And I can only repeat what I have said before- a humanoid alien would not share any of our evolutionary past, so would have significantly different body plan to a human. It would not be a vertebrate sensu strictu, for example, so would need to have evolved an erect skeletal structure from an entirely different starting point. The taxon 'vertebrate' is not found anywhere except on Earth, and if there are any creatures with backbones out there in the universe they will have as many differences as similarities to vertebrates on Earth.
eburacum,
I agree that exo-biologists generally believe that ("should there actually be") other aliens (if there are, we also then are aliens), would most probably exhibit a large diversity of form. Drs. Jim Funaro and Ira Reed(sp?) of Cabrillo.edu, an anthropology school, for several years hosted a few of the annual the NASA "Culture Of The Imagination" COTI 'Contact' conference[1][2].
These conferences are attended by thousands of scientists world wide, who are interested in the many disciplines of the alien subject. Jim Funaro's entire schema 'schtick' is alien diversity. Any exo-biologist of any import attends. UFOologists are not welcome, anymore than morticians are at an cryo-extended-life expo! I was invited due to my search model I was promoting in those days and while it doesn't mean very much, my website was the first of only a very few to be linked on the NIDS website. I was invited by the NIDS research director and I was introduced to Bob Bigelow, he was hob-knobbing with John Peterson of the 'Peterson Institute', a consultant to the Office of the President, during Clinton's administration. In my hotel room at the venue, I was demonstrating my ETp, Luminous-Orb interaction experiment platform[3] to a group of NASA scientist & NIDS people. John Peterson, in disgust, threw up his hands and left my hotel room, when I explained that luminous-orbs (BOLs, NLP, Ignacious-Corpus, Corpse-Candles, Marfa-Lights, Spook Lanterns, etc, to cite a few of the 1200 or so names assigned to the objects) are often seen in cemetaries hovering around the plots of recently buried Jewish people. The others hung around. Orthodox Jewish via religious doctrine are mandated to be buried, intact, within 24 hours of their transition. These type 'orbs', appx the size of a large cantaloupe, and which are seeable with the unaided eye, have historically been associated with cemetaries. They might not be ET, but what exactly is the definition of ET? EBE not normally around here? However that may be, these objects have been reported in numerous disparate circumstances, locations, and scenarios, such as scenes of intense violence, the so-called "foo-fighters" of the WW-II European Aerial Combat Theatre, invasion beaches of Normandy. I was given daylight UPI photos that were taken clandestinely during a mass execution of Cambodians by Communist Chinese Military during the 1960~1970 US Vietnam War. They are often sighted exiting out the bottoms of discs. These luminous-orb objects among other characteristics, change colors apparently dependant upon different circumstances. It is my opinion that I have the mapped the colors. However, there are behaviors exhibited that I and other LO investigators do not understand. These objects are clearly intelligent, exhibit awareness of Human thinking and frequently alter their physical behavior persuant to intent, such as 'disappearing' the instant before a photo is snapped. They don't have appendages or eyes or ears, etc. They do not think like us, but they are telepathic or perhaps their version of mecha are? In any case there are many instances which illustrate that these objects respond to Human unspoken intentions and frequently do so at considerable distance, however, that behavior is not just unique to luminous-orbs. If they employ EMF strategies, it is very good, as I have expended considerable effort to shield any tempest that might be radiated in my instrumentation apparati and it did no good. I used my calibrated HP-8568B[3] for the studies, and anything else I could apply or conjure.
Dr. Reed & Funaro weave the course via environmental influences, in that they believe, and rightfully so, I suspect, that the environment is a major element in the physical evolution of a specis. Once a year, they challenge the local area high-schools with some contest and the two school winner teams, then using software programs that Cabrillo.edu developed, the team members select environment constraints which then are used to semi-auto-generate a physical formed EBE as derived in part from the world environment that they designed. The high-school team members then learn the traits of those EBEs, their forms and sensory advantages and disadvantages (inherently via comparison with Humanoids), putting on costumes to play the part of the EBEs that they co-created. On the last day of the conference the two teams are allowed first contact with each other, on stage, playing the roles of the EBEs working through difficulties of their physical inequalities and constraints of the physical forms. It is a fascinating expose. For myself it is the most interesting demonstration of the conference. Everyone is there including SETI, SETA, SETV.
Its a fun conference.
plutronus
1) COTI -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_Conference
2) Contact Conference:
http://www.contact-conference.com
3) ETp - Luminous-Orb Contact Experiment -
4) HP-8568B Spectrum Analyzer -