[Popular science] About the ecology, civilization and technology of the predator (dry goods)

Skylar 2021-11-23 08:01:09

General Note: Regarding the Chinese translation of the series "Predator", the public generally believes that it refers to the only protagonist of the series, but there is also a saying that this translation refers to the human special soldier played by Schwarzenegger in the first part. Ducth, and the English name Predator points out the characteristics of this alien being good at hunting, rather than referring to the name, so here I use the name "Yautja" for themselves in the language of their race to call "Predator".

Planet

The exact origin of the predators is unknown, but we can be sure that they were born in space outside the boundaries of the human universe. So far, humans do not have reliable records and evidence of the existence of the planet of the origin of the Yautja race, so there are theories that they are purely a nomad race, they wander between galaxies and galaxies, looking for larger and more prey hunting field. However, we must admit that the Yautja civilization must have originated from a certain planet in history. This is the theoretical basis for studying their origins.

From a biological point of view, the Yautja race seems to be able to survive in an environment (earth) where oxygen is mixed with other gases (such as methane, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide) under the premise of auxiliary respiratory equipment (masks). This may imply that the environment of the planet they live on is composed of jungles, swamps and wetlands. In short, the surface of the planet is covered by a large number of plants to produce the gas that Yautja needs to breathe. At the same time, after reverse argumentation, the planet’s ecosystem is likely to maintain a large number of species-rich animals for the Yautja to hunt. This hunting activity is a necessary condition for shaping the ecological characteristics and biological instincts of Yautja.

When we studied the visual organs of the Yautja race, we came up with a hypothesis that their planet is either very far away from the main star of the galaxy, or the light produced by the main star is very different from our sunlight. This may be able to Explain why when Yautja took off his helmet on the earth, his visual reflected light showed a kind of near infrared, even a kind of light that is not clear in the spectrum. The reason for this phenomenon of light may be that the planet is rotating at a very low speed, and the creatures live in the dark for a long time, and even Yautja may itself be a night-vision creature.

The slow rotation may be caused by the extremely large mass of the planet. The greater the mass, the greater the gravitational force. This may also explain why the Yautja clan has the power and speed that surpass humans, which are all evolved in a high-gravity environment. From their excellent agility, it can also be inferred that the complex terrain of this planet forces the creatures living here to adapt to various environments. As mentioned before, the planet is covered by a large area of ​​jungle, and there are tall trees. This also allows the Yautja clan to develop a good climbing ability.

Technology

Through the above various theories and hypotheses about the planet, we also have some inferences about when and how Yautja acquired their superb knowledge and technology, focusing on the origin and development of technology.

A generally accepted theory in the academic circles is that in the early days of the Yautja race-the tribal civilization, they had not yet mastered too much technology, and then a super high-tech alien race visited their planet, and outside of this planet. Star technology and interstellar spacecraft were taken by Yautja for some reason. These looted technologies helped the Yautja tribe to evolve rapidly and integrate into their way of life. This process is like the North American Indian tribes on our planet. When they were still hunting with bows and arrows, they suddenly got rifles from the whites, but their hunting lifestyle has not changed, only the technology or tools have changed.

The other theory holds the opposite view. It believes that the Yautja tribe is an advanced civilization that has mastered high technology very early, but collapsed due to reasons similar to super-scale wars or clan battles. The collapse of this civilization forced them to return to the most basic. Tribal life. Or perhaps the Yautja races have already mastered the technology sufficient to trigger large-scale wars. In a long-term planet-wide race war (similar to the Earth’s World War II?), each race continuously and rapidly develops its own technology and develops super High-tech offensive and defensive weapons expand the technological boundaries of Yautja's entire race in war. Obviously, this theory is more inspiring to us in terms of scientific and technological ethics, and it is more like an allegory to humans.

civilization

The research data on how the Yautja society works is not very detailed, but it is certain that the phenomenon of class or caste division in the society exists, and the social treatment that individuals receive varies greatly according to their social class. Another fact is that every Yautja individual has a high and low ranking within its division. Individuals with stronger physical and mental health will be ranked higher. Of course, this ranking is based on fighting each other. Similar to human duel scenes in the Middle Ages, such battles are usually conducted in public places to mark the fairness of the battle. The difference is that the victor often takes the life of the opponent as the fruit of victory.

The highest political organization in Yautja society is the House, or closer to the House of Elders controlled by clan leaders. These clan elders often also control the command of the army, and the elders are supported by a powerful clan army. The Presbyterian House will hold meetings of the elders from time to time. During the meetings, it usually discusses major issues such as the formulation and promulgation of laws, the exchange of scientific and technological applications, the progress of warfare, and of course the achievements of advocating their beloved hunting operations.

The elder’s house will formulate the most important regulations for Yautja, namely, the honor code for hunting, which includes not hunting unarmed prey, forgiving weak women and children, not turning on invisible devices during hunting, etc., not honoring. Standard Yautja fighters will be cruelly punished. These honor codes cover all the warriors of the Yautja clan, and of course the elders of each clan can also make rules for their own tribe.

The academic circles also have different views on the social organization of Yautja, that is, Yautja actually belongs to a matrilineal society, and the older women in the tribe rule within their sphere of influence. The general view is that Yautja is a type of female that is stronger than males, and is more prestigious than males in community communication, and that females are larger than males in general. A matriarchal clan may consist of several generations of daughters, mothers and grandmothers. From this we can infer that the Yautja civilization may be led by the only female elder-Queen Yautja.

Generally speaking, compared to human beings originated from farming civilization, the civilization of the Yautja race is based on hunting. They hardly stay in the same place for a long time. Their culture also develops around hunting and tracking prey. Get up, the strongest and best hunting Yautja male leads a clan, and this male has the power to control all the actions of the hunting team. Judging from its hunting performance, the Yautja family may value species with the same hunting ability more than other prey, and use this as a more challenging hunting target, such as humans on earth. Every young Yautja individual, as the first level of UNBLOODED, needs to hunt an "ultimate prey" as his rite of passage. The creatures currently known by the academia as the "ultimate prey" are aliens (Aliens).

Levels and clan totems

Failure in the trial process means death, and those who successfully pass will have a totem marked on their foreheads with the blood of their prey, proving that they are promoted to the YOUNG BLOOD level. This totem not only marks the respect of the young Yautja, but also means that he has officially become a member of his clan. Each clan has its own unique totems. These totems exist in the clan’s interstellar spacecraft, warrior armor, and ritual processes, and represent the characteristics and beliefs of different clans. Young hunters will be promoted to a higher level BLOODED after a long and recognized hunting by their clan. Yautja hunters are proud of hunting throughout their lives. When they will die from their own hands, they will collect the skulls of their prey. For the spoils, they will be extremely glorious and proud.

Ultimate prey

Although it seems that the Yautjas are extremely cruel and ruthless, they are all bound by a moral code, which is similar to human war ethics. The loyalty of the Yautja hunters to the code is also close to Japanese Bushido and medieval chivalry. Most Yautjas Hunters will not attack weak or non-threatening creatures. When they encounter females or young prey, they will also be tolerant. Attacking weak ones that cannot defend themselves are considered by the norms to be without honor.

The highest level of the Yautja race is WARRIOR. The hunters of this level closely follow the spirit of the code. They act alone, shuttle between the stars, search for more challenging prey in the vast universe, and use the high technology in their hands. The equipment starts a hunt that symbolizes glory.

The highest level is ELDER, which symbolizes the highest level of honor, and the acting style is even less like a Yautja, and there are fewer, maybe as few as a thousand. The hunters of ELDER believe that outstanding warriors of other races are worthy of respect, just like their Yautja kinsmen are worthy of respect. After fighting with their respected prey (which should be an opponent here), ELDERs usually do not kill the prey. Because they have proved their greatness even after defeating the great prey, the death of the prey is no longer important, and the victory at this time is already their greatest trophy.

Yautja Biology Research

Individuals of the Yautja race are called "Predator" because of their biological characteristics and hunting habits. Yautja is a humanoid creature, usually about 2.5 meters tall. Men weigh between 250 and 350 pounds (110 kg-160 kg). Most of their bodies have extremely strong muscles and extremely low fat content. This is also due to their predatory lifestyle and eating habits. Yautja's skin color is generally white and yellow with some black spots, and the eye color is similar to yellow or green. Their hair is similar to humans, and they are usually woven in a style similar to dreadlocks.

Although the body of Yautja is similar to that of humans, their facial features are quite different from humans. Their facial appearance is like a mutated crab. The most notable feature is the four elongated jaw bones surrounding the face. A relatively small mouth, no lips, and extremely sharp teeth. The four jaw bones of Yautja are similar to the tails of cats on earth. They communicate emotionally through the jaw bones. Although Yautja has a simple syllable vocal language, it can also simply imitate the vocal language of other creatures.

From a biological point of view, Yautja's physical strength and speed are far beyond the limits of humans, and it has lightning-like reactions and agility. The blood is green and has scaly. This kind of biochemical research that causes scaly is not clear, but it is certain that this characteristic is an evolutionary product that helps oneself resist their favorite prey blood. Corrosive. Yautja's perceptual sensing capabilities are similar to humans from the level of physiological principles, but far surpass humans, and they have already used their super-technological equipment to help them further enhance their perceptual capabilities. Yautja loves to live in humid, hot and nitrogen-rich air, just like the tropical rain forest on the earth, which is undoubtedly inseparable from the environment of the planet where it grows.

The lifespan of Yautja is usually several decades, but sometimes it can be as long as 300 years. This longer lifespan means that the young child of Yautja will spend several years with his mother until he is mature enough to take care of himself and hunt alone, and the young girl may always follow. The mother lives until she gives birth to her own child to maintain the continuity of her clan for a long time. Individual Yautja females give birth every ten to twenty years. Although Yautja females are very loyal to men during the process of giving birth, they will not maintain a long and stable relationship with a male. This also promotes competition among males in the Yautja tribe.

There is fierce competition among men all the time. Usually Yautja men live in groups with men they don’t know each other and live in an atmosphere of fighting for the right to reproduce. There are even many men who cannot get the right to reproduce at all. Males are automatically assigned to a secondary level. And those men who get the right to breed have not escaped from the competition. They need to continue to prove their value by continuously hunting down dangerous prey and winning considerable trophies. If their value declines, they will be eliminated. Hunting maintains the clan and social hierarchy. Of course, the research on the sociality of Yautja races continues. For example, there is a theory that their social structure is more civilized than the above.

Communication and language

During the hunt, Yautja hunters usually communicate with each other using a simple sign language to convey simple information about hunting. For example, the head is raised to one side to show attention, the head and eyes are down to show obedience, the protruding lower jawbone extends forward to show offense, all jawbones are opened to show anger, all jawbones are bowed and then quickly bounced out to show anger .

Yautja language letter comparison table

Yautja rarely uses vocal languages, even though they have established a set of equally simple but fairly effective languages. They can use the coordination of their chest cavity and mouth to make several sounds that sound more like beasts' roars or roars, and form a richer layer of syllables through changes. For example, different sounds of "hiss" may express warning, anger or surprise; different barks of "whoop" may express anger, anger, or command; short "beep" sounds and "rumbling" sounds from the throat, May express pleasure or curiosity; and a creepy "click" sound is the laughter of Yautjas.

Conventional equipment

Biological helmet (mask)

Yautja hunters will wear different types of helmets during hunting to provide rich functional support. Hunters of different levels will wear helmets that match their status, and even ordinary helmets without additional high-tech features. Of course the most attractive Attention is to be equipped with a computer-assisted full-featured hunting system helmet.

The standard helmets provide physical protection for Yautja hunters during combat and hunting, and are equipped with a ventilator to breathe in extreme environments and to breathe underwater. The technologically upgraded helmet also adds visual aids, including infrared devices, ultraviolet devices, thermal imaging devices, night vision devices, electromagnetic field detection devices and air pressure sensing devices. The function of these visual aids is mainly to help Yautja hunters judge their prey. Physical condition. Other auxiliary settings include X-ray and microwave scanning, magnetometers and Geiger gauges.

In addition, the helmet also has the function of controlling the shoulder gun, providing target tracking and laser positioning functions for the shoulder gun. With the cooperation of the helmet and the weapon, the prey’s whereabouts will be exposed to the hunter’s surveillance. At the same time, the helmet sound processing equipment improves the hunter’s hearing. Sensitivity makes prey nowhere to hide. The sound wave analysis device of the helmet can record and play back the sound of the prey, helping the Yautja hunters to learn the language of the prey race (not simply repeating imitation)-isn't this the cruel manipulation of the prey by the Yautjas?

Mesh pad

This basic protective equipment is worn under the armor by the Yautja hunters. It is made of unknown metal wire to form a mesh. In addition to the basic electrical insulation function, this more important function is to form part of the invisible device to protect the future. Body parts wearing armor. But when most Yautjas don't wear armor, they still wear this equipment like clothes. It seems to be more portable during hunting and combat, and it also provides the most basic protection.

armor

The armor provides the most conventional body protection for the Yautja hunters. It is extremely light and highly maneuverable, but it is still vulnerable to battle damage under strong blows. The armor material is a completely unknown shape composite material, and some even have the function of resisting the corrosion of alien blood. . Hunters of higher rank or older often wear formal armor. We have only found this armor on the leaders of the hunting team. This armor is only used for hunting. Its decoration is slightly more complicated than the above armor, but it is more decorative and symbolic. Practicality.

Invisible device

The stealth equipment of the Yautja clan is the most important equipment to help them sneak in secretly. The light waves are transmitted around the covered object and become distorted, making the object almost invisible to the naked eye. In addition to the Yautja hunter equipped with this technology, it is also used for the invisibility of their interstellar spacecraft. . But the covered object is not really invisible. When the hunter or the covered object moves, the naked eye can see the light flashing like a heat wave, especially when it is close to strong lighting. The invisible device does not work in the water, the same situation will also appear in the environment of heavy fog, smoke and rain.

Offensive weapon

Wrist knife

Most Yautja hunters will choose the wrist knife as their first weapon. Two parallel serrated blades are installed on the outside of the wrist, which are sharp enough to cut off the bones of various prey. Fighting or hunting with wrist knives means the honor and pride of Yautja hunters, because the rules tell them that killing opponents through face-to-face, muscle-to-muscle combat is the supreme glory of a hunter. The blades are about 12 to 18 inches (30-45 cm) in length, and can be quickly ejected from the arm's wristband. They are forged from unknown alien metal, and their toughness will hardly break, but unless there is more Do processing, otherwise it will be difficult to resist the corrosiveness of special-shaped blood.

Plasma launcher (shoulder cannon)

The plasma launcher is a conventional weapon of Yautja hunters. It can carry out long-range energy sputtering strikes against prey. The energy of plasma sputtering can be adjusted manually, ranging from a fixed-point strike to a strike that can destroy an interstellar spacecraft. The plasma transmitter is controlled by the helmet's aiming system and automatically adjusts by tracking the hunter's head movement. The accuracy of its aiming can be improved by laser rays. Energy emission can be controlled by the trigger operated by the hunter's jaw in the helmet, or by preset control.

Spear gun

The function of the spear gun is similar to that of a human sniper rifle. It can shoot at super long distances and is fatal in one shot. It can also be used to directly attack the body of the prey at close range and nail the prey to the wall or other solid objects like a nail gun. For Yautja hunters, the spear gun is a perfect silent weapon that can kill prey silently without revealing its position.

Net gun

Yautja hunters often use net guns to ambush groups of prey. It is not an energy sputtering weapon. Instead, it fires a net woven of tough and sharp metal wires, which is powerful enough to envelop and eject the prey. On the wall or the ground, the body of the prey is cruelly tied. The more the prey tries to break free, the tighter the net will be until the prey is hanged or forced to give up resistance.

Fighting cane

The fighting cane is a self-powered spear. It is about one meter long when shorted and two meters long after being extended. Its ends are extremely sharp and can sustain electric shocks when in contact with prey. It can be long or short, making the cane a formidable weapon in close combat, and it can also throw and kill prey from a long distance.

Rotating flying blade

The rotating flying blade is also a pure cold weapon that Yautja hunters love. It is easy for hunters to carry around. When stowed, it is a flat round device. By pressing its surface, it rotates to eject seven flat but sharp blades, like stars. Yautja hunters usually throw flying blades at their prey, or use them in melee combat, where the rotating blades cut blood into a river.

Self-detonation device

The wrist control panel of the Yautja hunter has many uses, of which the ultimate and most harmful use is to set self-detonation. When a Yautja hunter at the last moment of his life wants to die according to the guidelines and die with glory and dignity, but at the same time does not want to leave evidence of their existence here, setting a self-destruction is undoubtedly the best choice. Once the self-detonation device is set, a countdown will be displayed on the wrist control panel to remind that a micro-nuclear explosion is about to occur. The explosion is powerful enough to destroy three hundred city blocks in human society.

Interstellar ship

Ordinary ship

The spacecraft of the Yautja race have an automatic navigation function, which can navigate between the atmosphere, planetary orbits, and interstellar according to established procedures. There is no automatic weapon launch function, but it has a short-range warning evasion system. The spacecraft can drop Yautja hunters on a certain planet and return to orbit around the planet to wait for the hunter's return signal. Just like the hunter's self-detonation device, Yautja's spacecraft can also enter the self-detonation mode after receiving a command from the pilot or captain. Another more effective self-destruction mode is not to explode, but to automatically and silently chemically dissolve important parts of the spacecraft.

Transport cabin

The transport cabin is a kind of landing device that drops the Yautja hunter from the spacecraft to the surface of the planet. It is a short-distance transport device in the atmosphere and cannot fly in outer space. It is set by an automatic target delivery system and has very low maneuverability.

Star Mothership

The Star Mothership is equivalent to a mobile base of the Yautja clan in the universe. It travels completely independently and rarely directly participates in wars. Instead, it provides supplies for the Starships and Yautja Hunters and can dock dozens of Starships at the same time. Ordinary sensors cannot detect the mothership, which makes it almost difficult to find the mothership. The pilots on the ordinary Yautja spacecraft can contact the nearest mothership through the Yautja standard wireless signal. The mothership is divided into the upper deck and the slum deck according to the internal level of the Yautja race. Here hunters can search for female breeding offspring, fight each other for glory and dignity, and even obtain updated weapons and equipment.

The Starship Mothership does not move very often, and floats if necessary. Although the mothership has very few fleet members, it can still accommodate 500 Yautja hunters in and out of the port at the same time, but the mothership rarely enters the galaxy with many creatures, and will not directly initiate hunting operations, but will let it go. Ordinary interstellar spacecraft do it.

Post-note: I didn’t expect the predator R-rated film to be released in the mainland, so the preparation time was very hasty. Just after reviewing the old five two days ago, I hurriedly wrote down this small science popularization. It is inevitable that there will be Some deficiencies or even errors, please correct me.

View more about The Predator reviews

Extended Reading

The Predator quotes

  • Casey Bracket: It's called the Predator. it hunts people for sport.

    Nebraska Williams: Technically, that's not a predator. That's like...

    Casey Bracket: Thank you.

    Coyle: It's a hunter.

    Casey Bracket: I said the same thing.

  • [the Assassin Predator slams the other Predator on top a car]

    Coyle: What's the big one? What's the big one, Doc? Is that like the male?

    Baxley: He didn't even give a shit about us. Just wanted to kill that thing.

    Casey Bracket: You saw that, right? Guys! Did you see that? He - He grew an exoskeleton under his fucking skin. What, are they hunting each other now?