Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

we're asked at the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and add free, plus hours of bonus content, check out

go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

This episode is brought to you by Skillshare.

We often picture aliens as rather horrifying to look at, but the truly terrifying thing

about aliens may not be the way they look, but rather the way they think and act.

Who knows what horrible terrors await behind those 16 eyes and razor-sharp teeth?

Yeah. horrible terrors await behind those 16 eyes and razor sharp teeth. Science fiction is full of examples of terrifying aliens, and since Halloween is coming

up shortly, I thought we would take a look at some of the more common notions and

tropes of terrifying aliens, and ask how realistic they are, as well

as contemplating some ways aliens might truly be scary to us simply due to different evolutionary

paths.

Of course, aliens aren't likely look human like they often do in science fiction movies and TV

shows, or even humanoid, that's mostly a byproduct of limitations of makeup, costumes,

budgets, and sometimes imaginations.

We get all fair share of jump scares on amusement park rides where some horrible tentacular spined

abomination swings out at you when you least expect it.

That's probably the closest to what we'd expect to find rather than near human or cute

and cuttly.

While amusement rides are designed to be scary, they're not truly terrifying.

For terrifying, we need to go beyond amusement park and look at alien behavior.

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