering every human world and grinding us all up for Motie chow, once they broke out of their confining solar system. So, that muddles the discussion.
Reproductive biology also heavily influences the behavior of the aliens in Ursula K. Leguin’s Left Hand of Darkness. These aliens have the option to switch from male to female, or vice versa, every other month. This simplifies their society in some ways, and complicates it in others.
The aliens in the movie Arrival view things differently because they experience time differently. These tall, dark creatures see the entirety of their lives all at once. They are simultaneously living birth, death, and every moment in between. Spoiler alert, the aliens are here on Earth because we human play some critical role in the future, and they must intervene to keep us from destroying ourselves first. They remember it that way from the future. As disturbed as we humans are that the aliens know when and how each of them will die, the aliens are even more freaked out that we accept that a human’s each moment might be the last. They can’t understand how we function with that uncertainty.
Sometimes, alien psychology isn’t subtle, and complex. The beings in the Alien movies (Alien, Aliens, etc…) are pretty straightforward. “You look like a good spot to raise the kids. Open wide!” Ditto for the interstellar tourist in “The Thing.” It’s just looking to get off this planet, and doesn’t care who has to be consumed to achieve that goal. The Predators (of the Predator franchise) are all about honor and taking trophies. Which are, unfortunately, human spinal columns.
I don’t really know if our recent visitors Oumuamua and 3I/ATLAS are just funky comets or alien probes. But they do make me think about what kind of beings would hop a ride on such a craft. Assuming that they obeyed the universal speed limit (the speed of light), these things spent a long time getting here. Thousands of years? Millions? I for one can barely conceive how such travel times would shape the way the crew would look at us. Are humans, with a life expectancy which doesn’t usually break a hundred years, nothing more than mayflies to them? Would they even bother to communicate with such ephemeral creatures as us?
What if the passengers on 3I and /or Oumuamua aren’t so long-lived? Such a long duration flight necessitates either a generation ship, or some type of suspended animation. Humans might have more hope of understanding the crew, but other wrinkles arise. Either way, these beings have left the rest of their civilization behind. Practically speaking, they will not hear from home ever again. That’s a huge step. What could motivate such a drastic course of action?
If they were human, the obvious answer would be colonization and conquest. But, let’s say they’re not like us. Curiosity? Trade? Evangelism? Maybe. Hundreds or thousands of years cooped up in a city-sized rock has to be tough on a planet-based species. Perhaps they’re not bound to planets anymore. Arguably, once your society has spent a thousand years roaming free between the stars, grubbing at the bottom of a gravity well might not be such an attractive option. Wrapping my head around that way of life might take some time.
While we’re at it, let’s focus this lens upon ourselves. How did humans end up acting as we do? I imagine it’s all got to do with spreading those selfish genes as far and wide as possible. Behavior which results in more kids perpetuates, and habits which discourage that (or even don’t encourage it enough) don’t. That’s the history of our species in a nutshell, as we try out various ways to spread our seed. Apparently, technological advancement promotes that goal. Huddling in the jungle, poking at the campfire doesn’t. Sex doesn’t just sell, it’s a survival mechanism.
Come to think of it, the same dynamic likely applies to aliens as well. Accounting for local variations in conditions. Maybe aliens wouldn’t be that different from us after all. 🎶 …still the same old story, a fight for love and glory… 🎶 We’ll just have to wait and see.
END.
Shameless Self-Promotion Section:
Check out my novels at Histria Books https://histriabooks.com/product-tag/ray-tabler/
The Diesel-Powered Starship (due for release in September 2025) https://histriabooks.com/product/the-diesel-powered-starship/
A Grand Imperial War (Book 1 of the Grand Imperial series) https://histriabooks.com/product/a-grand-imperial-war-grand-imperial-series-book-1/
A Grand Imperial Heir (Sequel to A Grand Imperial War) https://histriabooks.com/product/a-grand-imperial-heir-grand-imperial-series-book-2/
Fool’s Paradise https://histriabooks.com/product/fools-paradise/
And visit my website https://raytabler.com/ for Science Fiction You Can Enjoy!
I always like books and movies that reveal the alien side of things, what they want and why they want it. I hate movies where an alien race stops by earth, then proceeds to kill everyone in sight and destroy the planet for no apparent reason.
I’ll always vote to hear what aliens think. Whether I’m simply entertained or made to think doesn’t matter. As long as I know something about them and what they want. Bonus points if it makes sense and I can feel a bit of empathy for them.