Oolite Bulletins

There's an episode of Star Trek: Voyager called "False Profits" where some Ferengi use replicator technology to pose as messengers from the gods to the inhabitants of a primitive planet.

OK, the summary seems to confirm that meets the terms of this round. Really surprised that nobody mentioned the series that put this idea into my head, Christopher Stasheff's Warlock series:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warlo ... of_Himself and sequels.

As if by magic Disembodied is selected to ask the next question!

OK … name five intelligent alien species who are, on a human scale, very large. For the avoidance of doubt this means at least twice the height and/or mass of an adult human being, and by "intelligent" I mean able to hold conversations, discuss abstract ideas, etc. Bonus points if they're technological and spacefaring!

Edited to add: and they should be, by some reasonable definition, biological - i.e. not a machine intelligence, and not a living star/planet/etc.

Disembodied wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 12:58 pm

OK … name five intelligent alien species who are, on a human scale, very large. For the avoidance of doubt this means at least twice the height and/or mass of an adult human being, and by "intelligent" I mean able to hold conversations, discuss abstract ideas, etc. Bonus points if they're technological and spacefaring!

Just a heads up, I'd guess you should specify "biological" [intelligent alien species], as some of the examples in the recent "stars are intelligent species" could be brought here (not to mention ffutures threat with planets in one of the responses on that thread )

Commander_X wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 5:15 pm

Just a heads up, I'd guess you should specify "biological" [intelligent alien species], as some of the examples in the recent "stars are intelligent species" could be brought here (not to mention ffutures threat with planets in one of the responses on that thread )

Yes, good point, thanks! I've amended the question.

Not sure, if Solariss would count (while highly inteligent it is so different, that "conversation" is the problem - but the "phantoms", it creates, at least can understand humans (even if that feelss somehow like "cheating" from Solaris side) )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)

Psychlos stand up to 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and weigh up to 1,000 pounds (450 kg)
Battlefield Earth L.Ron Hubbard

James White's Sector General series is full of them - but I'll go with Tralthans, who are described as being like six-legged elephants. If you want something really big the planet Drambo has "Strata beings", intelligent living tool-making organic continents, but they don't have space travel for fairly obvious reasons.

Talking of elephants: the Fithp from Footfall - do they qualify?

(Just re-reading:) Didonians referred to as Heesh (three entities, a sort of rhino, monkey, and bird -- krippo, noga, ruka - connected to form a higher intelligent entity than the sum of the parts) in The Rebel Worlds by Paul Anderson?
Jabba the Hutt ?

gilhad wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 11:01 am

Not sure, if Solariss would count

Although it's a massive single entity, and undoubtedly intelligent, I think you're right: it's too utterly alien to have a conversation with.

spud42 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 12:15 pm

Psychlos stand up to 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and weigh up to 1,000 pounds (450 kg)

A bit on the short side, but 450kg is well over twice the mass of the average human, so I'll allow it.

ffutures wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 12:38 pm

Tralthans, who are described as being like six-legged elephants.

That's two (the "Strata beings" are another Sector General species, so they would contravene the usual one-per-universe rule - which admittedly I didn't state at the outset, but I think it's pretty much established custom and practice now).

Cody wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 12:49 pm

the Fithp from Footfall - do they qualify?

Described as being "man-sized", so alas - too small!

Commander_X wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:28 pm

Didonians referred to as Heesh (three entities, a sort of rhino, monkey, and bird -- krippo, noga, ruka - connected to form a higher intelligent entity than the sum of the parts)

Not a single species, so I'd have to say no.

Commander_X wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:28 pm

Jabba the Hutt ?

Jabba tops the scales at over a metric tonne, so yes. That makes three - two more for the prize!

No baby elephants, so I'll try the Kiint from the Night's Dawn trilogy?

Cody wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2019 11:10 pm

No baby elephants, so I'll try the Kiint from the Night's Dawn trilogy?

9 metres long and 3 metres wide … the Kiint makes 4. One more to go!

If anyone's looking for a clue, Iain M. Banks always had a thing for the large-scale …

What about the farscape Leviathan?