At what point did the masses realize that creatures not of this Earth might not look like us?

Question

Humans have come up with some hair-brained belief structures over the years, one of the most fascinating to me being the once-common belief that all intelligent life was human (except of course for God et al), and so when other planets were discovered and people began speculating about what life was like there, the theories they came up with would've matched next-door neighbors better than space aliense.

Of course there have been some humans throughout all of history who speculated on such things, but en masse, most humans to ever have lived and contemplated such an issue held the belief that if there was life elsewhere in the universe, it would have to be human because that's what God chose to make.

So when did the masses really begin "waking up" on any historically noteworthy scale to realize that creatures from other planets may be nothing like us?

Answer 1

When the original Star Trek debuted.

Answer 2

i think i heard a story like this about area 51...creatures of unknown origin were in there..like a cover up

Answer 3

Waking up is not designed for the masses...

That is reserved only for a lucky few individuals!

Answer 4

It is easier for the Hollywood types to make aliens for film. That is until movie magic now allows anything to be made. Aside from that. Consider our gravity and you height. Now think about you on a bigger planet where the gravity is greater. How tall would you be then? How about a planet with less gravity? Would you be a good basketball player?

Answer 5

I was not aware that the masses had began to "wake up."  The majority see aliens as a bipedal critter that looks amazing humanoid & simply cannot concieve of a life form that doesn't look amazingly like some critter that evolved here on earth. The thought that a completely different form of what we see as DNA developing elsewhere is simply beyond their grasp.

When a large part of the US doesn't even accept evolution as fact, we have a long way to go.

Answer 6

I was reading that the current UFO craze in this country started maybe in the 50s with the couple who said they were taken by aliens from a lonely road.  After that, there was more and more stories.  I have, also, read that the current idea we have of an alien is the vision seen by some caused by the lack of oxygen to the brain. I have personally known people who say that they have seen this vision which when I explain the lack of oxygen part, they are relieved to find it out.  Why do we, now, see this vision and why isn't written about in previous times is another question.