A Collection of Consideration on the Nature of Extraterrestrial Life in the Human Psyche





A Collection of Consideration on the Nature of Extraterrestrial Life in the Human Psyche
By Ian Merrifield

Along with taking on a vast plethora of forms, Aliens can also serve as metaphors for many different concepts and ideas we experience in life. The sheer versatility of said metaphors display one unique nature of many in our relationship with the rest of the universe: our sheer lack of control in it. Given our excruciatingly small sphere of influence over the cosmos, much of the universe is both unknown and unreachable (in fact, if the universe is truly infinite, then we have discovered exactly 0% of it!), offering a blank check with which a storyteller can afford any version of aliens they see fit, explaining, in turn, why depictions are so varied.
        The unknowable nature of extraterrestrial life can inspire all different forms of reactions from people–some recoil, fearing the unknown, while others, guided by loneliness, desperately hope to find connection beyond our own kind. Both of these reactions are quite human in nature; we must fear the unknown to survive in the wild, while also seeking out connection as an innately social species. However, the most common reaction must surely be that of hope for contact from non-human beings. With the expansion of human connection and increasing globalization of human society, many of us have grown incredibly used to contacting almost any member of our own without difficulty. Our biological desire to broaden our social network, in conjunction with the normalization of global communication, drive many to endeavor beyond our current limits and look past our own species when desiring another to communicate with. Since extraterrestrial life is one of the largest unknown entities in most human lives, vast fear over such a concept is not only common, but inevitable in many of us. Despite how powerful a human emotion fear is, loneliness is undoubtedly an even more dire one (many humans already challenge their fears to overcome loneliness). Therefore, from the social factors we can see within ourselves, hope for contact surely overpowers fear of the unknown in the case of extraterrestrial life.
        No matter how scientifically accurate or well theorized and researched an alien species is, I find it hard to believe that humans could come up with a credible version of an alien species. This view stems not only from the fact that any iteration we imagine is ultimately tainted by the marks of the human mind, but also our sheer lack of knowledge of the universe. We, as humans, inevitably reflect ourselves–along with our preconceived notions–onto our creations, no matter how far or distant they are from ourselves. And our ignorance of the universe only makes such a problem worse because, even if a large number of educated humans worked together to minimize any bias, the collection would be basing their opinions on an incomplete model of the universe, which very well may cause an oversight from a case where our models are incorrect. Hence, although some aliens may seem more plausible to us than others, we ultimately have no way to escape the inaccuracies caused by both our ignorance and innate human biases.

Comments

  1. Kyujin Park-WharramSeptember 26, 2026 at 1:57 PM

    I completely agree with the fact that humans always base things on themselves or things they have seen or made. Even the aliens from Arrival and Project Hail Mary have Earthly features such as octopus-like finger-limbs or a spider-like body with basic hands. Even though they are missing eyes, they communicate in a human-intelligible fashion, making whirring sounds or manipulating black ink stuff in the air. The short story, “Bookmaking Habits of Select Species,” depicts a species that speaks and reads record-like grooves, a species that acts like a computer, and a species that is at constant war, just like things on Earth. Your post also made me think of immigrants in the United States: some of us want to meet them, and learn how unique and yet how familiar they are, and some of us outright fear and dread them, and will never admit any remote similarity to them (hence the term is “alienation”).

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