Why are aliens always nekkid

Only problem with aquatic life, is how do they adapt metallurgy to advance their tech?
I mean sure you could say they use thermal vents, but it would take like an eternity to
smelt something simple, let alone more complex things to advance the species towards
anything resembling a modern society (let alone advanced).
Octopi/Squid are by far the most likely to adapt to a higher level of societal status, as they
can use things like tools and such. How the hell is flipper going to work a torque wrench?

It seems as far as we can understand, advancement to a higher societal order is pretty much
limited to land based organisms that have mastered the art of making fire. Cause there is no
real way to make telekinesis work with in the laws of physics or reality. Though at that point
such beings exist on a plain that we cannot even see nor visit. So yeah marine life is not the
way to go, and neither is being in a reality that supersedes our ability to perceive it.
At least if you subscribe to and live in the land of logic and reason, that is.

 

But you don't always need to develop your own tech. In Footfall, Larry Niven's aliens are, per Wikipedia:

This isn't just fiction, it's happening here on Earth as we speak:

 

This pretty much limits "higher technology" to our geocentric (specicentric?) view of what higher technology actually is. There could enormous, architectured cities and farms just below the waves full of highly intelligent animals, but when we look at it, all we see are corals and kelp fields. If a fish poked it's head above water using it's understanding of how technology works, it could look at New York and just be all, "It's amazing the rock formations that appear in the gasseous part of the world. Just think of what we could learn if we could study more than just what washes down to us and we could map more than 10 percent of it."

 

Times Square is an amazing colony of bioluminescent organisms...

 

There is a reason I don't hang out with crabs with connection to the Mexican Drug Cartels.

I think somewhere on here (another thread)(though maybe not), I alluded to the theory that a highly intelligent
species living in a symbiotic relationship with one that could use tools and whatnot. And together
from what the smarter lacked in ability, found use in the dumber counterpart to build a glorious
future together based on a mutual benefit.
Kinda like having a brain using a body, but in not as connected fashion. Think Master Blaster from
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, but way more advanced technically speaking.

Though until we meet some strange new species that happens to land here, that is so radically different
from our understanding of how physiological/biological form can produce such advanced tech. We are
stuck in speculation as to form and function, and how it can be used in ways that we can/cannot perceive
as being able to create such things in a given environment.
All they have to do is overcome the obstacles that slow down their progress in a given area, to further advance
as a culture and species in the first place. So time and problem solving is all that is required.

 

Like humans and dogs. With humans having the tools and the brains, while dogs have better senses and hunting abilities, but both benefiting from keeping the other's company.

 

I like the way the breeze feels. Don't shame me.

 

So where dost thou hail from Mr. Space Bear?

 

Space. Just generally.

 

Indeed

 

It is interesting that so many aliens walk around in their birthday suits. Perhaps the aversion to portraying clothed inhuman-looking aliens could be because the filmmakers didn't want to go to the trouble of coming up with clothing styles for aliens with or they wanted to show off the alien characters' physical alien-ness. I think it also depends on the fictional setting (for example, I think a lack of all concealing clothing of the aliens in District 9 was meant to show how impoverished they were).

Most religions do emphasize modesty and moderation and for usually good reasons, western or otherwise (if by western religion you mean Christianity, that's practiced in many parts of the world other than the West like many countries of Africa, and Islam and Buddhism as eastern religions - if one wants to call them that - are big on modesty, especially for women) but I wouldn't say that clothing is the central focus of these religions, thus I don't think it makes sense as a lampoon (writers with those kind of views tend to use irksome and untrue cliches such as "advanced societies won't need religion" so none are portrayed). Maybe some writers have done it for that reason, I don't know of any who did. Depends on the person (personal example; I'm Christian, writing science fiction and have aliens of various appearances and cultural views on states of dress and undress) That also depends whether or not the aliens have any religions, and if so what they're like.

It is convenient that they lack exposed genitals, a matter of whoever's making the work trying to avoid either grossing out the viewers or being accused of shoehorning in fanservice, I think.

 

You made an excellent point, actually. It could stem from budgetary concerns. There would be extra costs from special effects, model making, etc., so it mat well be that the costume budget was cut, then that became the norm because the screen image cemented the perception of what aliens "look like". Example: Not due to budget, but because of wanting to take advantage of Technicolor, Wizard of Oz costumer Adrian created Dorothy's ruby slippers. In the book, they are "silver shoes".

 

Neat bit of trivia about the Wizard of Oz (I like that movie ). Regarding nude aliens, they'd have to find ways to fit the clothing on alien bodies (if the aliens need clothing - some of them are really tough), then they'd have to come with fashion styles and/or functions for the clothing. While it would be awesome to see, and to work on, film crews sadly have time and/or budget constraints.

 

This discussion of naked aliens just gets more and more interesting.
I guess there is a humorous short story about an alien that could be
written entitled: I have no junk and I must pee

 

I think no one gives aliens clothes because no one knows how to design them. It works in Star Trek because everyone wears the same thing, and in Star Wars because all the different species interact in one society, so it makes sense they'd wear the same style of clothes. In everything else though, people just don't know what to do. The don't want to put them in anything modern because that would just seem weird and impossible, they don't want to choose anything from some ancient culture that might come off a bit racist, so they just decide to give them no clothes.

 

I just realized how little sense the amphibian skin with hair makes. Also, did anyone else notice that the Avatars had eye brows, but none of the other Na'vi did?

 

I thought that was because the avatars were human-Na'vi hybrids.

 

Are going to follow this thread up by why do Aliens have butts on their heads. .

I don't know, in Star Trek I see a lot of clothed aliens.

 

Because - with very few exceptions - Star Trek aliens aren’t really aliens. They’re just representations of other cultures, as regards the tell of a story.

ETA: The above comment would seem to fly in the face of another opinion I hold, that the alien is always some facet of us in the tell of a story, but like anything, there certainly are levels and layers to that idea. Notice that Species 8472 of Star Trek canon is very much intended to be engaged as an alien, not as a human culture analogue, and is appropriately nekked due to this fact.

 

They also have five digits on their extremities, like a human, rather than the four digits of the native Na'vi.

 

Eh, saying that in order to be truly alien the alien must be naked...? And that if an alien is an allegory/representation of human culture in any way it's not a true alien? Then there are no true sentient aliens in any story by that definition, and I think that's a bit restrictive of a view.

Most of the naked aliens -- such as in Alien or Aliens -- aren't necessarily sentient. At least, in those two movies, they are meant to fit a monster trope. Similar other aliens that are seen as villians, are meant to fit monster tropes, and thus they won't be clothed because monsters aren't normally clothed.

However, if you place an alien in the protagonist role or as an ally to the protagonist, then the alien becomes either sentient and thus has a culture and clothing to define their outward presentation, or they are a really helpful dog-like creature. Often the alien is given, if written well, a very unique written culture that has a lot of depth. You see this in various movies and books such as Star Wars, Babylon 5, Star Trek, C.J. Cherryh's novels, Julie Czerneda's novels, and other similar science fiction series. Science shows that emotional connections are indeed formed through a common ground, but what would a common ground be with an alien species? Star Trek tackles this a few times in TNG and in Voyager. I've also seen in tackled expertly in C.J. Cherryh's and Julie Czerneda's novels. Timothy Zahn also wrote a series about an alien culture and human culture clashing due to a misunderstanding because of how alien the alien way of communicating was in regards to how humans communicate, and it's only an alien accidentally captured that discovers the source of the misunderstanding.

That connection between the two very different species is how the audience relates to the alien and then allows them to sit in another's shoes. Sure, some of the shows use aliens as allegories for human culture, but that is also a limiting view on how the use of aliens in science fiction is shown. There's a lot more diverse approaches in the storytelling.

Edit: As an aside, Julie Czerneda's books had some very, very interesting and alien approaches to clothing and architecture. Her work as a biologist really shines in the Species Imperative novels especially.

 

On that note, a couple of constraints for Star Trek were the comparative lack of special effects technology in the 1960's (the decade when Star Trek first aired) and problems with the budget. The former meant they couldn't easily make really outrageous designs for aliens (another famous science fiction show at the time, Doctor Who, had to make the aliens human-looking, humanoid or make their appearance a prop or costume a person could comfortably fit inside to portray the character - such as the Daleks), and when special effects technology progressed they were hampered by budget constraints. The budget was also why Kirk kept losing his shirt in the Original series (the low budget meant the wardrobe department sometimes had to cut corners and provided poorly made clothing - Shatner didn't always mean to rip the shirts but due to poor stitching they ripped more easily).

 

What about ET? Granted he was naked, not very appealing to look at.
(Dude's got a head like an alarm clock.)