Nagging questions

[damagecase]

Hello all. As for an introduction, like most here, I discovered Predator when I was 6 or 7 years old and have been fascinated with them ever since.

The questions I have revolve around the Predators sensory system. Much has been made of the infared vision. However, it seems, from the first movie, this s adequate for an effective predator, namely pit vipers, but is extremely lacking for a sentiant creature. Furthermore, pit vipers specialize in hunting warm blooded organisms (mostly). Winston's Predator seems to hunt everything (taking into account the comics and other movies). Now this doesn't even take into account the Predators technology, but that can be left for another time.

The point I'm trying to make here is that our understanding of their sensory system has a huge hole in it so I have developed a theory (roughly) to fill it.

What we know:
Eyes: They appear deeply set. They seem, comparatively similar, to animals that are known to have poor eyesight, namely bats. So, again eyesight doesn't seem like the Predator's primary mode of perception.
Ears: Many animals utilize sound or vibration to effectively navigate. Again bats come to mind but so do snakes, which have no ears but sense vibration. With the Predators, the ear, from what I've come across, seems very simple and likely only moderately effective, perhaps less effective than the human ear, which is to say very poor in respect to other animals.
Nose: Predators have no nose however their entire mouth could be a sensory organ, coming back to the sensory organs of a pit viper. We really have no information as to why the Predators mouth is shaped the way it is (outside of looking freaky). Perhaps this is how it navigates.
Lastly, the "dreads": Now I have read many a debate about whether they are hair or something else. I am going with something else here. Evidence in the comics and some sculpts seems to imply they are attached in a much deeper way than mere hair (sockets in a skull sculpt and some of the comics that have the dreads bleeding when removed). I think they are in fact sensory organs not dissimilar to the barbles on a cat fish.

So, essentially I'm looking for your thoughts. I mean, part of the allure of the Predators is the mystery along with the physical stature. But with what we are given, does this idea make sense?

I welcome any ideas...

 

[skullcollektor]

nice topic. Do you happen to be an engineer? lol.

I think the points you make are valid, I like the dread theory, like a catfish.

But in the end it was just an artists concept kinda like the Kathoga from The Relic.

 

[hellonearth]

well it's pretty clear that in the predator world they have machines hearing and basically seeing for them, yes we know the eye sight is bad, cause when they take off their masks their vision is nearly useless as far as hunting. the hearing, i've only seen on some masks, what looks to be some kind of tympanic membrane (i.e. lizard ear) but they have acute hearing functions in their bios to aid in that, so ya they've pretty much had to build around their weaknesses, if you wanna call them that, but they seem to do a pretty damn good job of it.

who knows maybe they developed these things for themselves in general to help, they already had heat vision, on top of making a bio helmet to aid in otherworldly travel, these abilities would only naturally lead to hunting i would imagine. then the development of weapons you have yourself a superior hunter race!!

 

[JP McFarf]

*reads*


uh.... i understood lik none of that...


*brain short circuits*


*smoke comes out of her ears*

 

[jaded]

Jaded - "What is a movie? Alex"
Alex Trebeck - "And that is what the judges were looking for. Jaded you have the lead"

 

[damagecase]

well it's pretty clear that in the predator world they have machines hearing and basically seeing for them, yes we know the eye sight is bad, cause when they take off their masks their vision is nearly useless as far as hunting. the hearing, i've only seen on some masks, what looks to be some kind of tympanic membrane (i.e. lizard ear) but they have acute hearing functions in their bios to aid in that, so ya they've pretty much had to build around their weaknesses, if you wanna call them that, but they seem to do a pretty damn good job of it.

who knows maybe they developed these things for themselves in general to help, they already had heat vision, on top of making a bio helmet to aid in otherworldly travel, these abilities would only naturally lead to hunting i would imagine. then the development of weapons you have yourself a superior hunter race!!

Still though, to have evolved to the point where we are familiar with them, the Predators must have been apt to survive without the biomechanics. Certainly the bio enhances their vision and possibly their hearing but could they also enhance their olfactory sense as well? Perhaps funneling scent molecules or other chemical indicators to these possible recepters.

Also, with regards to the dreads, the possibilities are limitless as to what they could pick up upon. Light, odor, air movement... It could be the how to the Predator's ascension to the status of the universe's top predator. Thanks for the response...

 

[damagecase]

nice topic. Do you happen to be an engineer? lol.

I think the points you make are valid, I like the dread theory, like a catfish.

But in the end it was just an artists concept kinda like the Kathoga from The Relic.

I think thats part of the fun of theorizing. The movie has left enough holes that are very relevant yet can remain shrouded to the characters and the audience. I mean, I have looked over multiple forums for ideas over the years and what I've found, I thought, were inadequate. Really, the field is wide open. They're frickin' aliens.

As to an artist's conception... Well, I think that it is the natural evolution of a movie monster to move from the shadows to the light. From the unknowable to the familiar. For example, vampires were innitially little more than blood sucking boogy men. Now there are stories having them from demonic spawn to a product of a viral infection. With Predators, there is so much more to expand upon. The way they see the world is something that has a direct relationship to every aspect of their exsistance.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Astritos]

In AVP R theres a Triceratops skull, so that means they have been coming to Earth for Millions of years, the chances of a creature staying the same for that long is unlikely so theres a possibility that the Predators were much different from the form there in now, so that means you can create a creature in whatever way you want.
So you could have them with better / different eyesight, so then over time as there sight becomes worse thats when there Technology comes in and they just addapt.
Yes i know there is a Model kit of a Predator fighting a T Rex and there are proberly Comics with them in the form there in nowi, but i'm going from the films and thinking about if they were real.

Sorry if what i've wrote doesn't make sence lol its 3:34am and my eyes are closing.

Dan

 

[damagecase]

In AVP R theres a Triceratops skull, so that means they have been coming to Earth for Millions of years, the chances of a creature staying the same for that long is unlikely so theres a possibility that the Predators were much different from the form there in now, so that means you can create a creature in whatever way you want.
So you could have them with better / different eyesight, so then over time as there sight becomes worse thats when there Technology comes in and they just addapt.
Yes i know there is a Model kit of a Predator fighting a T Rex and there are proberly Comics with them in the form there in nowi, but i'm going from the films and thinking about if they were real.

Sorry if what i've wrote doesn't make sence lol its 3:34am and my eyes are closing.

Dan

I'm kind of the mind that the Predators as we know them may very well be the end of evolution of that species. Evolution only occurs when a species is in a situatioton to improve. Look at human beings. Our compassion for the weaker/less fortunate members of our species causes evolution to stall or perhaps stop all together. Technology also doesn't help. I believe that the Predators reached a pinnacle. They became the top of the universal food chain 300 plus million years ago.

Also, they could have attained the dinosaurs dna and created them to inhabit a game refuge or perhaps dinosaurs still exsist on a different planet, kinda a parallel evolution theme... In an infinate universe all things are possible....

Thanks for the response, get some sleep ...

 

[hellonearth]

yes i do understand it's a movie guys, i'm not usually one to think too hard about things like that (things that don't exists mechanical functions, and so on) i only answered for the sake of the argument. and possibly that somewhere out in the universe there certainly could be hunter races of different kinds, but the odds of something this cool actually being possible is 0 oh well.....

 

[damagecase]

yes i do understand it's a movie guys, i'm not usually one to think too hard about things like that (things that don't exists mechanical functions, and so on) i only answered for the sake of the argument. and possibly that somewhere out in the universe there certainly could be hunter races of different kinds, but the odds of something this cool actually being possible is 0 oh well.....

I don't think its ever just a movie or just a story...These things exist as result of the human psyche. Sure this movie started out as Rambo vs. Alien but it, at least with me and I would guess other members here, struck a deeper cord. For me it answers a question that I had thought about often growing up. See, we live in rural Minnesota, U.S. and hunting and fishing has been and will likely always be a part of our life style. It comes down to really just knowing ones place in the world and to have hands on experience in what has become our natural order, namely for us to live, something else dies. But I was never really that happy about killing things. I found little joy in it. And after I shot my second whitetail deer I started to understand why Predator was so near and dear to my heart. The question was a purely philosophical one. Having killed something I didn't full understand, I asked, how should I be judged? If me being sentient somehow enables or justifies my killing of a lesser organism, what am I? Predator answers that question for Predators are mere hunters revelling in the hunt. Whether it is some extrordinary species ten thousand light years away or a special ops unit operating in Central America. And what are they for doing this? They are monsters, just like us. What they do is no more horrible than what we do on a larger scale. Its only the species difference that differentiates us, which really on an ethical moral plane, is nothing at all.

Now in the grand scheme of things, does morality, ethics axiology really have a place? I'll let you know when I find an answer.

Thanks for responding.