What If One Could Experience Being ET?

Much science fiction is about intelligent extraterrestrials. Through these stories readers can experience the wonder of interacting with creatures thoroughly foreign to us. They could be creatures who may not be humanoid, animal or even share none of our biochemistry. But what would it be like to immerse oneself into the mindset of these alien creatures? Can we imagine being a water-breathing scientist who encounters the first humans in the ocean world of Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter? Long ago, as a youth, I had read such a story but cannot remember where. From what I recall, the story was written (mostly) in the point of view of an alien scientist living in an underwater world. My recollection is weak, alas. The story haunts me because this alien dissected some human visitors, considering the humans as specimens for scientific curiosity. I suspect that was the story’s point. To other beings, might we humans be to them like lab mice or bacterial specimens were to us?  Be aware that since the story was written, ethics and animal rights usually became a necessary requirement for research.

In my experimental writing, I riffed on something akin to that story. I tried to put myself in the mindset of a hypothetical plant-like creature which lived on Proxima Centauri b, a true-life potentially Earth-like planet in orbit around Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star, is Earth’s second-closest star at about 4.2 light years away. Need I say the Sun is Earth’s closest star? Currently our knowledge of the planet is limited. According to one artist the planet’s surface could be this:

In my imagination, the native inhabitant was similar to terrestrial mosses but with additional organic systems for optical sensing and had a brain plus nervous system equivalent. The point is how would the being narrate its world view to us human readers? This being would have no prior knowledge of Earth and its humans. In my case, I wrote in English but by restricting the words to mostly botanical terms. Sometimes, I employed some generic terms in addition to the botanical. And I experimented too with varying subject-verb-object ordering for its version of dialogue. All said, I can’t claim my method worked well enough for publication. Could a typical human understand and enjoy the work? As an aside, the story concept originated from combining two prompts: I have a pulse – and – root bound. These prompts led me to consider: What if a botanical creature could have a pulse?

You might ask, how do established and published writers write in the point of view of aliens? To me, it seems, they stick to settings closer to human than I attempted.

One example is Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World Is Forest.

Unfortunately I hadn’t read this one, but would like to one day. Hence I’ll depend on the Wikipedia description. The story takes place on a fictional planet colonized by humans. Two of the main characters are human. The third however, is a native of the alien planet. Le Guin wrote part of the novel in the point of view of Selver, the native from the planet. From the plot synopsis I surmise Selver had already assimilated some human culture, hence he can narrate in terms for humans to follow. Wikipedia itself states, Le Guin wrote from an omniscient point of view for her Selver chapters. The novel explores themes of language, communication, dreaming, consciousness, colonialism and ecology, among others. For instance, for Selver, “forest” and “world” are synonyms. So too, is “dream” and “root”. Selver and the natives generally view humans as an insane people.

All in all, sounds like a great novel with effective world building, but for getting into an alien’s head, I’m not sure.  There is another example; Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a novel I had read about a year prior to writing this post.

This story too is set on a fictitious exoplanet similar to Earth, one which humans populated with terrestrial animals long ago. In the story, a species of spiders had since evolved into having human-like intelligence, and initially being unaware of the prior existence of humans on Earth. However, initially unknown to the spiders, descendants of humans orbit the planet in a space station. The story also spans thousands of years, primarily for covering the evolution of the spiders, and featuring several spider characters. During the chapters about the spiders, Tchaikovsky writes in the third person point of view. After meeting the humans, the spiders refer to them as star creatures. There is an AI which has directed their evolution, which the spiders refer to as the Messenger. Being more intelligent variants of terrestrial spiders, the reader has sufficient context to understand the spider behavior. Generally the spiders think similarly to humans but due to their evolutionary origin have a more female dominant society. Over time, the relationships veer closer to equality.

Did Tchaikovsky cheat on his portrayal of the spiders? Were they too human in mindset? Look, I don’t blame him for this. Can anybody, by definition, sufficiently portray the alien? Furthermore, can such person do it in a manner for the rest of us to understand? Is this a stretch too far for writers?  I don’t believe so. If and until actual extraterrestrials are encountered, we can be imaginative, to immerse ourselves into very foreign worlds. Creative speculation about evolution under unusual conditions can guide us.

Finally, for a more philosophical examination, I will refer to an academic paper that has gained some fame, “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” written by Thomas Nagel. A bit of a heavy read, I’ll attempt to summarize it as plainly as I can.  Philosophers have struggled with something called the Mind-Body problem, generally meaning whether they are separate or one controls the other. Confused? If one is sad, they cry. Does sadness occur because we cry? Or do we cry because we are sad? Aliens likely would evolve eyes or some equivalent. Such an organ would probably need to secrete liquid due to dust in the air. The current thinking is that evolution employed crying as a means to signal sadness. I’m simplifying. For some background on how emotions may have evolved check out Evolution of Emotion . Depending on how deep one may want to dive into this, this could inspire some thoughts for world building. Here is a link to Nagel’s paper in full.

Returning back to Nagel’s paper, he claims: An organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism – something that it is like for the organism. Okay, re-read the statement and try to unpack it. I believe it means an organism needs something to experience in order to be conscious. Nagel argues we can’t figure out the subjective experience of another being, such as a bat. We could imagine hanging upside down; we could imagine eating insects, and even echolocation to navigate around obstacles. But, Nagel’s point is that the bat’s internal experience may not be the same as how we imagine it. We can even extrapolate this to ourselves. When you experience anything, I can only assume how you actually experienced it. Similarly, you can only presume how I experience anything. This said, many philosophers challenge Nagel’s assertion.

Alright, how does this relate to experiencing being ET? I would say set your creativity free. Imagine possibilities. Regarding your imagined setting, ask yourself questions. If Grog the blob from planet Splot encounters your protagonist, would the she-he-combo (perhaps the being reproduces asexually) sense your protagonist’s presence from tiny variations of the electromagnetic field? Our bodies do generate bioelectromagnetic fields, albeit extremely tiny. Would Grog go into a mental breakdown due to the strange signal, never encountered before? Or would Grog have no consciousness at all? Perhaps the signal triggers an olfactory hallucination? There are many possibilities.

Peter Spasov. Last updated Monday February 24, 2025