Body of Work

This from the Times the other day: ' Humans making voyages into deep space are likely to become grotesquely deformed, the [Times Cheltenham Science Festival] was told. Lewis Dartnell, an astrobiologist at University College London, said: "With little effort required to move around in microgravity and an environment that is never too hot or cold, future spacemen and women are likely to become pretty chubby. Without gravity, fluid would float up to pool in the skull, which would cause the head to look permanently out of proportion" '.

Well that doesn't sound too good. And there I was labouring under the illusion that only the strongest and fittest, the bravest and best, would launch out in our finest gleaming starships to encounter new worlds and alien species whether friendly or ferocious, or indeed recognisable or not as cousins of our humanoid, bipedal species. A chubby body and a swollen head; sounds like what you get in later life anyway - a metaphorical rather than a literal swollen head, all being well...However it does also sound as though the likely contraindications might be offset by a judicious use of gravity, air conditioning and fitness routines. Although this doesn't necessarily preclude decay or distortion for ever. Rather like travelling through time, travelling in space, then, also inevitably wears away at an ideal biology. It's part of the human experience that could probably only be avoided through being placed in cryogenic stasis. Something that everybody has to go through if they are to experience the flow of existence in any way we understand it.

Bodies in space: a concept that puzzles me in relation to my favourite sci fi shows too. Is it really believable that the life forms we will encounter once we have the technology to venture out into deep space will be so very anthropomorphic? Universal translator issues aside, would we discover universal facial expressions, barring superficial variations (thanks to prosthetic/ make up departments)? Even desire across species, with the Trek universe producing plenty of dual-species characters, half-Klingon et al. Well - I know, I know; of course there are two obvious answers here with regard to the sci fi universes. One is that the aliens have in general to be played by actors who are human, so of course, barring minor alterations, the aliens who have the most interaction with our regular crew or other key space travellers are, for ease of drama, action and communication, going to be pretty much recognisable as humanoid. This isn't always the case, even with early Who or original Trek; but it usually is. And this is also because the none too disguised secondary level of such sci fi shows is an analysis of human society with its creativity, anxiety about other cultures and races, its internal support systems, prejudices, and ability to be knocked back and to learn and go forward again.

But I still puzzle over the likelihood of encountering life that is recognisably similar to ours. I'm no astrobiologist, but sometimes I can see the sort of clear evolutionary logic that would suggest similar physical and biological conditions might help to facilitate the emergence of roughly similar looking, acting, reproducing, and generally sustaining themselves species. Why not? I discuss this with K- sometimes and he's not so convinced. I'm not too sure either. And to be honest, bit of an addict though I am of sci fi TV, the actors-painted-blue school of TV alien is undeniably a bit naff. In the seventies and early eighties perhaps we were willing to suspend disbelief about this a little more - nowadays we don't even need to, with CGI and all. Yes, I think it has to be admitted that dressed up actors masquerading as aliens is altogether a bit naff. And yet I still love my sci fi, more than I do soaps or general drama even. Why is that?

More I'm sure in another post. But the recently finished rebooted series of Battlestar Galactica definitely deserves a mention here. No naff aliens in that series at all; just cylon robotic life forms that have the ability, some of them, to look like (feel like?) humans - the skin jobs. Created by humanity and evolving into humanity's nemesis. But of course it isn't that simple at all by the end of the series: religion and unknown angelic forces even gain a presence. Perhaps some would consider this naffness by another name. But artificial intelligence, especially at such an advanced level, has a level of the uncanny to it, as well as an easily solved human-actor casting situation. What feels most familiar and 'similar' is not an organic life form at all. Is utterly other to us, though our creation. And if this sounds like it's way ahead, generations into the future, it's not. I saw a documentary fragment the other week on a robotic creation called 'Gemenoid' (from the astrological sign of the twins I guess), who not only looked like his human male creator but was able to mimic his gestures, even to some degree his facial expressions. Even Gemenoid's creator said he felt the resulting achievement was unnerving. Repetition of any kind can oscillate between the banal and the unnerving, as any good creator, and any good poet should know. And an apparently moving Doppelganger doubly so.

Saves on the TV casting, too, of course. Though better still to pour oneself into a single line,

pour oneself into a line -