Aliens - what will they look like

What do you think the first aliens we discover will look like? I think they will be kinda like humans and octopus mixed together - genuine question!

DunningKruger · 61-69, M

For a variety of reasons, we're more likely to look for aliens in environments that more closely resemble our own, so there may well be lifeforms that resemble what we're used to — they have organs to view the same range of visible light as we do, for example, and communicate primarily through sound generation. But that's entirely speculation. We may not have detected aliens yet because the closest species to us communicates through color manipulation on its skin, lives underwater and hasn't developed the sort of electronic technology like we have.

Won't know until we get there, likely.

Jennster · 18-21, F

@DunningKruger that makes sense with us going there. Perfect logic. But we coild also discover life we find hard to recognize mining or what if it comes
to us?

DunningKruger · 61-69, M

@Jennster It's unlikely that anything is going to come to us, or we to it, unless we find it somewhere in our own solar system (in the oceans of Europa under the ice, perhaps). It's entirely like that our first discovery of alien life will be that we detect in the atmosphere of an exoplanet the hallmarks of life that can't be explained through purely chemical and geological processes, and that may mean that there's a planet covered in some sort of plant-like matter, or a carpet of mold-like spores. All this will be done through advanced telescopic studies of exoplanets, likely. Considering all the factors on Earth that had to line up just right to allow for the evolution of technology using beings, it's entirely likely that this is a rare occurrence throughout the cosmos, perhaps happening only a handful of times within our galaxy and then highly unlikely that any two happen at the same time. Perhaps someday we'll be able to detect the remnants of a technological species that died out a billion years ago. Who knows?