Why do people imagine aliens from outer space as having human-like features??

[kentuck]

In every illustration we have ever seen, they have arms and legs and fingers and heads and eyeballs.

But their heads are usually larger than ours. They may have fewer fingers? They usually are about the same height as an average earthling. Most of the time they are depicted as having much larger eyeballs than humans? How would they know we were the superior species on Earth?

Why can they not look like birds? Or porpoises? Or cats?

Or why can they not be invisible? Or maybe they just blend in with the light or the darkness? Perhaps they are just an energy field that whispers subliminal messages?

Everything seems to be relative to our own appearances? They are either taller or shorter, compared to our own height?.

But why would they look like humans if they were to visit us?

Are they in disguise and just trying to trick us?

Beam me up, Scotty. There is no intelligent life down here.

It is so easy to hide on the dark side of the Moon.

[catbyte]

1. Because sci-fi movies from the 1950s had small SFX budgets?

[Beakybird]

2. Spot On!

There were so many freak evolutionary occurrences that brought us to where we are. There have been so many millions of life forms - just on this earth. With many millions of ways for life to evolve, it would make sense that other intelligent forms would look different - maybe have more appendages, more eyes, have different DNA alphabets.

I envision a chicken-like creature with Yoda-like wisdom watching us earthlings with bemused compassion.

[rampartc]

3. "take me to your leader"

i'm sure they want to talk to the queen ant.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

4. Makes the aliens hotter.

True story.

[ret5hd]

5. I think a lot of it is the fact...

You have to put a human into that ugly latex alien suit.

[defacto7]

6. Same reason people create gods in the image of humans.

They're just projections of ourselves; it's making symmetry out of chaos in a way that's understandable.

Not a loungy answer is it?

[Kaleva]

7. And why are they all proctologists?

[fleur-de-lisa]

11. LOL!

[Ilsa]

12. Supernatural

Another funny scene was when a guy was telling Dean that the alien danced with him to "Lady In Red."

[keithbvadu2]

13. Alien probes

[dameatball]

8. I happen to know they have no physical form at all. That's how I fit them all in my closet.

[Midnightwalk]

9. Because god created the perfect human form

Just kidding and it is mostly projection on our part.

But there are some features that might evolve on other planets.

A central nervous system with a brain for higher thoughts and a spine to control the rest of the body seems like a winning combination over invertebrates.

Four limbs for locomotion is stable and pretty efficient. I could believe that’s also common.

Bipedalism is more efficient and has evolved multiple times on earth

At some point an intelligent species will need limbs for controlling tools. Bipedalism frees up two limbs but some species use their mouths. I could believe elephant trunks could evolve into a hand like appendage somewhere in the universe.

Then again some claim that cats are really in control and we serve them. Do you think cats might have caused some weak minded people to vote for trump for some nefarious feline purpose? Maybe they can’t completely control the world while we’re still around?

Fun to speculate and make jokes. The universe is a pretty big place and i wouldn’t rule anything out.

[lastlib]

15. Cats will never truly control the world until they solve the can-opener problem.......

But once they do--LOOK OUT!!

[Enoki33]

10. One theory why is derived from what the Sumerians wrote on clay

tablets that man was created by combining the dna of aliens with upright walking mammals to create a suitable slave to do manual work. The book of Genesis claims man was created in the image of his maker. Combine the two, and maybe the old sci-fi movies are closer to the truth. And maybe intelligent life in the vast universe comes in innumerable forms, as well as spiritual energy beyond anything we imagine.

[lastlib]

14. Anthropomorphism is an innate human characteristic.

Our form is so logical and natural to us, that it's hard to imagine that another one would work better. But we don't know what environmental forces might shape life on other planets--for instance, higher gravity on an exoplanet might have led life to evolve in different ways than here. Lack of water (smaller/no oceans) might lead to different evolution.

There is no dark side of the moon--matter of fact, it's ALL dark!

[hunter]

16. Some aliens are simply disguised as humans....

Laliari from Galaxy Quest

Q from Star Trek the Next Generation.

Etc.