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How Human is it? by Rainbow Apocalypse
In all my browsing of the internets I've never seen a chart like this, so I made one.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jfkgym7l4b4pwbk/Humanity%20v1.1.png
Just how alien is A vs. B? Or vs. Humanity? It seems a chart like this would be useful, especially to people who need a good view of the entire spectrum while they conceptualize. Wanting to make something more alien then a Star Trek alien but nothing 'too weird'? Look at the latter half of the blue sphere. Wanting to make something a bit more distinctly in-human? Look at the red area around where the Prawn is and consider how those aliens are represented.
This is something I wanted to make if just for the mental reminder of where things stand. It will be especially useful to me later when I need to make specific kinds of aliens/creatures for specific stories.
Disclaimer:
1. This is not a chart about how "cool" something is; far from it. Being on the furthest reaches of either end is a perfectly fine spot for anything. This is purely a classification chart to help understand just how alien or relatable something is, and nothing more.
2. Every pixel counts: remember that when looking at where things are located on this chart.
3. This is not a chart about aggression, violence or how dangerous a creature is. While it is true most of the things in the distant red are from horror, that is just the coincidental result of being so in-human. Everything in the final red zone is simply biologically and socially incompatible with us.
4. This chart takes everything into consideration, but it's m-o-s-t-l-y a measurement of how human-like the minds of these creatures are. As put it: everything in the blue sphere is something you could feasibly have over to a regular dinner/social gathering. Most people however wouldn't be comfortable having anything across the purple border over, and the closer it gets to the end, the more unlikely such social gatherings could even be feasible. That said, there is no point in even discussing the final red area.
5. Anthropomorphism gets a special box that covers the scope I normally see it dabbling in. It stops mid way into the second part of the blue sphere, but only because past that point I don't believe it's anthropomorphism anymore. Past that point it becomes less about "adding human characteristics to animals and objects", and more about making entirely new creatures that stand on their own.
6. This is all obviously my opinion, but I like to think I am rather observant about these kinds of things. It's totally fine to disagree with me, and even I had trouble with a few. It was only seeing how not-different Odo was when he turned completely human that I decided to push Star Trek changlings as far back into the blue as I did. They are strange creatures, but only when compared to other Star Trek aliens. Most their "strangeness" just seems to be purely biological as well. A salarian seems more distinctly alien.
7. Speaking of which I never played the Mass Effect games (yes, I know that's worthy of being attacked) I let a friend choose where to put those aliens. Even still, I also watched videos of them on youtube just to be sure, and I ended up agreeing. I am not going to try and analyze an alien I am too unfamiliar with by myself, I like to think I am more professional then that.
8. Added a Jurassic Park velociraptor for the lulz, and also as a good measurement post.
9. I purposely didn't bother including anything from comedic shows/movies/stories. That's why Meow, Roger and Paul are absent. There is no point in trying to analyze characters/aliens like that seriously.
10. This is just version 1.1, expect something more extravagant at a later date, especially when I have more things of my own to add.
How Human is it?
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Comments
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This is a pretty cool chart, and you're right: it's surprising that it hasn't been done before!
One thing that would help the "inhuman" field from just being all horror would be the monolith from 2001, and Solaris from the book and films. It still makes sense that most of the aliens are horror, since "alien" is synonymous with the unknown and unknowable.
Do you think it needs another axis? There's culturally inhuman, but there's also how it looks compared to humanity. Cthulhu is much more "human-like" than, say, Azathoth.
At any rate, great chart, thanks for putting it up!
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Well done, but 3 remarks:
1- For me, anthropomorphic animals can reach the beginning of the red zone, depends how one will develop a character. I have some anthro chars I consider quite distant enough from humanity!
2- You included the JP raptor. Just in comparison, where would you put a great raven compared to it? There've been many studies about intelligence of ravens.
3- The Synx? Dunno, from how you present it, I'll put it at the extreme edge of inhumanity. So further than where you put it. It's just how I feel it.
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Oh wow this is a great chart! :D Nice, simple, with great examples! I figure this is pretty clear cut lol, but there's always going to be those people that want to "cute-ify" things if that's what you're trying to prevent here. XDD
Did Cid say anything about the Reapers from Mass Effect? Maybe I missed them (or maybe they were left out because there's already a lot of ME characters on here?), but they'd definitely be around that border area with cthulhu. I haven't played the games either, but I've watched Clam play through them a bajillion times at this point, and I always found them extremely interesting.
I also agree with the comment above, the monolith in 2001 is probably the most inhuman being (if it can even be called that?) I've ever seen. I get the chills just thinking about it, haha.
Now I'm curious to see where you would place a character like Dexter or the Silent Hill monsters (and maybe put Stitch on there for good measure? He's just so well-known is all.). I can take a guess at where they'd land, but where would you put them? Part of the reason I'm so interested in serial killers/sociopaths is because I see them as an alien donning a human skin. A predator that can perfectly mimic the form of it's prey, but only understands them on a technical level.
This comment got long oops
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You know, that's a good idea. I might use Dexter (from the first seasons at least) as another weird but good distinguishing marker. Also yeah, I am going to add more things. I just realized at the size I have it now, things were already too crowded XD Have to make a bigger chart!
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I think there's a further distinction over in the red you should make. While there are inhuman, but clearly 'living intellegent' things, things where one can imagine somehow communicating SOMETHING because they are clearly some kind of life, (Synx, Borg, Predator, Alien, The Flood) there is also a range beyond that, where something is hard to conceive of as alive in any familiar sense, where meaningful communication might never really be possible (HAL, The Monolith, Cthullu). [I would argue, yes, that we never had meaningful communication with HAL btw.]
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Try and find alien creatures without eyes and place them on the chart. One of the more common psychological tricks our brains play on us to humanize entities is to quickly identify the eyes of a given creature. There's something in our instincts that tells us if we can find the eyes, we can see an emotional, relatable window into the creature itself. This is something even cats do! If they see your eyes, they project the vision of a cat's head. It's pretty fascinating.
Recall the creatures in the Silent Hill universe. While still relatively human in one way or another, many of them have features such as their eyes removed. And yet while many of them have human limbs, or human torsoes, or any of those sorts of things, there's still something alien to them because of modifications like this. Certainly, these creatures would probably fit somewhere in between the "alien" and "human" chart, but nonetheless, it's one of those important features we latch onto as a species in the hopes that we might find something reasonable within another creature of any kind.
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what an awesome chart :D Thanks for this.
I actually saw similar things, but it was about Uncanny Valley i think. I love to think about stuff that appear very human, but have something "off" on them what makes it really creepy. It would be very far to the left I think...but still most people are more scared from "almost human but missing something IMPORANT" then a pure "monster".
It's also that almost all creatures on this chart are...biological, more precise animalia. Guess there is room to think even beyond that 8>-
Just think about it...were would be HAL from space odyssey on the chart? I really LOVE to think about that~ An almost human like "mind" (with something offputting) to it in a very unhuman bodyshape.
(yeah, i love that movie...sry)
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This is really interesting. I've always had a thing for aliens that reached the "uncanny valley". I think they hit the area right inbetween... human-looking enough to appear social, but alien enough to give people hell when interacting with them.
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What's the creature under the turian? Looks interesting. :>
And for the lols, I think Roger would be easy to place somewhere near the synx; he's amusing to watch but he'd be a nightmare to have around for reals. -
I like it! Sometimes I want to branch out from the standard humanoid base, but it's hard to do! D:
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Volpin
Very nice spreadsheet - Im sure it will be of help to some Space Invading artists and venturers !