Ask Steve Perry

[SiL]

And yet, when you think about it, only about as smart as Inspector Rex.

Difference being, as has been pointed out, is that Aliens are much, much faster learners.

I'd personally like to see Aliens that have been alive longer than three weeks in an environment with minimal external influence. All Aliens we've ever seen have been completely separate from whatever their origins were; it's unfair to assume we've seen the pinnacle of Alien intelligence based on 3-week-old babies.

Raise a person outside of society, in the wild, and they will not be molecular biologists. They won't even know what the hell a molecule is. The only reason we're so smart is because we've had two million years of other people doing the groundwork and passing it on down. You don't get that when you're born in a vacuum.

[Undeadite]

Well the longest living alien specimen would have been in either Aliens, or Alien:R depending on the time lapse between the colonists finding the eggs and the marines getting involved, and the successful cloning of Ripley and the arrival of the Betty (I don't know which is longer). The aliens in 2 were smart enough to attack the marines without getting detected, and had already grown used to their surroundings while the aliens in 4 knew how to escape and possibly set traps. Both batches had time to socialize within their own hives, and they did seem to be smarter.

[SiL]

It was 3 weeks in Aliens, or a little longer (3 weeks from when the marines left Gateway). The Betty arrived with the hosts; it was a day before the crap hit the fan.

[Undeadite]

Considering the short gestation period of an alien and the massive population they deal with, it could be assumed that they don't live very long on their own so who knows how influential 3 weeks is to them, and the Betty arrived a day before things went bad but there would have had to be already used hosts considering the amount of aliens on board the ship.

[Flaming Firefox]

With all due respect to your arguments, you are missing the point: A handful of bacteria can kill you -- does that make them more intelligent than you are? Can a lion drive a car? Can lions design and then build a car? 

Complex tool-using is a higher level of function. A chimp can poke a stick into a nest of ants, but that's a pretty simple tool A crow can drop a nut onto a rock from a height. Neither of these actions put them into the league of people who can write on computers created by their kind, using language developed by their kind, discussing abstract philosophy developed by their kind.

Bring me the xenomorph who dreamed up and then built the alien version of the Mac, that'll impress me.
Can't find him? What a surprise.

Intelligence doesn't mean you as an individual can't be stupid, ignorant, or arrogant; it doesn't mean you can't make bad choices. Stick your hand into a rattlesnake's cage and stir the critter up, that's pretty stupid, but there are plenty of humans who have better sense. One idiot doesn't define the species.

Intelligence is a survival characteristic -- if you are circulating acid for blood, have big teeth and tough skin, you don't need to be particularly intelligent to survive. If your queen lays thousands of eggs, you are expendable, and intelligence is a waste.

If, on the other hand, you are furless, have mostly-dull teeth, fragile skin, you can't run fast and aren't strong, relatively-speaking, being smarter than the critters who can outfight and outrun you is a way to stay alive.

Xenomorphs are war toys, developed by some species a whole lot smarter for biological warfare. Nothing else makes any sense. If they evolved naturally, they wouldn't be at the top of their world's food chain, otherwise, why acid for blood? Like the South American frog used for arrow poison, the reason you have acid for blood is to make you taste bad enough to keep something from killing and eating you. Think about it.

You might not like how Dark Horse has developed this universe but they did develop it, and their versions makes a lot more sense than the movie versions.

Humans, as a species, have better reasoning abilities than xenomorphs. Period. Full stop. End of story.

If you can't see that, that's fine. Not my problem. I've tried to tell you, you just don't want to hear it.

What the heck ...

I find it amazing what the species on this planet do to survive. There multitudes of species on Earth that are easily as interesting if not more so than the Alien due to various behaviors and adaptations.

[Johnny Handsome]

It was 3 weeks in Aliens

How do we know that?

[Undeadite]

Yeah I thought it was 3 weeks between loss of comunication and the sending of the marines, plus the flight time in space to get there.

[SiL]

How do we know that?

When the marines get up in the Sulaco, one of them mentions in the background that they've been lying on their backs for three weeks. You sort of have to listen for it, but it's pretty clear when you hear it.

Yeah I thought it was 3 weeks between loss of comunication and the sending of the marines, plus the flight time in space to get there.

Given they "didn't have time" to brief the marines before leaving Gateway, I think it's safe to assume they were sent pretty much immediately (Well, maybe two or three days; they had to go to Ripley, Ripley said no, that night has nightmare, Ripley says yes, etc.)

[Undeadite]

3 weeks or no, that is plenty of time for the alien to establish themselves.

[SiL]

No-one was questioning that ...

[SM]

bad but there would have had to be already used hosts considering the amount of aliens on board the ship.

The number of Aliens seen, killed, mentioned by Father, etc. all point to the orginal 8 hosts.

[Undeadite]

But what about the massive hive? And that wall of aliens riple went thru at the end?

[SM]

It wasn't a wall of Aliens.

She was abducted by only two adult Aliens still alive at that point.  One of them takes her to the Queen.  We see one seconds before impact.  Ergo the other was on the Betty.

ooooWEEEEEEEEEooooooO!!!!!

[Undeadite]

Ugh, if I had my copy of the movie I would so tally it all up! 

[SM]

Sure, if you don't want to take my word for it.