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In popular cultures, life forms —especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin, i.e. not coming from the Earth are referred to collectively as aliens.
This usage is anthropocentric; the term is used to refer to non-human civilizations even in the context of their own native habitats. This may be seen as a reversion to the classic meaning of "alien" as referring to an "other".
The fictionalization of extraterrestrial life occurred before the 20th century. The protagonist of the 10th-century Japanese narrative, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, was a hime (princess) from the Moon who is sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war, and is found and raised by a bamboo cutter in Japan. She is later taken back to the Moon by her real extraterrestrial family. A manuscript illustration depicts a round flying machine similar to a flying saucer. At around the same time, "The Adventures of Bulukiya", a medieval Arabic tale from the One Thousand and One Nights, depicted a cosmos consisting of different worlds, some larger than Earth and each with their own inhabitants.
The didactic poet Henry More took up the classical theme of Cosmic pluralism of the Greek Democritus in "Democritus Platonissans, or an Essay Upon the Infinity of Worlds" (1647) With the new relative viewpoint that understood "our world's sunne / Becomes a starre elsewhere", More made the speculative leap to extrasolar planets,
the frigid spheres that 'bout them fare;
Which of themselves quite dead and barren are,
But by the wakening warmth of kindly dayes,
And the sweet dewie nights, in due course raise
Long hidden shapes and life, to their great Maker's praise.
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