The Inevitable Symbiosis Between a Species and its Planet

I am a big Star Trek fan.  I particularly like the aliens.  The Bajorans are the coolest, the Borg are the scariest, Q is the funniest but I like the Ferengi, too.  They all have their interesting points.  Aliens can have a hive mind or a warrior mentality, be empathetic or  totally

Gliese 581d. An artist's rendition based on what we actually know about it, which isn't much

emotionless, have two hearts, a  tail, be able to change into other shapes, live forever or change bodies at will.  But there are limits.  They all, apparently, can breathe oxygen, are bipedal and speak flawless English.

This is pretty much necessary as a plot device.  They are played by human actors so there is a minimum and maximum size.  You can add horns on the head, or weird patterns of facial hair, but they  have to maintain, roughly, a human shape.  If English were not the lingua franca of the entire universe, you’d need subtitles and the writers would have to work a hell of a lot harder, plus it would be difficult for the human captain to inter-react with them well enough to save their planet, fall in love with the best looking one of them,  and break it off sadly at the end as he rides off (metaphorically) into the sunset, all within a single hour, including advertisements.

I believe some day we will escape this planet and travel among the stars.  But the reality will inevitably be more bizarre than the fiction.  We are land based, oxygen breathing creatures with opposable thumbs because we evolved on a planet which favored these characteristics.  Creatures who evolve in different atmospheres will be as different from us as different can be.

So, I wrote this poem about it.  Feel free to hurl metaphorical rotten fruit in the comments section.

We have evolved within this atmosphere

this envelope of air, this tiny shell

around the planet we all know so well

We know so well, of course, because we’re here

The rivers flow with water we can drink

the plants that grow are good for us to eat

the surface is well suited to our feet

It couldn’t be more perfect, I don’t think

Yet, as we find new planets out in space

each one is very different from our own

fiery hells or frigid, barren stone

although life could evolve in other places

On different planets, under other skies

the phrase “life as we know it” won’t apply