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Dast
Dast
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I think their are several good answers here already, but it might be useful to categorise them a little by theme.

Theme 1: The aliens cannot see

  • As suggested by: Alexandre Aubrey, Eduardo W., tfrascaroli

This includes the idea of a species who rely on echolocation (or similar) for everyday "vision" and thus do not detect light naturally. By the 1950's one might expect them to have invented machines to detect light for them - but exactly when a light detector would be invented by a hypothetical blind species is obviously very speculative.

This blindness fits neatly with other environmental reasons. If they live on a dark planet under a thick aborning atmosphere it makes sense that eyes would not have evolved on their planet. Similarly, they might live on a planet very close to its host star, where the surface is so scotching hot that all life emerged and lives deep underground (hence blindness). By 1950's level tech they may well have only just finished a "surface race", IE. which nation can be the first to build some kind of suit that can survive the blazing surface and put a person on it. (The poor surface-nauts later died from radiation poisoning).

(Explaining the thermodynamics of a planet that is hotter on the outside than the inside might be problematic, perhaps it is in some unstable orbit where it spends a few thousand years getting baked then a few tens of thousands away from the star and cold, and they so happen to have "teched up" in the hot stage.)

The star system is in an atypical location

  • As suggested by: Joshua Kearns, Yakk, Vashu

The star system may be extremely isolated for some reason, or more likely might be inside a cloud of interstellar dust that obscures nearby stars.

Philosophical or religious barriers

  • As suggested by: Thorne

These aliens may have strong cultural or religious norms concerning the stars. Their are many ways to spin this, anything from a (probably unrealistic) worldwide cult that insists that the stars are ice demons (as in the old Doctor who episode) and that looking at them or thinking about them might tempt them to eat your soul.

You could of course spin it almost backwards, they are very utilitarian. If you are doing something that doesn't seem useful you are ostracised and cast out. What could be more useless than absentmindedly looking at the sky?

In this category you can also place the "mind-boggle" of scale. As the Hitchhikers guide puts it "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is." Perhaps thesethis species very much don't believe it, in spite of the evidence they may have difficulty wrapping their minds around it - preferring instead to accept that their solar system is alone and cooking up dodgy theories to keep themselves happy.

I think their are several good answers here already, but it might be useful to categorise them a little by theme.

Theme 1: The aliens cannot see

  • As suggested by: Alexandre Aubrey, Eduardo W., tfrascaroli

This includes the idea of a species who rely on echolocation (or similar) for everyday "vision" and thus do not detect light naturally. By the 1950's one might expect them to have invented machines to detect light for them - but exactly when a light detector would be invented by a hypothetical blind species is obviously very speculative.

This blindness fits neatly with other environmental reasons. If they live on a dark planet under a thick aborning atmosphere it makes sense that eyes would not have evolved on their planet. Similarly, they might live on a planet very close to its host star, where the surface is so scotching hot that all life emerged and lives deep underground (hence blindness). By 1950's level tech they may well have only just finished a "surface race", IE. which nation can be the first to build some kind of suit that can survive the blazing surface and put a person on it. (The poor surface-nauts later died from radiation poisoning).

(Explaining the thermodynamics of a planet that is hotter on the outside than the inside might be problematic, perhaps it is in some unstable orbit where it spends a few thousand years getting baked then a few tens of thousands away from the star and cold, and they so happen to have "teched up" in the hot stage.)

The star system is in an atypical location

  • As suggested by: Joshua Kearns, Yakk, Vashu

The star system may be extremely isolated for some reason, or more likely might be inside a cloud of interstellar dust that obscures nearby stars.

Philosophical or religious barriers

  • As suggested by: Thorne

These aliens may have strong cultural or religious norms concerning the stars. Their are many ways to spin this, anything from a (probably unrealistic) worldwide cult that insists that the stars are ice demons (as in the old Doctor who episode) and that looking at them or thinking about them might tempt them to eat your soul.

You could of course spin it almost backwards, they are very utilitarian. If you are doing something that doesn't seem useful you are ostracised and cast out. What could be more useless than absentmindedly looking at the sky?

In this category you can also place the "mind-boggle" of scale. As the Hitchhikers guide puts it "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is." Perhaps these species very much don't believe it, in spite of the evidence they may have difficulty wrapping their minds around it - preferring instead to accept that their solar system is alone and cooking up dodgy theories to keep themselves happy.

I think their are several good answers here already, but it might be useful to categorise them a little by theme.

Theme 1: The aliens cannot see

  • As suggested by: Alexandre Aubrey, Eduardo W., tfrascaroli

This includes the idea of a species who rely on echolocation (or similar) for everyday "vision" and thus do not detect light naturally. By the 1950's one might expect them to have invented machines to detect light for them - but exactly when a light detector would be invented by a hypothetical blind species is obviously very speculative.

This blindness fits neatly with other environmental reasons. If they live on a dark planet under a thick aborning atmosphere it makes sense that eyes would not have evolved on their planet. Similarly, they might live on a planet very close to its host star, where the surface is so scotching hot that all life emerged and lives deep underground (hence blindness). By 1950's level tech they may well have only just finished a "surface race", IE. which nation can be the first to build some kind of suit that can survive the blazing surface and put a person on it. (The poor surface-nauts later died from radiation poisoning).

(Explaining the thermodynamics of a planet that is hotter on the outside than the inside might be problematic, perhaps it is in some unstable orbit where it spends a few thousand years getting baked then a few tens of thousands away from the star and cold, and they so happen to have "teched up" in the hot stage.)

The star system is in an atypical location

  • As suggested by: Joshua Kearns, Yakk, Vashu

The star system may be extremely isolated for some reason, or more likely might be inside a cloud of interstellar dust that obscures nearby stars.

Philosophical or religious barriers

  • As suggested by: Thorne

These aliens may have strong cultural or religious norms concerning the stars. Their are many ways to spin this, anything from a (probably unrealistic) worldwide cult that insists that the stars are ice demons (as in the old Doctor who episode) and that looking at them or thinking about them might tempt them to eat your soul.

You could of course spin it almost backwards, they are very utilitarian. If you are doing something that doesn't seem useful you are ostracised and cast out. What could be more useless than absentmindedly looking at the sky?

In this category you can also place the "mind-boggle" of scale. As the Hitchhikers guide puts it "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is." Perhaps this species very much don't believe it, in spite of the evidence they may have difficulty wrapping their minds around it - preferring instead to accept that their solar system is alone and cooking up dodgy theories to keep themselves happy.

Source Link
Dast
Dast
  • 3.2k
  • 9
  • 16

I think their are several good answers here already, but it might be useful to categorise them a little by theme.

Theme 1: The aliens cannot see

  • As suggested by: Alexandre Aubrey, Eduardo W., tfrascaroli

This includes the idea of a species who rely on echolocation (or similar) for everyday "vision" and thus do not detect light naturally. By the 1950's one might expect them to have invented machines to detect light for them - but exactly when a light detector would be invented by a hypothetical blind species is obviously very speculative.

This blindness fits neatly with other environmental reasons. If they live on a dark planet under a thick aborning atmosphere it makes sense that eyes would not have evolved on their planet. Similarly, they might live on a planet very close to its host star, where the surface is so scotching hot that all life emerged and lives deep underground (hence blindness). By 1950's level tech they may well have only just finished a "surface race", IE. which nation can be the first to build some kind of suit that can survive the blazing surface and put a person on it. (The poor surface-nauts later died from radiation poisoning).

(Explaining the thermodynamics of a planet that is hotter on the outside than the inside might be problematic, perhaps it is in some unstable orbit where it spends a few thousand years getting baked then a few tens of thousands away from the star and cold, and they so happen to have "teched up" in the hot stage.)

The star system is in an atypical location

  • As suggested by: Joshua Kearns, Yakk, Vashu

The star system may be extremely isolated for some reason, or more likely might be inside a cloud of interstellar dust that obscures nearby stars.

Philosophical or religious barriers

  • As suggested by: Thorne

These aliens may have strong cultural or religious norms concerning the stars. Their are many ways to spin this, anything from a (probably unrealistic) worldwide cult that insists that the stars are ice demons (as in the old Doctor who episode) and that looking at them or thinking about them might tempt them to eat your soul.

You could of course spin it almost backwards, they are very utilitarian. If you are doing something that doesn't seem useful you are ostracised and cast out. What could be more useless than absentmindedly looking at the sky?

In this category you can also place the "mind-boggle" of scale. As the Hitchhikers guide puts it "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is." Perhaps these species very much don't believe it, in spite of the evidence they may have difficulty wrapping their minds around it - preferring instead to accept that their solar system is alone and cooking up dodgy theories to keep themselves happy.