How do you depict the physical outlook of something you do not know exists? That seems a strenuous task for the human mind to accomplish, capable of stretching it to its farthest limits. Nevertheless, writers, artists, and ordinary people worldwide and throughout time have taken on this assignment, mythology being an excellent example of this phenomenon. People in Ancient Greece, The Aztec Empire, or Scandinavia during the Viking Era created their gods, goddesses, mythical creatures, and kingdoms in the most colorful and clever ways without ever being confirmed of their existence or even seeing them in the first place. Mythologies can be attributed to humanity's innate inclination towards storytelling and creation to pass on ideas and moral lessons or our deep-seated desire to believe in beings that exist at a higher level of holiness or are made different from ours.
Today's mythologies are science fiction and fantasy stories. Indeed, they are different in many regards. Mythology has solid religious connotations as Ancient Greeks, Aztecs, and Nordics living in the Viking times worshipped the creations of their imaginations. The context of sci-fi and fantasy stories is dissimilar. The purpose of these relatively more modern stories, particularly science fiction, seems to be answering humanity's inquisitive tendencies about what or who could be present in the universe other than us; they are manifestations of our constant search for something spiritual, supernatural, and otherworldly to be enamored by. This is hilariously ironic because we create these tales, prescribe descriptions for these creations, and ascribe our moral standards as lessons to be taken away from these stories. Since science fiction is the product of human imagination, like most literature, ideas, and depictions in science fiction are based on each other. When pondering what aliens might look like, you are probably thinking through the vision of someone who came across the same question before you did, provided they shared their answers with the world in one way or another. In this piece, I want to explore how the depictions of aliens influenced each other throughout history and how science fiction has interacted with scientific research. Lastly, I would like to touch on an existential question about human nature when examining the various descriptions of aliens.
History of the Depictions of Outer Space and "Little Green Men"
Lucian Samosata's Vera Historia, written in Greek in the second century AD, is generally described as the "precursor of early accounts of journeys to other inhabited planets" (Clark, 2006). It tells the story of a ship sailing in the sky being drifted to the moon, only to find out that it was already inhabited. Multiple space exploration stories were written through centuries based on this tale and its variations. The most encountered trope of aliens, called "little green men," can be traced to the 12th-century English legend, The Green Children of Woolpit (Weisberger, 2016). The legend is about a pair of siblings that appear at Woolpit out of nowhere, with green, sickly skin and can only eat green beans. Sir Richard de Calne of Wykes feeds the children, one boy and one girl, into his home. The children speak an unknown language and need to be taught English. Once they learn English, they tell the townspeople they come from a land embedded in complete and infinite darkness where a bright place is visible across a broad river. They say they do not know how they came to Woolpit. The legend of the green children has been interpreted in a few ways. A popular reading of the legend states that the children were from another planet and that the story signifies the birth of the stereotype of "little green men," powerfully influencing our current perception of aliens by inspiring plenty of reimaginings and retellings.
Additionally, several versions of the story suggest that it accounts for a real-life event rather than fiction about life from outer space. Some claim that the green skin is caused by arsenic poisoning, while some say the children were malnourished Flemish immigrants (Clark, 2006). Either way, "Little Green Men" is a science fiction trope observed throughout literature, and a modernized rendition of it is present in our books, movies, and TV shows.
Modern Renditions of "Little Green Men" and The Influence of CGI and VFX Technology
In science-fiction literature, the first direct mention of the phrase "little green men" was in Mayaya's Little Green Men from the book Weird Tales written by Harold Lawlor in the 40s (Weisberger, 2016). It is also mentioned in the 1990 novel Martians, Go Home, where alien invaders are characterized more as annoying invaders than dangerous ones. Film and TV have seen their fair share of green men both in sci-fi series such as Star Trek: Tomorrow is Yesterday and Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks and in cartoons like The Flintstones with the introduction of the character Great Gazoo in 1965 and even in Toy Story.
With the rapid development of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and VFX (Visual effects) technology, the portrayal of extraterrestrial life on the big screen has experienced a dramatic shift over the last few decades. The first film depicting alien forms was A Trip to the Moon, directed by Georges Méliés in 1902 (Vox, 2018). The physical appearances of aliens are not widely different from those of humans in A Trip to the Moon because the only special effects that were possible at the time were fabric costumes. With CGI, VFX, and sometimes SFX (Special Effects) makeup, more complex visual representations of aliens have been made possible.
For a period, visual representations of aliens were inspired by descriptions provided by people who alleged that they had come across aliens (Britt, 2017). These aliens would likely have large oval eyes and grey skin. Aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, directed by Steven Spielberg, are an example of this phenomenon.
One of the most influential sci-fi series, Star Trek, heavily deployed prosthetic makeup to construct its different alien species. Micheal Westmore, a prominent figure in makeup artistry, created 100 distinct strange designs for Star Trek by utilizing the structure of actual dinosaur vertebrae (Britt, 2017).
He writes in his autobiography: "The eyes and mouth are the communicative windows between the aliens and the humans." (Britt, 2017) Westmore was not the only designer who took advantage of the physiological traits of animals. The alien species "neomorph" in Alien: The Covenant was created by taking inspiration from the goblin shark, a rare variety of deep-sea sharks (Vox, 2018).
In Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Trek, aliens still resemble humans in some way, shape, or form. In contrast, movies like The Alien, Arrival, and The Edge of Tomorrow depict creatures truly ethereal and unworldly, straight out of a nightmare. These movies exemplify a different approach to visualizing space inhabitants that diverges from accounts of people who have "encountered aliens" and the traditional "little green men" trope. This signifies a transformation in sci-fi movies and literature where people break molds and expand the variety in depictions of aliens.
Are These Depictions of Aliens Truthful?
While researching the physiological, physical, and biological characteristics of possible extraterrestrial life, astrobiologists, and zoologists collaborate and fuse their knowledge of their fields of study to conclude. A theory that has been put forward within this area of research that has been quite popular suggests that the fundamental principles of evolution observed within life on Earth also apply to life in outer space. A research paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology has claimed that extraterrestrial life will undergo natural selection and experience significant transitions due to extreme conditions, which will inevitably cause complexity to arise (University of Oxford, 2017). The paper, authored by scientists at the University of Oxford, included several predictions about how life in space might appear at different levels of complexity.
Author and zoologist Arik Kershenbaum, who wrote a book about what animal life on Earth reveals about aliens, states that:
"The study of zoology, or how we zoologists pursue our science, is always about asking 'why' questions. Asking why animals are the way they are, why they look the way they do, why they behave the way they do. And the answer to all of these 'why' questions always comes down to evolution and the different ways evolutionary forces are acting on these animals. So it's not that big a stretch to see that the evolutionary forces that we understand from studying animals all this time on Earth, those same forces are universal. Those are the things that will make animals on Earth eat each other. They'll make creatures on other planets eat each other because the fundamental laws are still the same." (CBC Radio, 2022)
More importantly, Kershenbaum proposes that an alien species with similar technological developments to humans would have to undergo a similar evolutionary process, meaning intelligent alien life and human life would look analogous to each other.
Some scientists disagree with this premise in every part of scientific research. One of those scientists is Andrew Siemian, the Director of the SETI Research Center at UC Berkeley, who explains: "We do not have any reason to believe that they would look anything like us. The form of a human being is the result of several billion years of evolution. There's no reason to believe that the development of life would be so similar as it was on Earth." (Vox, 2018)
To conclude, due to the difficulty of outer space research and our sheer lack of knowledge about possible alien species, we cannot confidently say what alien life looks like, assuming we know alien life exists.
Why Do Humans Depict Alien Life the Way They Do?
To end this piece, I want to address an exciting and slightly existential question: "Why have humans depicted aliens as strikingly human-like for such a long time?" Even when they have freaky foreheads, big oval eyes, and gremlin hands, most alien depictions are uniquely anthropomorphic. Charley Henley, a VFX expert who has worked on many sci-fi movies, has said: "A lot of designs are tied in with the human anatomy, and I think that is the common theme. We put a lot of humans into the aliens." (Lee, 2018)
Moreover, aliens behave in human-like ways. They are either curious and childlike or destructive, or sometimes they are emotionless. When asked about this, Brooks Peck, a curator at the EMP Museum, has answered: "Some take a single facet of humanity and amplify it. It can be puckishness and a fondness for troublemaking, as seen in Little Green Men. Other characters embody childlike innocence and wonder, such as E.T. from the film 'E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Uncle Martin in 'My Favorite Martian' or Mork from the TV show 'Mork and Mindy.' Others represent a darker side of humanity: Picture the ruthless, shape-shifting creatures in the 'Alien' movie series or the marauding Klingons from 'Star Trek.'" (Weisberger, 2016)
It seems as though science fiction movies and literature ascribe human-like features and behaviors to aliens to present a philosophical question to the audience. It makes us wonder what makes us human and whether we can view a creature from outer space the same way we view each other. Arik Kershenbaum says in an interview: "The role of science fiction is to allow us to suspend disbelief a little bit so that we can examine difficult aspects of human nature. You know, you have a Vulcan who has no emotion, which allows us to explore what that means. The Klingons, who are warlike and honor-driven, make it an easy way to explore the difficulties of being human. So in that sense, most science fiction is not about what alien life will be like." (CBC Radio, 2022)
It has been said countless times that science fiction stories are about humans more than they are about aliens. Science fiction is where technologically advanced settings, alien species, and space exploration are embellishments. The questions they propose are about us: "Are we alone; do we have what it takes to save ourselves in the case of galactical disaster; if we are not alone, how similar are we to our neighbors; are we as powerful and dominant as we think we are or are we conquerable; if we face galactical disaster, will we be the ones that caused it?" In that sense, aliens will look humanoid or monstrous, depending on which depiction suits the narrative we are trying to push about ourselves or which questions we are trying to answer. As stated by Brooks Peck: "Science fiction worlds can match the real world closely or differ dramatically. But no matter how outlandish their alien characters might seem - giant tentacle monsters, humanoid time travelers, or even little green men - all science fiction is a mirror of our world. Every story about aliens is a story about us." (Weisberger, 2016)
Sources:
Images
Cover Image
https://tr.pinterest.com/pin/351912464434951/
Image 1
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Image 2
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Image 3
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Image 4
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Image 5
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Image 6 and 7
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Image 8
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Image 9
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Image 10
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Image 11
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Articles
Aliens may be more like us than we think. (2017, Oct 31). University of Oxford. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-10-31-aliens-may-be-more-us-we-think
Aliens often look like us in movies - will they look like us in real life? (2022, Jan 22). CBC Radio.
Britt, R. (2017, May 19). Wrinkles, tentacles and oval eyes: How depictions of aliens have evolved. CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/alien-like-no-other/index.html
Clark, J. (2006). "Small, Vulnerable ETs": The Green Children of Woolpit. Science Fiction Studies, 33(2), 209–229.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241432
Lee, D. (2018, Mar 15). Why we imagine aliens the way we do. Vox.
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Levin, S., Scott, T., Cooper, H., & West, S. (2019). Darwin's aliens. International Journal of Astrobiology, 18(1), 1-9. doi:10.1017/S1473550417000362
Weisberger, M. (2016, July 12). Why do we imagine aliens as 'little green men'? LiveScience.
https://www.livescience.com/55370-why-are-aliens-little-green-men.html
Videos
Vox. (2018, Mar 14). Why we imagine aliens the way we do. [Video]. Youtube.