PZ Myers on Alien Biology

Sean here. To get you ready for what I want to talk about this week, I’m going to have to take a page from biologist PZ Myers and show you a little porn. I’ve hidden it below the page break, so click through when you’re ready to get a little sexy.

Mmm… yeah… Lemme tell ya, if you’re a male chimp, you’re probably awkwardly excusing yourself to go to the bathroom right now.

Oh wait. You’re a human? And this female chimp – who is practically a kissing cousin to humanity and not an alien that evolved on an alien planet with an entirely alien biochemistry – isn’t arousing? Not even a little?

That’s one of the points of this lecture by Myers, as well as the next few posts that I’m going to make here – that science fiction aliens, for the most part, aren’t all that alien.

Unfortunately, they aren’t all that alien in Covenant, either. Most of them are humanoid, and I think they’re pretty recognizable and relatable. They’d have to be, if you wanted to play one in a game.

What I do want to do in the game, though, is look at how aliens interact, both socially as well as chemically. This approach has some drawbacks, like no sexy aliens.

I think that the trade-off will be worth it, though. Tune in tomorrow for more.