Trying to avoid both 'Humans are Special' and "Humans are Average"

For some reason (which may include some sort of temporary insanity) I'm seriously considering trying to write a sci fi story, of the classic 'space travel and aliens' variety. Thing is, most stories of this type either have the human race as either generally physically inferior to everyone else, boringly 'average', superior to everyone else 'just because we're special' or a combination of the above. I've decided to try and do things a bit differently by having humans have a few physical advantages compared to the other races out there, although there are also areas in which they have advantages to us. The thing is, I'm having a bit of trouble working out the former. The most obvious one I could come up with is to have humans be the only race who evolved as persistance predators, so we'd have better endurence compared to everyone else, but I'm not sure how much use that would be in space.

Basically I'm asking for ideas, particuarly if said ideas tend to get overlooked by mainstream sci fi.

You could always have a few alien species be quite frail in body structure due to a bit of technology overdependence. Humans would have the advantage in close quarter situations.

HI

Nothing comes to mind right now, but I'd like to say that the way you're going about things is indeed the best way to avoid both of those "tropes" - making humans actually be just another species, without being either "special" or average in The Mario sense that Humans Are Average is. This is how I did it myself in my comics, but I doubt that would be very helpful as they were a Dramedy with the emphasis on the comedy part.

Hmm . . . If humanity got into space first, they could function as the Squishy Wizards of the setting, with a high tech level but less physical capability than other species.

Or maybe most sentient species photosynthesize, and humans are considered unnerving as "devourers." Not exactly Humans Are Special, and not exactlyHumansAreBastards—more like Humans Are Intimidating.

Or maybe humans are collectively The Loonie, in a subversion of Alien Arts Are Appreciated—no other species gets why we write stories and listen to music.

Really, there are a thousand ways to do this.

Edit: Wait, you want physical capabilities?

Umm, how about this: humans have better dexterity than other species (opposable thumbs are better than tentacles), but we're also a large species of Big Eaters, so we require more resources to go into space.

edited 16th Apr '11 8:35:44 PM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

I think I remember someone comparing how humans used to hunt to how wolves hunted, social structures and all, so it might give you some inspiration to look into that.

Other than that, I'm not so sure — it might be best if you made a list of some more obvious characteristics associated with human, like that we're warm blooded, or that we produce milk, and decide where the aliens diverge and what that could mean as an advantage or disadvantage.

Then there's the option of "Humans/Aliens Are Individuals", where you attribute differences to the individual's experience and skills more than their species, but I imagine that would take a shitload more worldbuilding and planning to pull off well if you don't want the aliens to just be human Expies.

Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit Deviantart.

@feotakahari: The Squishy Wizard idea isn't do-able since a) my world building already has humans as the new kids on the block (sort of, anyway) and b) I'm a bit sick of us being the Squishy Wizard. The other suggestions have potential though. I know I said physical abilities, but that's mainly because it's an area that tends to get overlooked a lot.

@Dec: I am planning on at least attempting "Humans/Aliens Are Individuals", but I reasoned that there would probably be a 'baseline' of 'average' abilities for each species which would serve as a starting point when creating characters.

Well, in a highly technologised setting, as sci-fi settings tend to be, I don't think physiological advantages and disadvantages will matter all that much. The differences between the races that really matter will be in terms of psychology, attitude, way of thinking.

You could have humanity being not super-special, but simply excelling at one particular field. Maybe due to our millenia long experience of trade among ourselves we are particularly suited as merchants? Or because we can study all the psychologies and communication codes of other species we are well suited as diplomats? Or maybe we are the only species that can prosper in N2/O2 atmospheres and hence all the worlds are ours for the taking?

Something like that. Crudely said, give humanity a hat. But of course, as always, don't overdo the hatting, heh.

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

That.

Some species might work in a reductive atmosphere, like early bacteria. We'd exist in what'd be utterly hostile, hellish worlds for them.

edited 17th Apr '11 8:21:57 AM by SavageHeathen

You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

Here are a couple of interesting things about humanity maybe you could do something with:

• Human beings are remarkably Extreme Omnivores. We've learned how to eat and prepare a huge range of things designed not to be eaten—like chili peppers, poisonous fish, and the like. Perhaps most dramatically is our fondness for milk: We trained our own species to become lactose-tolerant throughout our lives because we found out milk was a useful food. Perhaps our unique trait could have something to do with that?

• Speaking of evolution, what about domestication? We've bred a wide variety of animals to become not only helpful to us, but more like us—more receptive to learning, more social and cooperative. Inherently fond of us too. Maybe humans could be one of the few species to have done this, so only humans have truly domesticated animals.

• Maybe our relatively long childhoods? We spend a full fourth of our life being brought up. We pour a lot of education into that, too. Maybe humans are regarded, because of this, as an inherently nurturing species (which our love of animals might play into).

edited 17th Apr '11 10:38:15 AM by FreezairForALimitedTime

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

I've already thought of the extreme omnivore thing. It's actually something that'd probably come in handy when travelling the galaxy without replicators since basically so long as something is based on levo amino acids and dextro sugars (and according to something I heard,even that might not be a hard and fast rule)it's potentially food. Poisonous chemicals can oftem be removed easily enough via processing. As for the milk thing, I think that would probably gross out a few aliens.

edited 17th Apr '11 1:22:57 PM by Weaver

Heh. I've done it. In one of my fantasy universes, human beings are... not widely respected for their cuisine. Cheese is considered the most odious of their culinary creations, which makes sense when you think about it.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

I was just thinking about the domestication thing. There is something unique about the relationship between humans and dogs. What if the ability to make that type of connection was advantageous in dealing with either some form of usful Space Whales, or with living ships.

I did the exact opposite - the only truly special thing about my humans was our food, at least for the aliens that were actually capable of eating it.

edited 17th Apr '11 9:53:27 PM by nrjxll

How about every race of aliens (counting humans) have some mental ability and some physical ability unique to them?

At first I didn't realize I needed all this stuff...

I've always felt that was rather pigeon-holing.

Eh, most likely every species will find other species food rather revolting. I mean the differences in biology and hence food needs can be... rather different. What about carrion eaters for example, or OTOH species who eat their food alive?

Besides, cow milk and cheese and what not are not so much a generally human cuisine feature but specifically a feautre of the European (or "Western") cuisine.

edited 18th Apr '11 1:41:41 AM by Octo

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

First make some aliens races with difrend advantages and disadvantages. Second choose one of those races to be humans maybe do it random.

That way you will avoid any Humans/Humanity are something tropes.

You ever notice one thing the humans always get in Fantasy that is more overlooked in Sci Fi?

Variety. Elves are always like elves, but humans can be tough, or gentle, calm or impulsive. This could separate us from the aliens who aren't nearly as diverse as we are.

Other than that races from planets with substantially different gravity from ours would view us as either lumbering giants or caffeinated squirrels.

We are sexually dimorphic.

We form groups are are inherently possesive of our groups and hostile to other groups. Maybe aliens are more collective than we are- not a hive mind, but more "greater good".

Yes. But doing that would definitely be a form of Humans Are Special . It's giving every race a cheap hat, while having humanity be varied. That's both cheap and clichéd, and also not what the thread seems to be looking for.

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

^^ Reminds me of Teenagers From Outer Space.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

This is why I propose to make all races first and later make one of them humans.

Most of yours ideas are thing what make as better in comparition to animals or make us Inteligent Spieces.

Other aliens (sentient aliens with civilisation) propably are also omnivores, know trade , had wars or still have, domesticated animals, use tools, technology, use diplomacy.

A few days ago, I had this idea: Humans Are Prostitutes. Both deconstructs No Biochemical Barriers by demonstrating what would happen to humanity if we're the only race that can breed with any other race, and manages to subvert both Humans Are Special and Humans Are Average.

At first I didn't realize I needed all this stuff...

Bad idea for avoiding Humans Are Sue tropes. Only can work as Take That to them and No Biochemical Bariers.