Alien Design Notes

[swestrup]

So, a while ago_sps_ and I came up with some notes for
designing Aliens that didn't borrow heavily from convergent evolution
(no bird-men, fish-men, lizard-men, bumpyhead-men). The notes are
really just a first draft of a checklist but I'm thinking of turning
them into the outline for a book and perhaps trying to interest Hero
Games in publishing said book. It won't make me much money, but it
might be fun to do.

Anyway, I thought I would post the current notes here in case anyone
had any comments on them...

Evolutionary Principals
  Complexity
  Lock-In
  Homeobox
  Duplication/Replication
  Variation
  Conservation
  Extended Phenotype

Schemata
  Endoskeleton
  Exoskeleton (carapace)
  Geodesic Skeleton
  Pressurized (gas/liquid/(solid?)) struts
  Pressurized body cavities (balloons)
  Flaccid Danglers
  Magnetic/Electric Repulsion
  Modularity
  Flow Jets
  Inertial Flow (liquid, pellet, gyroscopic, rings)
  Mechanical/Rigid (hinges, flanges, etc)
  Solid and Solid State
  Phase Varying

Methodologies
  Arches
  Rigid Struts
  Guy wires
  Contractile Fibers
  Extenders
  Flexion
  Socket Joints
  Slip and Stick
  Wheel problem (turbines)
  Module problem (coordination)
  Plates
  Membranes
  Directed Growth
  Extended Phenotype

Sensoria
  Signals
    Electromagnetic / Photonic
      Vision (DC to Gamma) CCD/Lenses/Antennae
      Polarization / Phase discrimination.
      Encoding (radio/tv/etc) FM/AM/PM
      Lidar
      Spectrography (emission vs absorption)
      Holography
      Field interruption (eels, catfish)
      Electric induction
      Compasses
      Ore Detection
      Rotation Detection
      Interference
      Quantum Effects (entanglement)
      Hall Effect
    Strong and Weak Forces
      Atomic Structure / Isotope detection
      Scintillation
      Chemical Reactivity
    Gravitational / Hyperspacial
      Space/Time Topology
      Density Detection
      Gravity Waves
      Casimir Effect?
      Mass Detection.
    Vibrational (Solid, Liquid, Gaseous)
      Longitudinal vs transverse vs compression.
      Sound / Sonar
      Analogues of Electromagnetism
      Solitons
    Physical and/or Sampling
      Touch
      Gyroscopes
      Taste
      General Chemical Sense
      Temperature
      Internal / External.
    Internal
      Inertial
      Time Base
      Proprioception
      Balance (orientation)
      Position
      State (hunger, fatigue, ...)
      Damage (pain, poison, ...)
  Methodologies
    Generalization vs Specialization
    Active vs Passive
    Quality vs Quantity
    Internal vs External
    Computational Resource Allocation (	Pre vs Post processing )
    Derivatives (Time: speed, acceleration)
    Differentials (Sound: Direction, Range)
    Post Processing
      Noise Cancellation
      Decoding
      Back Propagation
      Path Integrals
      Filters
      Feature Extraction
      Wave Analysis
      Cross-correlation (aphasia)
      Amplification
    Sense compensation
    Cascade senses.

Comments

[sps.livejournal.com]

Timescales.
Parasitism/symbiosis.
Data parasitism.
Motion via substrate replacement.
Substrate-independent life (textual lifeforms, e.g.).
Alternation of generations.
Need to sleep.

[sps.livejournal.com]

...Though it suddenly occurs to me that aliens may resent being designed.... And I really must get some sleep.