Review: The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy by Arik Kershenbaum
Description (from Amazon.com)
From a noted Cambridge zoologist, a wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like, using universal laws that govern life on Earth and in space.
Scientists are confident that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Yet rather than taking a realistic approach to what aliens might be like, we imagine that life on other planets is the stuff of science fiction. The time has come to abandon our fantasies of space invaders and movie monsters and place our expectations on solid scientific footing.
But short of aliens landing in New York City, how do we know what they are like? Using his own expert understanding of life on Earth and Darwin’s theory of evolution–which applies throughout the universe–Cambridge zoologist Dr. Arik Kershenbaum explains what alien life must be like: how these creatures will move, socialize, and communicate. For example, by observing fish whose electrical pulses indicate social status, we can see that other planets might allow for communication by electricity. As there was evolutionary pressure to wriggle along a sea floor, Earthling animals tend to have left/right symmetry; on planets where creatures evolved in midair or in soupy tar, they might be lacking any symmetry at all.
Might there be an alien planet with supersonic animals? A moon where creatures have a language composed of smells? Will aliens scream with fear, act honestly, or have technology? The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy answers these questions using the latest science to tell the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space.
My Thoughts
Within the library that is science fiction (and sometimes fantasy), there are aliens. Lots and lots of aliens. They are often humanoid in appearance with language skills that mimic English (in early 20th century literature) or make clicking and squeaking noises like dolphins. Mostly, these aliens eat people.
Some science fiction writers have gone out of their way to develop new aliens that are unique. In Isaac Asimov’s 1972 novel The Gods Themselves, the aliens that exist in a parallel universe with differing physics have evolved three distinct sexes. In the Story of Your Life, a novella by Ted Chiang and adapted into the movie Arrival, we are presented with heptapod aliens and a very distinctive language (actually two) that is outstanding in its imagination.
Typically, however, when humans design aliens as part of science fiction, they do so based on certain cognitive biases. That is, authors tend to favor things which conform to their existing beliefs about the world or they frame their imaginations within the confines of what they have been influence by. Often aliens are green or gray (because that just doesn’t seem right) or they are violent. The latter, in fact, speaks to an innate racial bias within all humans that something non-human cannot be benevolent.
Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist, wrote a book I feel should be required reading for any current or would-be science fiction writer. In The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy, Kershenbaum evolves the concept of aliens by devolving our own Earth-bound species. Each chapter of the book dives into things that make animals, well, animals. For example, locomotion is important for getting food. How did our ancestors evolve this particular trait and what does it say about how aliens might do the same? Is it necessary to have biologic symmetry (e.g., two legs, two arms, two eyes). What about sociality? Cooperation and competition is not a Earth-only thing. It cannot be, so how would that look on a different planet?
What is most fascinating about this book is not just the devolution of Earth-bound species to explain the evolution that might occur on other planets, but the pure accessibility of the book. While nonfiction, this is perhaps one of the easiest and most complete books I have had the pleasure of reading in the many (many) years I have been reading. But The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy served me in more ways than just expanding my knowledge. It has been instrumental in how I designed my own aliens for my own writing.
Available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BKSB3HC/
