LAST Sunday we went en famille to see Independence Day, and we all enjoyed it greatly. The film is over two hours of non stop escapist entertainment and works very well at that level. It contains several popular concepts about science and alien life. I will discuss here what alien intelligent life eight look like, and also the image of the scientist as portrayed in Independence Day.
Life on earth is carbon based, i.e., is composed of molecules and compounds made by stringing carbon atoms together in long chains and in rings. Carbon is the most versatile element of the 92 natural elements as regards ability to combine with itself and other atoms to form many compounds. Carbon-based life operates in a background of water - 75 per cent by weight of living tissue is water.
The scientific consensus as to the origin of life on earth is that certain essential carbon compounds arose by chance and gradually developed (evolved) into more complicated self replicating molecules. These self replicating molecules eventually became sequestered into the first self replicating living cells. From this simple beginning all of the life forms on earth subsequently evolved.
The evolution of life requires an external source of energy, which in the case of the earth is supplied by the sun. Apart from that, all that is required are the basic laws of physics that are inherent in the structure of the universe.
It is therefore obvious that life could arise elsewhere in the universe. If that life is carbon based in an aqueous background, it will probably have developed along the same basic biochemical plan as life on earth.
Such life could evolve only under certain fairly narrowly defined conditions. For example, life, such as found on earth, would never evolve on a planet whose temperature was significantly outside the range from the freezing point to the boiling point of water.
HOWEVER, this does not mean that life of a different kind could not arise and evolve on a planet where conditions and climate were radically different to those of earth. For example, if the average temperatures on such a planet were much higher than the boiling point of water, life might begin and evolve based on silicone, a mixture of carbon and silicon, which has possibilities almost as flexible as carbon alone, but can withstand much higher temperatures.
What would alien life, advanced to a stage of intelligence equivalent to current human intelligence, look like? It might well look similar to the human form, since the basic principles underlying this organisation make good sense.
It makes good sense to have skeleton framework, made of a hard substance, on which to hang the softer parts. It makes good sense to have the central intelligence processing unit, together with the main sensory organs, located in a separate movable part. Some form of appendages would be necessary for locomotion (legs) and for physical manipulation of the environment (hands).
The aliens in Independence Day, although superficially different in appearance to humans, are built to the same design. They each have a head, a trunk, and leg and arm appendages. The head contains two eyes, apparently of the same basic design as the human eye.
Again this would not be surprising since the laws of physics (the same everywhere in the universe) dictate that the refraction (bending) of light necessary to form an image requires a translucent lens. In addition to manipulable parts on appendages (fingers, hands), the aliens in Independence Day also have tentacles.
These would be useful for comprehensive manipulation of the environment. Indeed, we humans are rather limited in this respect, with only two arms. Some animals are a little better equipped, having some use of their tails.
The foregoing musings may be somewhat anthropocentric. Some have visualised the form of alien intelligent life as being entirely different to the basic human form. For example, in a famous science fiction story, The Black Cloud, Fred Hoyle pictured alien intelligent life in the form of an interstellar cloud.
What might alien life look like if it were advanced far beyond the level of current human development? All life becomes more socialised and co operative as it develops. Life on earth began in a unicellular form. The first animals were single celled forms - the protozoa.
But in order for animal forms to develop beyond that stage it was necessary for individual cells to band together and cooperate with each other as multicellular organisms. Such an organism has much more power and scope than a unicellular organism, but its individual component cells have lost their independence.
CONSIDER your body. It is composed of billions of cells organised into tissues and organs. Each cell is descended historically from a form that lived independently. But there is no independent existence in the body. Each cell resides in a definite spot, where it remains.
Each cell carries out only certain specialised functions, although each has the capacity to carry out a much wider range of functions. Each cell spends its entire life co operating with its immediate neighbours.
Now, consider developments of social organisation. Are we not here, in an analogous fashion to the biological development just outlined, similarly and gradually surrendering our individual independence in order to confer greater powers on a super organism society?
Imagine a second Ireland identical in its natural habitat with present Ireland but completely devoid of every trapping of modern civilisation. In other words, no physical infrastructure, no agriculture, no central authority, no medicine, etc, etc.
Now imagine being suddenly placed in this alternative Ireland. Would you survive? Probably not. The chances are high that you would soon die either by starvation, violent attack from a neighbour or wild animal, death from exposure to the elements, and so on.
And yet all that is being asked of you is to live in conditions that were the everyday lot of early man, when people lived in small groups and were each as independent and self sufficient as are wild animals today. We have each sacrificed a lot of individual independence in favour of strengthening the "super organism" of society. That process is proceeding at an accelerating rate. Where will it end? If we were to visit another planet with a very advanced civilisation would we find a single super organism whose individual members worked for the good of the whole with the same selfless dedication with which the cells in our bodies strive for the good of the whole? Is this where we are also headed?
A word about the portrayal of scientists in Independence Day. The principal scientist is a pathetic stereotype. In appearance he is somewhat dishevelled, with longish hair, which is the stock stereotypical of the intellectual. In manner and habit he is portrayed as a narrow eccentric, interested only in pursuing his own research and with little knowledge of the wider picture.
Such a person would cheerfully, and, of course, quite "logically", dissect his own mother if she died of something interesting, in order to further advance knowledge in that area.
This image is nonsense. You can no more categorise scientists as a group than you can any other group. The one thing that differentiates scientists from other groups is that they do science. Otherwise they are a motley lot.
And finally a word about the alien psychology as portrayed in the film. These aliens are nasty. They are out to destroy human civilisation and to plunder the earth. It seems most unlikely to me that an advanced alien civilisation could retain evil intentions on such a widespread basis.
It seems to me that, if they were that aggressive, they would have destroyed themselves long before developing the capacity for interstellar travel. I would expect very advanced civilisations to be kindly in temperament. But then, maybe I'm just an emotional and sentimental scientist.
