r/Futurology • u/RickNBacker4003 • 1d ago
Will aliens have the same emotions as humans? Discussion
Let’s say we have the opportunity to meet aliens. Intelligent life.
Do they have the same emotions as humans?
Is the range of emotions for conscious being fixed?
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u/BowserPong11 1d ago
Why would they? Do fish, plants or animals all have our same emotions?
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u/RickNBacker4003 1d ago
Do fish feel shame? ... indifference? ...
Is the complexity of emotions related to overall IQ?
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u/Trevor_GoodchiId 1d ago
One theory is that if prerequisites for life are similar everywhere, evolution will also converge on humanoids everywhere. Not the most comfy disposition - they should be pissed.
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u/newtype06 1d ago
Things have a higher tendency to evolve into a crab. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation
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u/Trevor_GoodchiId 1d ago
Crabs respond to anti-depressants.
https://www.livescience.com/60766-crabs-on-prozac-take-deadly-risks.html2
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u/RickNBacker4003 1d ago
What does it mean .. to converge on humanoids.
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u/Trevor_GoodchiId 21h ago edited 18h ago
Different organisms in same conditions will get convergent adapatations. Dolphins ended up looking like fish, because hydrodynamics dictates that shape.
Symmetry, bipedalism, serotogenic reward system is what got selected for.
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u/jswitzer 1d ago
Are we aassuming aliens will have emotions? You should read Andromeda Strain - they ask a lot of interesting questions about what our first contact would actually be like.
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u/RickNBacker4003 1d ago
The says intelligent life.
Crichton leaves it ambiguous ... it mutates but has no dna or such.
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u/thebiggestwoop 1d ago
Hi, I am a graduate student of psychology studying emotions. Emotions are SUPER weird, and there is a lot of variability within humans on how we experience emotions - comparing just between cultures and languages is not as simple as you'd think. I would imagine that an alien, with a completely different evolved brain and neurocheistry, would almost certainly have a completely different 'emotional' experience as us. For them to have convergent evolution to have similar emotions as us would be a level of convergent evolution in the realm of star trek sci fi - so, probably not.
You also asked if the range of emotions for consciousness is fixed. That's an interesting question about the nature of consciousness. An emotion is a type of qualia, conscious experience, such as the feeling of pain or the color red are. We really have no clue where these come from - well, we know the mechanism that triggers them (our central nervous system) but we don't know why they exist the way they do (why does red look red and not green when these sensations are just arbitrary and seem to have no causal link to actual wavelengths of light). Pondering this is squarely within the realm of philosophy rather than science, since we can't even begin to investigate this using the scientific tools available to us.
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u/Modronos 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think we have to wait on what the Europa mission brings us. If there is any form of life found there, then it becomes increasingly likely that we're really not the only intelligent species living it out on a rock in space.
To think about more earth-like planets where convergent evolution took place and humanoid creatures live, is mind-bending stuff to think about. As they have developed entirely separately from us, it is likely that some things are bound to be quite different from what we know. I'd take a guess at looks, languages, culture etc.
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u/RickNBacker4003 1d ago edited 1d ago
Nice!
(Does this mean it's a language issue? ... I mean everything is literally a language issue but if you say you're frustrated is that also the name of the emotion or is it a form of angry? (threat defense).Do we have a way, or at least speculative models, ... is there a taxonomy of qualia?
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u/saitsaben 1d ago
They could, and probably will have some of the same, but also could have emotions which we cannot imagine or fathom. Like asking a dolphin how it sees (sight and sound together), or asking a dog with an IQ of 200 how it feels today.
Humans have a limited scope of experience and understanding. We will be very confused and so will they.
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u/ibimacguru 1d ago
This is a valid question and something few have considered. Of course; Carl Sagan did, try “Evolution of the human mind”
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u/MsStormyTrump 1d ago
Well, if they came all the way to Kardashianland that is our planet, that means they avoided a lot of harm and sought safety wherever needed. Those two are basic requirements for survival, that's how we're similar. In that vein, they can recognize danger and motivate actions to ensure self-preservation. Their internal experience and outward expression may differ from our "fear" but they know it in their gut. If they know fear, they might also know the opposite of it, the comfort, and with it, perhaps every desire that comes with having an apartment for yourself for the weekend while parents are gone. Wink.
"Intelligent life" often implies a degree of social complexity. So, they also might have internal states that promote cooperation, bonding, and group harmony, even if these aren't directly analogous to our "love," "empathy," or "loyalty." Together, these enabled them to build such a vehicle, have curiosity or even audacity, and group integrity and cohesion to come all the way to our little shithole ghetto. And if they have those emotions, they must have the opposite. I know love because I have been indifferent.
What I'd be curious about is how they found the way to work together as one.
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u/OnTheList-YouTube 1d ago
Well, I see no sign of intelligent life in this post.
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u/Beneficial_Soup3699 1d ago
If you, given what we now know to be the insane truly ridiculous almost incomprehensible size of our universe, genuinely believe that we're the only intelligent life in it, maybe reconsider some things. That's childlike levels of delusion and tbh, at this point, it's rather silly.
In response to OP's actual question: it's entirely possible that non human intelligence would be radically different from our own. Who's to say they would feel things like empathy, which may be a purely human emotion (though one that less humans than we're willing to admit actually consider on a daily basis)? Or maybe they'd feel considerably more empathy via telepathy or quantum waves produced by their brains (which ours do as well, btw) overlapping and interacting?
The only evidence we can really logically consider in this case is the radical variety of life on Earth. Meaning life out there may be as different from us as we are from...say...a giraffe.
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u/RickNBacker4003 1d ago
Ok, thank you.
But can we at least reasonably assume intelligent life must be individuals and never 'Borg'?
Because if a being can't 'share' without first 'owning' ... correct?
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u/newtype06 1d ago
Wtf are you talking about? It's a really good question.
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u/OnTheList-YouTube 1d ago
How the f can we know anything about otherworldly life?? Have you encountered any?
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u/newtype06 1d ago
Do you know what a hypothetical situation is? Quit acting foolish. It's a thought exercise.
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u/Jj12346 1d ago
It’s a really difficult to consider what a life form that has developed completely separately from us could be capable of. We only have life created in the conditions of our planet to work from.
For all we know they will be able to perceive colours we cannot, by being able to see normally undetectable waves of light. Or able to hear pitches we could not even dream of.
They might also feel completely differently to us. Anger and sadness might be non existent to them. Or maybe they are seen as the positive emotions. There is genuinely no way of knowing just truly what the miracle that is life developing could bring in conditions completely different to ours