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An extraterrestrial or alien is a lifeform that did not originate on Earth. The word extraterrestrial means "outside Earth". Extraterrestrials are a common theme in modern science-fiction , and also appeared in much earlier works such as the second-century parody True History [ 1 ] by Lucian of Samosata .
In discussion of science fiction, a Big Dumb Object (BDO) is any mysterious object, usually of extraterrestrial or unknown origin and immense power, in a story which generates an intense sense of wonder by its mere existence. To a certain extent, the term deliberately deflates the intended grandeur of the mysterious object.
"A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content." [13] Basil Davenport. 1955. "Science fiction is fiction based upon some imagined development of science, or upon the extrapolation of a tendency in society." [14] Edmund ...
The bug-eyed monster (BEM) is an early convention of the science fiction genre. [1] Extraterrestrials in science fiction of the 1930s were often described (or pictured on covers of pulp magazines ) as grotesque creatures with huge, oversized or compound eyes and a lust for women, blood or general destruction.
From the late 19th and early 20th centuries on, there was a visible distinction between the more "realistic", scientific fiction (which would later evolve into hard sf) [8]), whose authors, often scientists like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Max Valier, focused on the more plausible concept of interplanetary travel (to the Moon or Mars); and the ...
Due to horizontal gene transfer during the gestation period, the alien also takes on some of the basic physical attributes of the host from which it was born (something noticed by Ripley in [Alien 3, when the xenomorph plaguing the complex moved on four limbs, having gestated within a quadruped (a dog in the theatrical release and an ox in the ...
Novum (Latin for new thing) is a term used by science fiction scholar Darko Suvin and others to describe the scientifically plausible innovations used by science fiction narratives. [ 1 ] Frequently used science fictional nova include aliens , time travel , the technological singularity , artificial intelligence , and psychic powers.
The hive mind, or group mind, is a theme in science fiction going back to the alien hive society depicted in H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901). Hive minds often imply a lack, or loss, of individuality, identity, or personhood. The individuals forming the hive may specialize in different functions, in the manner of social insects