Science Forums 2

[UncleAl]

1) Oxidative metabolism with pumped gas flow. If you want to kick butt you need the power output. Gills, lungs on the outside, are fragile plumbing. Water does not carry enough oxygen/volume.

2) Endoskeleton. Exoskeletons (insects, arachnids) don't host much intelligence and don't allow much size. Absence of skeletons (octopus) host good intelligence but requires a dense support medium. No fire, folks, and no technology therefrom.

3) Sensory cluster up front and forward. It doesn't do you much good to know you are going to die after it happens. At least one near-field high spatial resolution sense and one far-field distance sense. It's gonna have eyes, sound, and chemical sensors. Stereolocation is important to survival. Some of the sensors will be at least paired.

4) Coarse and fine manipulation of the near-field environment. Something manipulable sticks out the center or on both sides, and it terminates in specialized anatomy. Ya gotta get a grip if you wish to evolve intelligence.

5) Symmetry. Evolution may diddle with that, but considerations of balance during locomotion argue for it overall. Ya gotta flee and pursue if you hope to survive as a species.

6) Accomodations for local gravity and lifestyle therein.

7) Odd chemistries? I think not. We are star tar. Life will pretty much run like stuff we have here. Fine points of metabolism will be altered.

Intelligent alien life will not look especially alien compared to the variety of local products. Customization may be interesting, espcailly if they invest in vigorous gene-gineering of their species. They may smell and sound severely alien - or be good to eat. I'd worry about reciprocal indulgences of that last possiblity.