Question: What would think an actual alien will look like? (not the stereotypical alien)

George Fulton answered on 5 Mar 2019:

Drake’s question tells us that the chance that intelligent life exists in our universe apart from us is quite high; however, the fact that we haven’t come into contact with alien indicates that either they are very far away or like us are not yet capable of intergalatic travel.

There is really no way of guessing what the alien might look like, but its important to note that intelligence is something that animals evolved. Just like humans, these aliens will probably be slower and less strong than their natural predators. Tool making also requires dextrious limbs and this will typically require two legged walking. I don’t think humans are that unique in that sense, but rather bipedal movement is a requirement for intelligent life. That being said, the alien might not even be carbon based. Here’s my imaginative guess, assuming that this alien is a bit more advanced than us, I can imagine that a sort of half-machine, half-carbon based life form is possible. Two eyes, two legs are probably likely. Maybe the alien lives on an ultra-rich oxygen atmosphere and therefore breathes through holes in its body, or maybe it breathes with Nitrogen. It is really too mind-boogling to comprehend. But in short, I think that an alien would be recognisable as an intelligent life form to us humans.