[PvK]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:

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Originally posted by PvK:

Aliens from another evolutionary history might think in extremely different ways.

PvK

I disagree with that. Both the evolutionary part and the different ways. Well, not that they may think differently, but the type of different. A gas being from the gas giant Gafefaf would percieve it's environment differently, it's environment would shape it's reactions and thought processes, but it would still need social behavior, or it would die out.

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If you say so. You haven't defined "social behavior" though, and I would think that "social behavior" could still be extremely different. Defining "social behavior" as an extremely broad term just gives it plenty of room for extremely different types of behavior within that term.

Meanwhile, on the gas planet Ugwahuk, perhaps the intelligent life there acts like a planetary gestalt, with no individuals, just a flow of life an consciousness spread throughout the Ugwahsphere. That probably defies any definition of "social behavior".

And it would need emotions, to give it reasons to do things. It would need thought processes, to process information. And it would need instincts, to tell it what to do when the others failed or wouldn't be fast enough.

Robots don't need emotions to have reasons to do things. Neither, presumably do plants. The German scientists who were surprised the dog knew about sneaking an illicit bite to eat would probably try to tell you that animals don't have emotions. Of course, he's a close-minded fool, but still. I have a hard time seeing exactly what you're saying, and why I would think it'd contradict "extremely different thinking".

And all the things you can think of that it might have can be done with a human brain.

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An imagination challenge?

Ok, so suppose an alien race has interchangable brains. Maybe they converse by sharing grey matter, mixing it around and forming new individual consciousnesses as their fancy strikes them. Can humans do that?

But, what about trees? They have no brain. True, but they have counterparts for those things, which can be simulated by a human brain. Maybe not fully, but I addressed that in a previous post.

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So you are saying that you are disagreeing that trees think in extremely different ways from humans?

PvK