# Most alien aliens **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2013, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296 "2013-10-26T11:08:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/41 "2013-10-26T21:32:31Z")
The insects from Enders game are the standard to me. They can’t communicate with humans and structures built by them cause humans to feel uneasy. There are examples all over, but the key point is their language is so alien to us as to be indecipherable. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/42 "2013-10-26T21:36:19Z")
It’s been a long time since I read them, but I recall several of Robert Forward’s books having very alien aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Reepicheep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/43 "2013-10-26T21:55:18Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I don’t know if Galactus would be considered an alien. Isn’t he more like an aspect of the universe? Yes he is an aspect of the universe, however I was going by alien as a being not of origin on Terra. But you are probably right that as part of the universe pre Big Bang, Galactus is not an alien as we normally think of an alien. As a truer alien the living clouds on Jupiter from Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 series. Non sentient but still living. I had always felt bad when they were destroyed when Jupiter became a star. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/44 "2013-10-26T21:56:42Z")
The Titans from John Varley’s series, _Titan,_ _Wizard_ and _Demon_. They were living space habitats the size of a small moon. He tried to make their motivations out to be non-human but failed pretty badly. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/45 "2013-10-26T22:07:17Z")
In the Sector General series by James White one comes across alien species of many varieties , each requiring different environments and having different physiologies . They are treated by a multispecies team of health care workers. Species range from insectoid , piscine , humanoid to caterpillar like and radioactive beetles with a group mind. IIRC there may also be a wheel like creature which needs to rotate constantly to maintain its circulation . There is also, I think, a sentient planet. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/46 "2013-10-26T22:09:00Z")
Seems to me the most alien aliens would be the ones so incomprehensible that it would not only be impossible to communicate with them, it would be impossible to comprehend their motives and relative frame of experience. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/47 "2013-10-26T22:10:23Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > So this is a thread to help me find the notable exceptions to this rule, those works of fiction in which the aliens aren’t just big blue hippies or man-sized cats. Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga ([Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Saga#Pandora.27s_Star)) has some of the most alien aliens I’ve read. Wikipedia’s description: > [@](#): > > They consist of intelligent immotiles that breed and control vast armies of sub-sentient ‘motiles’ via electronically extended neural interfaces. The few immotiles constantly vie with each other for territories and resources. They seem like the kind of alien where there’s no possibility of real communication, because the world views of the two species are just too freaking different. They’re terrifying to me. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/48 "2013-10-26T22:37:24Z")
Several stories from Harlan Ellison’s “Dangerous Visions” anthologies would do. “Flies” by Robert Silverberg does not even describe the Golden Ones other than that they are not of protplasm. They are known by the actions they took and the impact it had. Another one in “Again, Dangerous Visions” by Gahan Wilson, whose title was an inkblot, has an alien that is that title, a two dimensional being appearing to us as an inkblot on and eventually taking over the page. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/49 "2013-10-26T23:08:03Z")
For a combination of completely alien and fully realized, you can’t beat \*_Octavia Butler_ IMO. Her _Imago_ series is excellent. There’s also another piece by her, a short story, I think, in which the aliens are collective creatures that resemble bushes and communicate with humans tactilely–I can’t think of the name, though. Anyone know it? > [@Superhal](#): > > The insects from Enders game are the standard to me. They can’t communicate with humans and structures built by them cause humans to feel uneasy. There are examples all over, but the key point is their language is so alien to us as to be indecipherable. Surely the Piggies from the sequel _Speaker for the Dead_ are even more alien. Another excellent example of truly alien beings who are nevertheless fully realized characters, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/50 "2013-10-26T23:32:27Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The Tines from Vernor Vinge’s Zones of Thought setting. Wolflike creatures that come in packs of 6-8; the pack is sapient, while the individual bodies are only components of the overall mind. The bodies are linked together by ultrasound to form the group-mind, which can long outlast any particular individual body. The Tines are also featured in depth in his book _A Fire Upon the Deep_. It also includes some tentacled aliens who came from the ocean and like to go back and sway in the tides for years to think, some humanoids with butterfly wings and some other aliens that only communicate through an interstellar internet are mentions as being “cloud beings” or things like that. It also has races of aliens that have transcended into sort of supernatural powers that can’t really be understood by those that haven’t transcended. His other book _A Deepness in the Sky_ features intelligent spiders-type creatures that are basically going through the same scientific revolution that we went through in the 1900s. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/51 "2013-10-26T23:46:12Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > IIRC, he was chided by someone for not writing sex scenes. He decided to do it, but created an alien race that had three sexes, making the sex scene somewhat unusual. IIRC, he was chided for _both_: not writing sex, and not writing aliens. So he’d do sci fi with humans in the not-so-distant future and their increasingly humanlike robots, or humans in the far-distant future with their interstellar civilization built around psychohistory, or humans going all over the place with time travel, and all of 'em pretty sexless – and so he took up both challenges simultaneously. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/52 "2013-10-26T23:59:09Z")
There was a TNG episode that attempted to explain why so many aliens and humans were so similar and compatible. Apparently some ancient aliens mucked around on Earth, the Klingon homeworld, Vulcan, etc and inserted stuff into the various races DNA. As for very alien aliens… how about the Quintessons, from Transformers the Movie. Five faces on one head/body, with a bunch of tentacles for limbs. Oh, also they are living but also mechanical (as this was the Transformers movie). ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/53 "2013-10-27T00:11:25Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > There was a TNG episode that attempted to explain why so many aliens and humans were so similar and compatible. Apparently some ancient aliens mucked around on Earth, the Klingon homeworld, Vulcan, etc and inserted stuff into the various races DNA. Tracked it down, it’s s6 ep20, The Chase. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/54 "2013-10-27T00:16:56Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Tracked it down, it’s s6 ep20, The Chase. That’s all? If she were not dead, I would kill her. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/55 "2013-10-27T01:07:03Z")
Two contributions: Pierson’s Puppeteers, from Larry Niven’s 'verse. Physically very different from humanoid - three legged, asymmetric, brains not located in their heads. Personalitywise, not so much - cowardly Magnificent Bastards. Turned up to eleven. The second is much more like what you are looking for: the creatures who created the waterspouts in Heinlein’s Goldfish Bowl. You never see them, you never get a hint at their thought processes or motivations. They are so far beyond humanity that they aren’t even aware of us. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/56 "2013-10-27T01:09:11Z")
Admiral! There be WHALES here! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/57 "2013-10-27T02:34:34Z")
Animation is not subject to the same restraints as live-action, so I think a good candidate would be Yivo, from the _Futurama_ movie “The Beast With A Billion Backs.” Although his way of thinking wasn’t too alien (he wanted to experience sex and love, but with every being in the universe simultaneously), his appearance was suitably bizarre. He was an immense many-tentacled being made from electomatter that couldn’t live in our universe, but he could provide a habitat for everyone from our universe to live on him. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/58 "2013-10-27T02:40:44Z")
[My vote.](http://caffeine-fueled.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/giorgio-tsoukalos.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/59 "2013-10-27T07:52:31Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > [My vote.](http://caffeine-fueled.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/giorgio-tsoukalos.jpeg) A [Centauri](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AC-LnN0Wz1M/TO76l7WugZI/AAAAAAAAAYU/uUehun93AcY/s1600/vir_londo.jpg) with a bad hair day? Anyway, some very good suggestions so far. Kepp them coming! ---
**Author:** ![Reverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@Reverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reverse)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2013, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296/60 "2013-10-27T08:21:05Z")
Reedman from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is pretty damn alien. He’s vomited out by a robotic jaguar which was pooped out by a metallic tentacle monster raping a satellite, and he starts out as a collection of tiny little metallic spheres. Then the spheres form together, creating what is basically a metallic, paper-thin, razor-sharp praying mantis. A really scary and alien design. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-alien-aliens/672296.md?page=4)