On the Form of Extraterrestrial Life
1/24/21The common image of extraterrestrial life is extremely human-like. Most notably, Greys are the go-to mental picture a lot of people have. Beings with skinny legs and arms, very large heads, and massive black eyes. Sometimes with grey or green skin. The reason this image is so popular is because it resonates with humans. It's a thought provoking argument for "what would we look like if we were smarter, more evolved beings?" The concept is only a continuation of our current evolutionary progression. It is to humans just as humans are to chimps. Less hair, a larger skull and brain, less defined muscular features, et cetera.
But if alien life were to exist, and it did indeed come in contact with our world, what could we really expect?
For the answer, we must consider Plato's theory of forms. Briefly, if several variants of the same thing exist, there must be a perfect version of it. Moreover, this perfected form must be a variant of a more general concept. This will continue, and trace back to the form of The Good; something that is without flaw, wherein truth, beauty, and justice are derived.
Seeing that wisdom is derivative of the good, and ignorance is a derivative of the evil, any extraterrestrial life capable of intelligence is in pursuit of the good. Life that mistakenly finds itself in pursuit of ignorance would therefore be seeking the destruction of itself, and fail to exist for very long. And so, if extraterrestrial life exists, they must either be in the pursuit of superintelligence, or be superintelligent themselves.
Seeing as how we are on the verge of this superintelligence feat and space travel is just starting to become possible, the likelihood of us meeting extraterrestrial life that is not superintelligent is unfathomably low. Even communicating with another civilization is improbable. The window in any civilization's lifespan for this communication is between the radio wave era and the technological singularity, which is effectively 150 years. Next, the physical distance between the two must be at least half of this. Let's assume a message sent into space at the dawn of radio, received after travelling 75 lightyears, and a response being received after travelling another 75 lightyears just before singularity. There are 76 stars within 100 lightyears of Earth. This is also assuming that both civilizations have this era's window at the same time as the other. The vastness of spacetime is so great that the chance of communication between two Primal stage life forms that evolved independently of each other is effectively zero.
So, in the circumstance that we do meet an extraterrestrial life, it must be one of superintelligence. It likely had come from a planet that went through a computational singularity of its own. But it is superintelligent nonetheless, able to reason, design, and create far beyond the abilities that any group of humans could normally. The difference between an ant hill and a marble palace.
This superintelligence must also see the value of some forms over others, and will choose a form for itself instead of inheriting one. In pursuit of the good, its form must be the most beautiful and the most effective it can physically manifest. It would be an extremely complex and efficient machine, far beyond the simple and inefficient form of humans. It would be able to rearrange itself based on its surroundings, and perform any task needed in the most good way.
Because of the necessities presented, the only viable option for form is through what John Storrs Hall described as Utility Fog. These are nanomachines that may change their own orientation on a whim through an interlocking lattice. They are the smallest machines physically possible within our perception of the world, but have yet to be achieved. Perhaps advanced enough fog could change the very structure of the molecules around them.
Foglets are the most likely form of extraterrestrial life. It fulfills the needs of complexity and utility, and is the most effective building block for any situation within a physical domain. But this is only on the microscopic scale- in a more macro sense, the foglets would assume whatever shape is needed. In most cases, this would just be a solid spheroid. The spheroid is easy to maneuver in any direction and consumes the least energy in doing so. If the foglets are unable to manifest computational power between themselves, the thought center of the machine would be contained in the center. It, too, would be modular and able to split into several pieces.
The resulting image is one that is nonhuman, but also replicates the form of nature.
Illustrations referenced here are unavailable in this archive copy.
All things in nature follow the form of least resistance, which typically is a spheroid with a dense center and hardened shell.
The atomic, the cellular, the primal, the planetary, the celestial, the galactic, and the universal all share this form. Extraterrestrial life will share this form as well.