# Stupid Star Wars question - are the "humans" homo sapiens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592 "2025-06-13T16:16:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/62 "2025-06-15T16:26:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He also said that the moisture vaporators were very similar to the language of a different piece of industrial equipment that he had had a lot of experience with. So there probably was some widespread machine language, just with minor variations for different applications (compare, say, Arduinos being programmed in a variant of C, just with a few custom libraries). Binary Load Lifters are what are apparently have a similar “language” to vaporators. Not sure if that means the lifter only has two positions or what. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/63 "2025-06-15T16:27:27Z")
I think it’s more just that, while he spoke 6 million languages, there were a lot more languages than that in the galaxy. Still, once you’ve learned that many, they all start looking pretty similar, so he was able to get by. Certainly, we know that, however he got there, he was able to get by, given that he was able to tell stories to the Ewoks that kept them rapt. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/64 "2025-06-15T16:36:35Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > Not sure if that means the lifter only has two positions or what. Well, obviously! Before you life it, it’s down, and after you lift it, it’s up. How many more positions do you need from a load lifter? (In universe, the answer is that “Binary” is actually the name of a machine language. R2’s beeps are in Binary.) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/65 "2025-06-15T16:43:00Z")
Talk about balkanized software development! Is there any reason they couldn’t have given little Arty Deco a voice subroutine/circuit/whatever sop he could speak? I mean, R units are supposed to work with “humans”, so maybe having them speak in something other than beep boops that require a protocol droid to interpret would have been a good idea? And let’s not get started on what, exactly, a poor dirt (excuse me, moisture) farmer is going to do with an R unit. Have it stand around and suck water out of the air? Repair mosturators? How is it going to tell Owen that “you need a new frabulator and a left-handed blivet” in boop beeps? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/66 "2025-06-15T17:09:20Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I mean, R units are supposed to work with “humans”… They _aren’t_ supposed to work with humans. They were designed to interface with other machines, not with people. The idea is that you have a bunch of R2 droids under the control of a central processor, like a ship’s computer, or factory mainframe. Humans interact with the central processor, and the processor passes on their commands to the R2 units. Ideally, the humans never directly interact with the R2 units at all. But a lot of Star Wars happens at the fringes of society, like a back-water moisture farm, or in exigent circumstances, like a military insurgency, where a lot of tech is being repurposed in ways they weren’t designed for, such as doing maintenance on moisture vaporators, or plotting hyperspace paths for war ships. In those situations, you can plug the R2 unit into a dumb terminal, and it can spit out what its saying as readable text. Not as elegant as the intended design, or as user friendly as installing a vocoder, but it gets the job done when you have limited resources. Presumably, at some point someone had enough money and spare time to get the full speech upgrade for R2, but never bothered. Possibly R2 himself refused - I can pretty easily see R2 having a general “fuck you, why should I change? Learn to speak Binary, meatbag” attitude to the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/67 "2025-06-15T17:12:14Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The British accents seem to have evolved into more of class distinction than an imperial one in Star Wars. Especially since the Galactic Empire has only been around for a generation. It was formed shortly before Luke and Leia were born. Of course, the Empire is just the Republic taken over and rebranded by a megalomaniac. And the Republic goes back more than 25,000 years. So that’s a pretty entrenched class system. > [@Chronos](#): > > People might well believe in the Force, and also believe in an afterlife, or afterlives, or morally-sorted afterlives. Absolutely. The different cultures of their galaxy have many different belief systems. The Force is sometimes part of them, at other times it’s just considered a myth. Even the concept of “God” as a supreme being is mentioned in canon, at least in the _Clone Wars_ cartoons and the _Mandalorian_ TV show. (These are exclamations like “Oh my God” or calling something “godforsaken”, so they may have just been sloppy writing, but they’re still canon.) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/68 "2025-06-15T17:23:19Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > if this all takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, how did the humans get there? I have a theory about this. Consider films set in ancient Rome or Greece or somewhere else on Earth at least a couple of thousand years ago. The people in the film speak modern English (or modern versions of whatever the filmmakers speak). The filmmakers want the audience to have some sort of relationship with the characters in the movie. So they have them all speak in a current language. So my theory is that the Star Wars universe does a “translation” on the species of most of the main characters. The filmmakers have decided that the audience must have some sort of relationship with the characters in the movie. So they have turned them into humans. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/69 "2025-06-15T17:32:12Z")
Compare _The Passion of the Christ_, which takes a different approach. It’s all in Aramaic, Latin and Greek, with English subtitles, to emphasise that it’s set in a different time, with different cultures, to what the modern viewer knows. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/70 "2025-06-15T17:34:48Z")
And, it’s a very serious film, whereas _Star Wars_ was always meant to be lighter, accessible entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/71 "2025-06-15T18:25:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > But a lot of Star Wars happens at the fringes of society, like a back-water moisture farm, or in exigent circumstances, like a military insurgency, where a lot of tech is being repurposed in ways they weren’t designed for, such as doing maintenance on moisture vaporators, or plotting hyperspace paths for war ships. So about like the “technicals” common in various African wars and insurrections. Or most of the stuff in _Mad Max_ movies. > **[Technical (vehicle)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_(vehicle))** > > A technical, known as a non-standard tactical vehicle (NSTV) in United States military parlance, is a light improvised fighting vehicle, typically an open-backed civilian pickup truck or four-wheel drive vehicle modified to mount SALWs and heavy weaponry, such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, anti-aircraft autocannon, rotary cannon, anti-tank weapon, anti-tank gun, ATGM, mortar, multiple rocket launcher, recoilless rifle, or other support weapon, somewhat like a light military gun... Bodged together collections of semi-functional detritus. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/72 "2025-06-15T19:03:00Z")
Artoo’s inability to speak Engl..uh Basic but still be able to communicate with humans is just some weird homage to Lassie. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/73 "2025-06-15T21:59:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s sometimes said that the Force is the religion of the Star Wars galaxy, but people are often syncretic, and they might not even think of the Force, with its obvious and visible effects, as being religious. Personally I think the issue is the opposite. The Force is, well, a _force;_ a natural phenomenon. Thing is, it’s a force that pushes all sorts of “spirituality” buttons in how it works, so people build religions around it and give it aspects and motives it doesn’t actually have in order to fit the narrative. So they do things like talk about submitting to the Will of the Force, as if a bunch of people decided to lie down and not stand back up because they didn’t want to defy the Will of Gravity. And they presume that what Force both “wants” things, and that what it wants is the morally correct choice instead of how a natural force happens to be aligned. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/74 "2025-06-20T19:32:16Z")
There are literally dead people who inhabit an afterlife through the power of the Force, and there are powerful Force beings who lived in an extraplanar home. It’s way more than just a natural phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/75 "2025-06-20T19:54:29Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > And apparently they all speak the king’s English > [@Dinsdale](#): > > Watching Andor, I find it curious that the humans all speak with British accents. Dubbed for us Earthlings, of course. 😇 Yep, as Asimov said- > [@Babale](#): > > But it seemed simpler and more desirable to use these familiar terms in describing events on this wholly alien world than it would have been to invent a long series of wholly Kalgashian terms. > > In other words, we could have told you that one of our characters paused to strap on his quonglishes before setting out on a walk of seven vorks along the main gleebish of his native znoob… This is why I hate SF books that invent a whole and useless new language and sprinkle the terms in, without bothering with a glossary. Or names with a lot of apostrophes, “Da’ve S’mi’Th”. 😀 Sure, in many SF films, Human or human-like species have appeared all over the Universe, even races like the vulcans- with green blood that somehow can interbreed and produce viable offspring. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > There are all sorts of Earth critter sounds laced with meaning that humans are unable to reproduce very well. There are several Earth Human “languages” that it takes training to speak- whistling Silbo Gomero click Khoisan, etc > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Compare _The Passion of the Christ_, which takes a different approach. It’s all in Aramaic, Latin and Greek, with English subtitles, to emphasise that it’s set in a different time, with different cultures, to what the modern viewer knows. Also a lot of viewers do not like subtitles, either they do not read well or have other issues. So, films with all subtitles are problematic. Personally I like closed captioning, but not everyone does. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/76 "2025-06-20T20:17:01Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > There are several Earth Human “languages” that it takes training to speak- whistling Silbo Gomero click Khoisan, etc All Earth human languages require training to speak, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/77 "2025-06-20T20:20:58Z")
Clearly they’re not Homo sapiens type humans. We don’t have Midichlorians. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/78 "2025-06-20T20:21:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > All Earth human languages require training to speak, of course. True. But from what i have heard, the average human has issues doing the whistling properly at all, ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/79 "2025-06-20T20:45:13Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Or is it, instead, an extreme example of convergent evolution I asked about this in a cantina in … I forget which city, but it was quite the hive. And a one-armed guy said “Hey, who you callin’ Homo? … I don’t like you!” > [@Hampshire](#): > > And apparently they all speak the king’s English. Well, the bad guys do (cf. Grand Moff Tarkin et al). It’s actually a fairly effective way to discover an Imperial spy: Grand Moff Tarkin in rebel uniform: “Charming to the last, Commander Organa…” Leia: “Wait a minute, say ‘Chahhming’ again.” Tarkin: “Chahhming… _What?_ All the _dudes_ in our _clubhouse_ say that. We’re all quite up on the slang these days.” Leia: “Chewie, bear hug this ‘rebel pilot’!” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/80 "2025-06-20T21:27:41Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > t’s all in Aramaic, Latin and Greek, with English subtitles Note though that the Aramaic that Jesus spoke was not mutually intelligible with modern Aramaic. They are like Old English and current English. One if derived from the other, but they have changed over the past two thousand years. The Latin spoken is closer to Ecclesiastical Latin (used in the Church) rather than the Classical Latin spoken during the time of Jesus. Some scholars argue that the Romans, particularly when interacting with the Jewish ruling class, would have spoken Koine Greek rather than Latin. The Romans who were in the eastern half of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus spoke mostly Koine Greek. While Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire, Greek was the language of commerce, administration, and everyday life in the Eastern Mediterranean. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/81 "2025-06-20T21:52:02Z")
given the state of military cooking thats a brave menu identifying the cooks lol [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592.md?page=5)