[Livingston]

Alien races in Star Trek; you ever think, were we to find intelligence out there, they would resemble the races we see in Star Trek or would be remotely like them?

[kukalakana]

Most likely not.

Although...

People say there is not a chance of any remotely humanoid lifeforms out there in the universe. But the most recent theory seems to hold true with life on earth at least.

That being, creatures that evolve in different places will develop similar adaptations to similar environments and circumstances.

(As an example, this is possibly why bats and birds have wings, or why echidnas and hedgehogs look so similar even though they are extremely distantly related.)

So there is a chance -- albeit slim -- that life on some other planets may follow a vaguely similar design to our own.

[flyer00jay]

Not to get too deep, but I think the only way other races will even come close to resembling us is if there is a God and he created us in a similar pattern.

Otherwise the chances are remote I would think.
We would probably find other intelligent species rather repugnant, I would think they would be that much different.
I really doubt that communication would work.

[HokieinSC]

Purely speculative, but I would be more surprised if life was similar as opposed to being very different. Either way, when (sure there's life out there somewhere) we make first contact, it's going to be a world changing event.

[RedAlertRiker]

Its possible, if there really is a huminoid ancestor that spread its genetic code all over the galaxy in hopes of creating beings like themselves...... but uh. i dont really believe that.

The universe is SOOOOOO big... SOOOOO BIG that its ridiculous to say that theres no intelligent life out there, and its SOO BIG that really anything is possible. I doubt that there will be anything that is a bipedal humanoid.

[NCC-73515]

The homoplasy of wings is an excellent explanation why it could be possible. The wings of insects, bats, birds and pterosaurs have independent evolutionary origins. Form and fuction is similar because of similar conditions.

[RedAlertRiker]

Originally Posted by NCC-73515

Form and fuction is similar because of similar conditions.

In my opinion thats exactly why aliens probably will not evolved into anything like us. Some assume that life can only exist in an M class with conditions similar to earth. Who is to say that ther will be similar conditions on other planets? Perhaps life doesnt even evolve as carbon based. We have no idea what kind of life is possible.

While i do believe in the possibility of aliens, I think my best friend said it best.
""I do not believe in aliens, the possibility of aliens and i especially dont believe humans and aliens will ever come into contact. But I do believe in star trek."

[kukalakana]

On the other hand, there is also an assumption that if life can survive in very different conditions to our own, that would automatically preclude the possibility that other life may have evolved in conditions which are quite similar.

I don't think the "common humanoid ancestor" holds much scientific ground. Humans are apes. We share 97% of our DNA with chimpanzees. That is a greater percentage than chimps share with other apes.

However, with all the possibilities out there, I would not completely discount the remote possibility that somewhere there may be another species which has evolved along similar lines to our own. Whether they are close enough that we will ever make contact - that may be another story. And I also doubt very much that we would be able to interbreed. But the development of similar forms, I wouldn't consign to impossibility just yet.

[DS9TREK]

I don't think other humanoids are particularly unlikely. Evolution works by favouring the type of life best suited to a particular environment. If another world goes through the same environments that produced us great apes in just one of its regions (and considering the size of the 'verse, law of averages says there must be some), you're not going to get a many tentacled land octopus with wings. It's gonna be something at least vaguely similar to us.

And considering you need opposable thumbs to create tools, you need at least two eyes for depth perception, ect, ect, any advanced races will be more similar to us then dissimilar.

[Livingston]

Originally Posted by RedAlertRiker

In my opinion thats exactly why aliens probably will not evolved into anything like us. Some assume that life can only exist in an M class with conditions similar to earth. Who is to say that ther will be similar conditions on other planets? Perhaps life doesnt even evolve as carbon based. We have no idea what kind of life is possible.

While i do believe in the possibility of aliens, I think my best friend said it best.
""I do not believe in aliens, the possibility of aliens and i especially dont believe humans and aliens will ever come into contact. But I do believe in star trek."

good point. If you just look at the earth, life is everywhere, in some of the most extreme conditions on the planet you still find life. Who's to say that it may not be the same out there. I remember in the book 2010 there were these jelly fish like creatures that lived in Jupiter's atmosphere, they were huge, then they were wiped out when the planet became a sun. I seriously doubt we'd find any life in Jupiter's atmosphere but can you imagine, if we did, in such a harsh environment. If life could exist there then life would have to be everywhere!

People used to think planets may not be that wide-spread a phenomena or common, before we were able to detect them around other stars. Maybe planets are just a rare phenomena and not that many stars have systems but hundreds have been catalogued, mostly gas giants. I remember reading somewhere that they've even found planets around pulsar stars. That means the planets would've formed after the star went nova and became a pulsar, so planets must be an extremely common phenomena. Regardless, considering planets are so common, perhaps life is too and where and how it could survive, imagine if something could survive on one of those planets orbiting a pulsar. Talk about radiation!