Aliens freak me out. Not most aliens you see in the media but the idea of actual aliens freaks me out. While other mammalian species on this planet do posses a modicum of empathy with us, an alien being would have no taxonomic relationship to us and would probably be completely nearly unreadable to us except on an intellectual level.

There are some things that I imagine all biological beings having in common. For example, you have to look at something to attack it, so I can imagine an alien finding a stare threatening if they can recognize our eyes. This though, is a very crude type of empathy. I doubt their'd be mutual recognition of signs of affection or most displays of status.

Other things that aliens might share with us are hierarchical forms of organization. I'm convinced these come about not simply because of desire of some humans to dominate others, but also because a tree structure is an efficient way to share information. However, hierarchies can be permanent or impermanent and all encompassing or only encompass a few activities.

The boss alien on Tuesday might not be the boss alien on Wednesday and we'd have a difficult time understanding that.