Humans are the weirdest aliens?

Belated but yes, the heart is larger on the left so your left lung does not have a middle lobe and instead has the cardiac notch.

 

Also the appendix does have a function. It does exactly one thing apart from explode: it houses symbiotic bacteria, so if you have diarrhea so bad you lose all your gut flora or take a heavy course of antibiotics (and lose all your gut flora), they can recolonize from your appendix.

 

Resident bio grad student here to say yes, there's some Weird Shit out there.

 

There's a fungus out there that can 'photosynthesise' with radioactivity. There's creatures with 20 sexes. There's an animal that can survive the vacuum of space for 10 days. There's plants. Just. Plants in general, they're almost immune to cancer, if you flip them upside down the roots will grow leaves and the stems will turn into roots, they can apparently feel somewhat despite not having brains, you can clone almost any plant by cutting a bit off and growing it, stuff like that.

 

IIRC, fuzzy as the question of defining a "species" is with animals, plants are where you really have to bang your head against a wall or two...

 

I personally have an acessory spleen, which is a marble of spleen tissue just. Chillin. Doing nothing.

"But WHY" -- aliens probably

 

Forget plants, try bacteria.

 

half of human anatomy classes are like 'We don't know what this does but it's probably important'

 

what if a lot of sentient species are capable of regeneration? and the ones that aren't are basically done for if they get a major injury

humans will throw themselves into pretty much anything, so it's assumed we're one of those that can grow back limbs and organs. except it's discovered that nope, we can actually survive major trauma. and thrive afterwards, even!

on one hand, it might seem horrifying that humans can continue to go on with missing limbs and such, and will be missing them for the rest of their lives! like, alien uncanny valley

on the other hand...maybe it's inspiring? maybe aliens are startled at how good a quality of life a human can have after a disabling injury, or being born with a congenital disability. maybe some species choose to take a closer look at some of those they always just considered doomed unfortunates, and figures out if they can actually be supported, if they can go on living good and full lives

alien disability rights? idk man

 

That's actually a really interesting thing!
The regeneration thing.

 

More trouble than it's worth usually :P Unless the diseased kidneys take up a lot of space, then we might take them out (google polycystic kidneys if you want an idea of just how large kidneys can get...)

 

Alerts stopped for me on this thread for some reason, so I'm only just now catching up and I just. I really love everyone here. I love all of this.

(Also I finally watched Arrival yesterday! Way way better than I was expecting, and tbh a good note as to why if we're ever in that position, there shouldn't be only someone who specializes in human languages, but animal language as well. The heptapodes' spoken word sounded so much like cetacean chatter that I could almost make out their actual names and what they called themselves - 'whuaaa-click-click-click' or something similar.)

 

I really like the idea that humans make contact with the rest of the galaxy and Earth gets quietly slotted into the galactic role of The Entertainment Planet.

Like, imagine we meet aliens and it turns out they've been watching our tv shows for decades. Somehow, human shows are universally relatable/appealing across species lines. Half of the Galactic Council is still hooked on How I Met Your Mother.
Human entertainment companies immediately adapt to a MUCH wider market. Netflix launches a show called SPACE COPS: True Stories starring Xggllr of Vorn and RRTHHK of Tauros-V, and RATINGS HAVE NEVER BEEN HIGHER.
Eventually, Earth becomes Space Hollywood. Any galactic entertainment meant for a wide audience is produced there, and actors of all stripes and species trek there for their Big Break. Studio execs chomp on giant cigars and call everyone "Kid", even that 2-meter-tall Rylian that just touched down that morning, fangs still dripping slime.
Imagine.

 

i read somewhere that if aliens made contact with us, we'd probably mostly be trading them entertainment and so on, because it'd be highly unlikely that they'd have much demand for our technology.

 

imagine explaining memes to aliens

 

aliens probably have their own memes
but you'd still have to explain enough of human cultures to explain our memes

 

@BunjyWunjy this is actually a minor thing in the transformers rp thread! The characters' home planet hasn't really been focused on media creation that isn't propaganda for a long time, so everyone passes around Earth shows.

 

Nice to know Thundercracker isn't an isolated case :)

 

The more I see robotics labs making robots that move like animal, and with how much I see robots that are supposed to move like humans failing utterly, the more I realize how fucking improbably human locomotion is and how upright movement shouldn't exist in the natural world.

What if we're the only species that stands upright like that. We get a reputation as a weird looking species, because we're so long and balanced on such a tiny footprint, like a snake up standing up on its tip. How do we not fall over? it's an intergalactic mystery!

 

I have a Complaint about the Humans Are Best Aliens genre, and that is the lack of religion. I want a story where the Space Amish consider AI a sin and fly all their spaceships manually. Where Space Orthodox Jews go into cryo every Friday, and Space Muslims argue about the halal status of sex with aliens. Just. Religions evolving, and integrating science, and finding out how to survive in a universe they weren't built for. And also weirding out the xenos, always a plus. P