A Sentient Alien Species, if they exist, will likely look humanoid

At this juncture, I will address Pro's case. I hope Pro will have returned to DDO with sufficient time to conclude this debate. To boil Pro's case down into its essence, it is arguing that because human-like traits are the traits bested suited to survival and intelligence, these traits are the ones that "Sentient" life forms would naturally exhibit. Firstly, my case already rebuts this notion, and so it can be cross-applied as a response to Pro's arguments. However, I will also briefly take time to examine the particular claims made by Pro in this round.BIPEDALISMPro argues: "For shaping, holding, and ultimately using tools requires a structure which is handlike (that is, fingers with opposable thumbs). You cannot hold a tool with hooves or wings. A claw would have a quite difficult time manipulating an object held within its clutches."Yet, tentacles are just as efficient, despite what Pro claims. If we look at Cephalopods again, "[t]he highly sensitive suction cups and prehensile arms of octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish are as effective at holding and manipulating objects as the human hand." [1]We could also look at something akin to an Elephant's trunk. While the trunk is likely not as efficient as a hand or a set of tentacles, it is still an effective means of manipulating objects. "The trunk's ability to make powerful twisting and coiling movements allows it to collect food, wrestle with conspecifics, and lift up to 350 kg (770 lb). It can be used for delicate tasks, such as wiping an eye and checking an orifice, and is capable of cracking a peanut shell without breaking the seed. With its trunk, an elephant can reach items at heights of up to 7 m (23 ft) and dig for water under mud or sand." [2] Surely, this type of appendage is sufficient enough to obviate the need for bidepalism, while still giving the alien a significant ability to use tools and control objects.And look at dolphins, who use tools sans any hand-like structure, and who are incredibly intelligent despite not having such a structure. Pro hasn't really demonstrates that such a structure is even necessary, but yet he uses that assumption to claim that bipedalism is necessary. (A) Pro's assumption (that some kind of structure that allows for the easy manipulation of tools is necessary) is faulty, as the dolphin example proves, and (B) even if it weren't faulty, the examples of the elephant's trunk and the cephalopods' tentacles show that the need to be able to manipulate tools doesn't require hands or bipedality. Pro writes, "To have your arms and hands off the floor, you'd obviously need legs that can support your weight without support from your hands."But what if the animal is in a marine environment, like a cuttlefish or a dolphin? Certainly, their buoyancy obviates any need for any legs or hands to hold them up. BODY SYMMETRYPro just asks us to read an article without actually telling us what it says--this could easily be a way for Pro to circumvent the character limit, and should not be allowed. So, discounting Pro's source, Pro is basically asking us to believe that an alien will be bilateral because more Earth animals are...I would again refer to the vastness of the universe, the diversity of environments, etc. Pro cannot possibly extrapolate from what happens on just one planet for the rest. Moreover, being bilateral doesn't make something humanoid. An elephant is bilateral, but not humanoid.THE HEADPro states, "Now, the ability to see what is around you is essential for the survival of a large organism."Pro assumes that the organism is large, but that's not really important. What is important is that he assumes it must have vision. If the alien develops in an extremely dark environment, it may never evolve eyes. Echolocation, touch, or some other device could have evolved to allow it to function effectively in the ecosystem it inhabits. There is no need for sight.Pro states, "The head is also an ideal place for the brain, as otherwise the head would be empty."Pro is basically saying that because the head is where the brain is supposed to go, that you need to have a head to have a brain. Surely, an alien could find a body cavity elsewhere on its body to locate the brain--perhaps it finds space in its torso amidst other organs. Really, the possibilities of evolution are infinite, and so, by extension, so too are the possible locations for the brain. Pro just lacks creativity in his thinking here.Finally, Pro says, "The ability to speak intelligently also works best when the mouth is right next to the brain."Perhaps the aliens have developed some other form of communication. Bees communicate by dancing. [3] Other bugs communicate via chemical signals. Presumably, the ability to speak is not, evolutionarily speaking, essential for communication or survival.For all these reasons, I think the resolution can be negated. Over to Pro...SOURCES1 - http://en.wikipedia.org...2 - http://en.wikipedia.org...3 - http://en.wikipedia.org...