xenomorph perception

Hey Altered, Here is a good read on xeno perception: There are several striking features that stand out when examining the adult form of I. raptus. The first, and perhaps the most prominent, is the head. Its seemingly disproportionate size indicates that there is a structural reason for this development. Its size could be due to an enlarged brain. This would not necessarily indicate a greater intelligence, but perhaps a more complex/sensitive brain that is designed to work not only as a means of assessing and thinking, but as an organ designed for extremely accurate sensing abilities. The idea of an enlarged brain has recently fallen under much speculation and debate within the scientific community - the idea as to whether or not the cranium is strictly for housing a brain may not be accurate. A great many researchers believe that the cranium houses only a moderately sized brain - perhaps only occupying one quarter to one third of the head. The remaining portions of the cranium are believed to house complex nerve centers that aid in collecting and processing sensory acquired stimuli, pheromone glands, an array of communicative emitters, adrenal glands, and a compression chamber for use when striking with the secondary jaws. It is the general belief that the majority of the cranium's volume is geared towards the processing and interpretation of sensory acquired stimuli as well as the emission of various signals designed for the purpose of communication. Aside from the maintenance of the hive structure, and tending to the producing Queen, the primary role of an adult is that of a forager - acquiring food and host material to further the hive. With such a specific role it would logically follow that the Alien would rely heavily on its senses for the location and acquisition of prey, and understanding it's environment. This being said it is then the general belief that the head represents the center of sensory reception and communication for the Alien. The working model for stimuli reception is as follows: The head is covered with pore-like receptors - each dedicated to a specific stimuli - Olfactory/biochemical reception (i.e. - pheromones), thermal detection, bioelectric detection, and auditory reception. The pores gradate from back to front, meaning that there is a higher concentration of sensory receptors at the domed anterior portion of the head as compared to the back. This gives I. raptus 360° lateral sensory ability, and approximately 180° vertically with the area of optimal overall clarity being at the front. It is estimated that the total range of optimal clarity is 100 degrees radiating 50° on either side of the center-front of the cranium laterally, as well as 70° radiating vertically from the same point. This then puts the remainder of stimuli within varying degrees of peripheral reception. Next to the head it is believed that the hands and feet are responsible for the second largest amount of sensory input. The pads that cover potions of these extremities are believed to be the primary receptors of auditory vibration through substrate as well as additional biochemical reception. It is thought that the latter is designed for identification and recognition hive mates and pheromone trails. The head may represent the center of sensory reception, but it also believed to the center of communicative emission. Going under the belief that I. raptus utilizes bioelectric radiation and ultrasonic emission as primary means of communication with a secondary means being biochemical the head becomes the focal point for the majority of this activity. It is not clear if ultrasonic emission as released via the mouth, or through pore-like emitters similar to those used in receiving stimuli, but the current assumption is that it is produced within the head and emitted in a radiating pattern from the surface of the cranium. The same principle also applied to the emission and radiation of bioelectric signals. Taken from Anchorpoint. Regards, Rick

This may be a shock; the alien doesn't have eyes. I think they possibly sense their surroundings through acoustic feedback. There may be a set of muscles attached to something akin to an otolith surrounded by some fleshy tissue. It would be similar to what whales and dolphins have with the melon on the cranium of their skulls. The difference here is there needs to be some type of reception that can pick up the ultrasonic vibrations through air. This also could lead to an advantage to detecting prey items, it could hear the prey coming and then could make the necessary adjustments in their stalking pattern to surprise their victims without having to expend much energy terminating their food. There nervous system is probably cephalic, with some ganglion similar to what you would find with most arthropods, it would seem that there could be some form of higher perception with regards to decision making, however many predators have an ability to, or seem to, make complex decision when stalking their prey; leopards do this. Since this particular organism seems to do this, I would argue it only responds to its current environment with minimal olfactory input and a very large amount of auditory input. If there is another determining factor, such as a colony, the perceptive capacity of the organism is not really known. It could be responding to very specific chemical signals, ants and termites are examples, moving and responding to the colony's need, or if in a singular situation it could only be responding to its known surroundings. The organism could be keyed into only a few signals that initiate it to act. To sum this up, the organism responds to auditory cues first, then some territorial markers to help position it self in a home range to determine its distance from its nesting area, finally with the combination of the two it will react to what ever comes its way; it must sound a certain way and then smell a certain way for it either to kill a prey item or commune with a colony sister. I don't think they really have other perceptions beyond this, generally animals have very simple decision making abilities this would explain the tight hunting patterns exhibited by the [i]Xenomorph[/i].

Didn't they show the Alien POV a little bit in A3?

If you want the POV of the Alien just play the Original PC game Aliens VS Predator.

Take into account the Alien is meant to be just that, "Alien" don't try to attach per-conceived notions of Humanity on it. Giger created the life form and we know it is a Bio-Mechanoid. Its basically a machine that is made up of organic and not organic parts but fused perfectly into a life form, unlike a cyborg it is born of Organic and Mechanical. Other than that we can not know, more than likely it does not have organs as you would recognize them or even perceive in a manner we could understand. Just because it has a head like a dolphin does not mean it uses ultrasound, its Alien, it was created by beings that use organic ships to fly around. To understand the alien you have to think outside the box. Its a monster, its not natural, its a machine,

Giger designed the original Xenomorph to have a very human like skull under the face part of its dome. I believe this to be because the "Alien" parasite was ment to adapt to whatever its host was, taking on some characteristics of its host in order to fulfill its true purpose. Since its a bio-weapon that would be warfare and such maybe as large as to carry out planet wide extinction for easier resource harvest by their creaters. It has forward facing eye sockets that are similar to humans in size and shape, now whether they are similar in function is a whole other story. [img]http://www.gadgetmadness.com/archives/original_1979_alien.jpg[/img] . you can slightly see the skull and eye sockets in this picture as well. "Giger conceived the Alien as being vaguely human but a human in full armor, protected from all outside forces. He mandated that the creature have no eyes, because he felt that it made them much more frightening if you could not tell they were looking at you" as to what ridley thought while filming that couldve been slightly different. any ideas?

well nevermind sorry i seem to be incapable of posting pictures ha

Its true, In Alien 3 there are some short moment where it is chasing the inmates down the corridors in a trap.

this may not help but in the first AVP movie when one of the men get trapped in one of the small hall like tunnels you get a good long look of a xeno lifting its head up and kinda "looking" at the poor fella thats gunna become its next victim, anyway back on track, as its lifting its head up you see, what i would assume to be quarter or nickel sized, holes going the length of the its head along the side. now im not sure if it was a part of the design of the drone type xenos or a costume design for the xenos in that movie but i do think that they use those holes to sence where theyre going, what theyre hearing and smelling, ect, ect. i know in the AVP 360 game you do play as an alien and in the game they can sense, smell, and hear you and they use the smell they pick up to kind of "see" you. then again that is a game and ill probly end up getting mocked and ridiculed for even bringing it up.

All I remember from the second AVP movie is the chick at the swimming pool.....OUCH !!!!!

wasnt it ridleys idea to have no eyes on the alien? think that gigers original design had eyes and that ridley thought it would be scarier/unnerving if u didnt know if the alien was/wasnt looking at you!??! its overwhelning the anticipation for june...!!!! need a new trailer to give us our fix!!! peace

@ GRINDOLF the whole point of this thread was to get people to think outside the box . The suggested notions of perception were put just to stimulate debate . I have no idea how the xeno perceives the world but its an attempt to stimulate a debate that as far as i know has not been discussed before and any ideas from the community are welcome and encouraged . In alien three there was a camera point of view of the xeno but unlike predator as far as i'm aware we have yet to see how the xeno interprets the world so its something to consider if there ever was another film made that reflects the aliens environment and how it internalise's that perception. Thanks rick for that lengthy analysis it makes for interesting reading.

i think its fair to say that in any encounter the alien p.o.v would be the favoured one from ricks paste we are food parcels - doomed, due to their multi sensing array id like to know what they think about what they do, but then i remember ash's short synopsis.... unclouded by delusion etc, they only kill and dont think.

from ricks paste they seem to have us food parcels licked....with all those sensory organs i recall ash's comments (unclouded by conscience) that they dont think too much about what theyre doing rather, they simply survive.

yes i remember hearing somewhere that a scientist in one of the movies said that they dont think they just do, react, survive. i personaly think that the xenos are extreamly smart, just as smart as humans if not smarter.... they just dont speak English so we think theyre stupid

You guys do realize that you don't need to have a conscious to think, right? Narcisictic people do it all the time. So Conscious isn't a determining factor in determining the intelligence of a being, just that they don't care about what they do.

the word should be "Conscience" not "Conscious". Just FYI.

a conscience implies that the creature has some kind of moral ethic, or a perceived understanding of its actions that's not what i mean. I merely think it would be good to have a view point of its perception how ever that may manifest itself . It would of course be hard to pull of seeing though it doesn't have eyes as we understand them but i was thinking of the batman film the dark knight, and how they displayed sonar technology that is one way of filming a kind of perceived environment. incidentally i do think the xeno works mainly on instinct but its open to interpretation anything is possible in an alien mind.

This is how I imagine the Xenomorph perceives its environment [i]From their mouth, Xenomorphs emit a high pitch tone beyond the range of human hearing, received by the mass of auditory drums lining the elongated head, viewing its environment with a highly advanced form of echo-relocation. These auditory drums provide the creature with extremely heightened hearing, contracting them when necessary to avoid auditory overload. In addition, Xenomorphs possess the ability to sense electric discharges, easily differentiating environmental sources from biological sources. Furthermore, the pharyngeal inner-jaw, lined with extremely sensitive receptors, can detect minute scents and odours. To reserve energy and avoid detection by possible predators the Xenomorph vents excess body heat from its dorsal appendages, which the creature also uses for breathing.[/i]

nice theory snorkel you should have that one enshrined in xeno / alien lore makes perfect sense. You dont work for weyland by any chance do you ? lol.