One of the fun challenges of writing science fiction
requires getting inside the head (or equivalent) of an alien intelligence and
writing suitable dialogue. A writer needs to meet the same challenges of
writing dialogue for humans—such as coming up with original content and mixing
it with stage movements and observations about the surroundings—while also
viewing the world through a different set of sensory organs.
The aliens in my story, for example, do have eyes, but they
have three of them. I envision them being able to focus with binocular vision
with any pair, but then being able to use the third to observe other
things—just not with the same depth perception. Their peripheral vision might
approach 360 degrees. What would that be like? Also, I want them to be much
more odor-oriented. Consequently, they would pay much more attention to smells
and other chemical cues and their language would reflect that. Think of how our language reflects our visual
preoccupations. “See you later!” “Would you look at that?” “Good to see you
again.”—and so forth.
Even if vision is important to an alien, they may see more
of the electromagnetic spectrum than we do. Bees can’t see the color red, for
example, but they can see into the ultraviolet. Many flowers accommodate insects’
ultraviolet vision by producing markers only seen in UV light to lead insects
to the center portion of a floral bloom where the insects can help flowers have
sex with other plants.
And alien conversations will reflect many of the same things
that preoccupy humans: things relating to social status, health, physical needs
and other things. In fact, some scientific wag said the three critical
questions any organism must ask of another in order of importance are: Will you
kill me? Can I eat you? Can I have sex with you? One might also add: Can you
help me?
That last question may be one of the central ones in my
book. Cooperation among living things is one of those underappreciated aspects
of biology on Earth. We humans depend on a hundred million microbes to keep our
own body functioning properly, for example. We didn’t even have to ask for that
cooperation. It was in place when our brains turned some critical corner and
allowed us to imagine impossible (or at least improbable) things—liking having
conversations with extra terrestrials.
