What if each group has a different view of the universe, and the Alien’s place in it?
The androids might believe that the Alien is the “perfect organism”.
The Engineers seem to place a high degree of importance on the Alien in their artwork. It's a part of their culture, and plays a role in how their culture operates. Shaw and Holloway might have thought that the mural was depicting mythological beings, but the Engineer artwork is conveying information about how the Engineers view themselves, the alien, and the way things work. How they organize themselves etc. In some ways, the mural represents the Engineer view of the universe, and the Alien lifecycle etc. It's an attempt to convey meaning, much like the Sistine chapel.
The film suggests a ceremonial/ritual aspect to the way the Engineers setup that room. Fifield and Millburn ask if they worshipped the giant head as a god. The Engineer culture has their own beliefs about the universe and the alien, their own system of organization. Which is completely different than ours.
The artwork is like a cross-section of how the Engineers think. It can be analyzed to start learning about the people who created it. It has some sort of meaning to them, and the Alien is part of what they choose to believe..
We can't determine exactly what the typical Engineer view of the Alien or the universe around them is yet, or how their culture operates. That’s the thing that’s going to be the most different between Engineers and humans: how they think and why they think it.. I've mentioned that their genetics and physiology are a match for us. So they’re like us physically, and that puts certain constraints on them, as well as helps us frame them. However, we have no clue how they think. Nor do we know about their technological prowess.
The engineer brain would perceive the world around them in a much different way. They've had more time to develop tech, but it's nothing we couldn't develop without time and access to similar resources. Technology is a growing body of knowledge, and each culture develops their own technology as a way to master their environment. Every single species is constantly modifying their surroundings, "building better worlds" for themselves, "we're the gods now"... Conservation of resources/energy is a constant struggle. There's no organism known to man that leaves zero impact on the environment... No man needs nothing. There are slight phenotypic differences, but no differences in genotype between humans and Engineers. Engineers need resources too...
There's some form of energy that makes David "run". I think this android eats because he needs an energy source.. David hopes he's not made "too close" to humans. No other android eats... IMO sometimes the Alien needs to consume inorganic or organic material to grow, but needs less energy. It's rarely seen feeding, however there are indications that the Alien eats when it needs to grow... Very few things would grow in that desert, the worm is evidence that there was a little bit more than nothing in the desert.. Each species acts to preserve its own interest. The Alien is a survivor; it has survival instincts in it, like Shaw..A natural form of intelligence that's hard to quantify or qualify.
In the virals they give the crew an early assessment where their brains are being scanned. I think all the crewmembers were chosen specifically for being able to be manipulated; chosen specifically for not having enough logic in their heads...Shaw had survival instincts "in her" and David actually gave her a compliment, meaning that she was naturally smarter than the rest of the crew..
In the Spaights script, David says "you're all so stupid" and attacks Shaw. I think these characters are supposed to have "half a brain", they're supposed to be slightly illogical... Supposed to be able to be manipulated by Weyland's agenda; analyzing their subconscious minds is an extension of profiling & controlling what they're thinking about by bringing certain memories to the surface. David stimulates these memories at certain points. Holding onto and giving back the cross is part of a study he's running on Shaw's mind, and how the subconscious mind influences humans' actions.
David taking the cross away, then giving it back when Shaw survives, is a form of operant conditioning,...He hopes to lead her on the next stage of his adventure with his tricks... Weyland corp has deceived people throughout the whole series. The trick concept, tricking the brain back to life, deception and even self-deception could be a big part of this series by the end. "the trick is not minding that it hurts". Shaw follows her instincts and stands up to them. She takes the alien out of herself before they get a chance to freeze her. Shaw didn't know what would happen, she suspected something was up...Just like Ripley did. Shaw reacted instinctively and kept herself alive, David admires this form of intellect. She had no proof that Weyland corp was up to no good other than the weird way David was acting, She had a gut reaction to things... Her head wasn't doing the thinking.
Their psych profiles were taken in spaight's script. I think a lot from Spaight's script was simply moved into the background by Lindelof's script. Davis/David said Shaw/Watts has the highest IQ. The dream visor, the Happy birthday viral, and the crew interviews are possible evidence that even in Lindelof's script David and Weyland corp have been messing with and analyzing their minds, as well as perceiving things no one else can... There's a psychological component to this movie. Lindelof said he only changed things around so that the emphasis was on the Engineers. It's not straight forward, the subtext of the movie tells more story than the movie itself, and I can see how Lindelof steered it away from definitive answers, for now. David has to be juxtaposed with characters who act illogically because he sees himself as superior to us. He's driven by logic. He wants to be closer to the Engineers, because he perceives them to be the superior species. David was made in our image. Some of David's comments are a critque on humanity & human culture as a whole. That's what people might not get until the second movie... David's our male lead, and his perspective is important. That first crew was expendable, as are all others to Weyland corp, and David knew this going in. Shaw is our female lead. David isn't a side character, he's just as much the star of the series as Shaw. He's a driving force in the story now...If my theory pans out the next story is partially about how Androids perceive us to be illogical, and how David thinks he can gain his freedom from us by joining with the Engineers... He knew about Weyland's true agenda. The Aliens are pure, they're free of any delusions of morality and 'you don't see them screwing eachother over for a percentage". David's beliefs might be more inline with those of Engineers...Humans can be irrational and illogical at times because of their emotions. To err is human. and we learn from our mistakes. it's what makes us human, and David has made some mistakes..
On the surface things seem illogical because we're not seeing the full thought process that led to some of the actions, and we don't understand why the characters act as they do.... Figuring out their true inner characters, and their personality types, can help explain why each character acts certain ways, and what each of their agendas were.
I think Janek was chosen specifically because he "only flies the ship"...I believe they were selected for their minds have been conditoned by Weyland. As part of Weyland corp's "trick". David brings up psychology when he asks "doesn't everyone want to see their parents dead?". I think he's been analyzing their subconscious minds to better understand their personality profiles... That's why he was watching Shaw's dreams. Because of the areas of psychology that ties into. David doesn't believe Freud's psycho-analytic theory (to which he's referring); he has his own thoughts and observations on peoples' subconscious desires... Weyland corp has been studying the crews' minds to understand how to control them... They used Shaw's beliefs against her, and almost programmed her like a robot by bringing certain thoughts to the surface and leading her on this adventure. "Anyone with half a brain can create life". Shaw's eggs were infertile, she wasn't barren.. David wants to keep her around because she's the only one who has it in her...
Self-preservation is a psychological drive that all species share. There's often not a lot of logic to it It's not always about surivial of the fittest; it's about survival of the most adaptable... The Alien's survival mechanisms make it the "perfect organism" according to Ash. The Alien has advantages that make it more capable of dealing with its surroundings and spreading its genetics.. Ash can be objective because he's not alive, not part of the natural order of things. David's "too close" to us because of his artificial emotions... David is able to intuit some things, and can use inductive reasoning. Death is part of the natural order of things, and the Aliens are close to death. They fill a particular niche.
Ash has an outside perspective on which species is superior; he gives the Nostromo crew his sympathies because he knows this organism is perfectly adapted for ensuring the survival of its own species... Anything it views as "the other" or "alien" it will destroy and use as a resource. The facehugger & hammerpede stage display impressive regenerative capabilities. The facehugger heals quickly, Hammerpede can re-grow its own head -- which may be advantageous for any living species... Engineers would have all of our senses, but they perceive the universe around them in a different way because of their access to different experiences and data.
Engineer culture has completely different tech, beliefs, systems of knowledge, customs/social practices etc. There are many differences to explore in the way each culture views the Alien, and the way each organizes information about the universe. Conservation of matter and energy might be viewed in a different light by them, thanks to the Alien... Engineer brains and bodies are wired in much the same way as humans because we can use our tech on them.. However, as mentioned we can't understand exactly how the Engineers think. We don't understand how they perceive the universe, why they wanted to destroy us OR how they perceive the Alien, and why they use it as part of their system of worship..
