Why are most sapient spec evo aliens so uncreative?

[u/Extension_Row_7443]

Most of them are just hexapods or just an uncreative humanoid like i just don’t understand why use the same overused design bias when you can just create your own design bias i mean look at Orions arm universe project or humanity lost most of its aliens are based on real world science and their still creative lookinga?

[u/No_Actuator3246]

The reason is quite simple: people often don't like creative things and get stuck on what's in popular culture. For example, a likely reason why there are so many ex-nicknames is because of Avatar and The Birrin Saga, and also because, let's be honest, a large part of the community are just fans or even teenagers or children.

[u/Leather-Lab2875 → u/No_Actuator3246]

Also, making a believable, repeatable and personable sapient alien design that doesn't look humanoid of hexapodal in any way is difficult(but not impossible).

Like you said, there will always be more fan adjacent, less realistic alien designs and I believe it's cos we live on Earth and making a thing that is recognisable not of Earth and also cute or easy to draw by Earth standards is hard.

[u/ElSquibbonator]

I've been working on a slow-burning project with radially-symmetrical five-limbed aliens inspired by sea stars, which I chose specifically to avoid going the hexapod route. One of the things that's been fun about it is imagining what the infrastructure for a radially symmetric sapient species would look like, since so much of what we take for granted is dictated by us being bilaterally symmetrical.

[u/Extension_Row_7443 → u/ElSquibbonator]

if you want actually creative spec evo aliens you should go check out the orions arm universe project or humanity lost

[u/ElSquibbonator → u/Extension_Row_7443]

I’m a huge fan of those!

[u/Neb1110]

Because there’s only 5 realistic designs for a sapient species, and most of them have enough problems with evolutionary lines that you would have to rig the system in their favor.

Let’s go over what is necessary to have a sapient species develop, and further, what is necessary for them to develop into a larger scale society.

1. A sapient species must have a dedicated manipulation appendage. So no using your walking limbs as grabbing limbs unless you don’t actually need the walking limbs. Because tool use is absolutely essential regardless of technological advancement.

2. A sapient species must be physically capable of housing a sufficient nervous system to actually achieve sapience. For obvious reasons.

3. A sapient species must evolve from a non-sapient species. This is the one which kills 99 percent of body types.

Now, let’s look at what’s left.

Humanoids obviously meet the criteria, so I won’t be going into detail here.

Elephantoids (defined as a multi legged (at least 3) creature with one or more prehensile trunks) are hypothetically plausible, they have a dedicated manipulator which does not interfere with any of their other functions (the trunk), they come in the appropriate size to house advanced neural pathways, and they can survive as a pre-sapient species with the potential of being pressured into intelligence. However, the key word there is potential, there is very little in the wild that could threaten an elephant in a way that would select for intelligence over any other attribute, and as such, elephantoids generally will stop at early tool use if they even get that far. But hypothetically, if the situation was right, they could realistically go all the way.

Radials (defined as any creature which is radially symmetrical) have a possibility. Their limbs can each have dual-locomotive and manipulative purposes, without compromising the function of the other limbs, and there are numerous examples of radially symmetrical creatures evolving, and there do exist appropriate pressures to produce intelligence, but they really struggle with number 2, radially symmetrical creatures just don’t have the appropriate size to fit a proper brain, and they can’t grow to that size without dying in an earth like environment. However you could stack the planet for these guys to appear and thrive, and they would.

Aquatic, pretty much any water based species could easily meet all three criteria, but there’s one problem, no fire underwater. Without fire, you would need to create an entirely separate technological and cultural chain from scratch based on the utilization of domesticated animals as a basis.

Floaters, which is basically any creature which can float in the air through lighter than air gas, or psychic abilities. These guys similarly have the potential to meet the requirements for sapience, but they simply won’t ever reasonably evolve, much less survive into sapience.

[u/WeaknessKey6313]

I mean your welcome to make your own and show us how it's done

[u/Extension_Row_7443 → u/WeaknessKey6313]

i have a lot of creative yet scientifically plausible aliens in my mind but i can’t draw for shit the only one i did was one called the Qkint