Being a human myself, there are many things I observe other people doing that I find incredibly strange.  No doubt, other humans look at what I’m doing and wonder, “what the actual hell.” Indeed, we all have our reasons.  But what would an alien race think about all the peculiar things humans do?  Today we will make a ton of assumptions and investigate some things humans do that aliens might find strange.

Trash the planet, even though we know we shouldn’t. 

Humans live relatively short lives in comparison to cosmic time scales.  In our short time on Earth, we have beaten the planet up pretty bad.  We destroy entire habitats for our own benefit.  We burn fossil fuels and use throw-away materials that destroy ecosystems.  I assume any intelligence aliens out there probably did the same to their planet at some point.  At least until realizing the damage they were doing.  Humanity is on the cusp of making significant changes for planetary health.  Still, we tend to reject much of that change.  Aliens might look at our technology and wonder why we aren’t utilizing things like nuclear or solar energy and vertical hydroponic farming on a larger scale.  We have the technology and don’t implement it.  Instead, we favor more destructive methods of farming and energy production because it tends to be cheaper in the short term.

Don’t take care of our own health.

Just like we trash our environment, humans also tend to trash our bodies.  We eat foods that we know aren’t healthy; we lounge around and don’t take care of ourselves.  Then we go to doctors who prescribe pills to fix our problems instead of offering lifestyle changes.  Most of us eat more than we need to and exercise rarely.  Even though we understand what it takes to live a long, healthy life, we favor convenience over longevity.  Even modern medicine spends more money researching ways to fix self-caused health issues than they do learning more about ways to prevent them in the first place.

Own pets.

Humans have been domesticating animals for thousands of years.  Pets were originally a utility, but modern humans have all kinds of pets that serve no purpose other than companionship.  It is plausible that an alien species would also have pets.  However, for long-duration space flights, it is not likely pets would be permitted.  In the case of a generation ship, the logistical requirements of bringing pets would be a nightmare.

In some cases, I could see bringing pets if there were a symbiotic relationship.  But I highly doubt a space-faring civilization would need some kind of animal to clean their teeth.  In all likeliness, no one on board an alien generation ship would have ever even heard of having animal companions.

Fight wars. 

I believe that any advanced species would have to be an apex predator on their home world.  They would have mastered nature, similar to how we have over the centuries.  Humans evolved over time, using tools to get to the top of the food chain.  To keep our resources of food and water, early humans waged war.  In modern times, wars are still fought over resources, differences in beliefs, and as a way to expand territory.  Other intelligent species would likely have similar conflicts throughout their history. 

This thought is so well accepted in the SETI community that “self-obliteration” is one of the great filters for the Fermi Paradox.  Likely, territorial disputes over resources wouldn’t be a new concept to an alien species.  But to see a civilization as advanced as we have become still killing ourselves in mass over resources might be strange.  War would probably be something that only existed in history books to them.  Unless, of course, they were on a mission of conquest instead of exploration.  In which case, I doubt they would even take the time to learn about humans.  It’s not hard to wipe out a planet without even going there.  Re-directing several large Kuiper belt objects to impact the planet and kill humanity would be a relatively simple task for a space-faring race.

Worship gods.

It is plausible that a space-faring alien race would have their own religious beliefs, customs, and God or even multiple gods.  However, it’s just as likely that any significantly advanced species would have figured out enough about the natural universe to get away from such concepts or have never had a God concept to begin with.  I think of humanity and our beliefs throughout history.  The god concept has been around for thousands of years.  We used to fill holes in our understanding of the way things work with God.  The volcano erupts because God is mad.  Or the rains came because God is happy.  This is called the “god of the gaps” concept and dates back to the very birth of science.  Even Isaac Newton did this when he reached the limitations of what his gravitational models could calculate.  As scientific knowledge grows, fewer and fewer things require God as an explanation.  Because of this, aliens might find it strange that humanity worships Gods.

Idolize famous people. 

Humans love celebrities.  We get emotionally attached to famous people for all sorts of reasons.  Actors, sports stars, singers, and even politicians.  People line up to get selfies with celebrities.  At Comic-Con, tons of people flock to pay money for an autograph from their favorite actors.  From an alien’s point of view, this might be a bizarre behavior to observe.  In the case of long-duration space flight, a celebrity might be more analogous to a kind of hero status.  Someone who saved the ship countless times on their journey.  They may idolize the shipbuilders or even the aliens who run the ship.  But it would probably more closely resemble the appreciation we give police officers, soldiers, or mail carriers than how humans act around a sports star.  Everybody thanks the mailman or the soldier, but nobody asks for a selfie or autograph from them.

Watch tv and movies, and consume other forms of fiction.

Any intelligent aliens would no doubt have some form of entertainment.  But television might not be it.  It might be strange to them how most humans spend their free time vegetating in front of a glowing box.  We completely immerse ourselves in tv shows and movies- crap that has little to no benefit to us other than to waste time.  There are hundreds of better ways to spend our short lives.  Of course, our other forms of entertainment might be strange to them, too.  And in humanity’s defense, fiction lets our minds explore otherwise impossible scenarios.  Our obsession with fiction is engrained in our evolution.  We know that early humans used storytelling as a way to pass on history and traditions.  With each storytelling, more embellishments were likely added, and eventually, fiction was born.  Who knows what kind of entertainment aliens would be a custom to? 

Pay for things with money. 

I’d be willing to bet that a space-faring alien race probably wouldn’t have much need for money or any other currency, for that matter.  In all likelihood, they would be a post-scarcity civilization.  This is where everything that is needed is provided by a technology-driven workforce, IE everything is done through replication or advanced automation.  Think Star Trek.  In a lot of science fiction, humanity has reached the point of post-scarcity.  Any sufficiently advanced race would probably reach the point of post-scarcity well before they found humans. 

Alternately everyone could be doing all the work with no automation or fancy tech.  In this case, it would most likely be a trade of survival.  IE, the guy who grows all of the food in their spaceship might be compelled to do his job and share the harvest as a way to keep the engineer who keeps the engines running fed.  It would be of little benefit to have people on board who didn’t pull their own weight or contribute in some meaningful way to the ship. 

I’m sure there are many other things humans do that aliens might find strange.  It really all depends on the culture and history of the species.  They may be familiar with all of our weird ways.  Or they may be so different that nothing we do makes sense to them.  If you have other thoughts on things humans do, that might be strange to an alien race, leave us a comment or let us know on Facebook.