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Capitalize "human" or not?

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    Capitalize "human" or not?

    Does it seem odd to anyone else that in nearly every SciFi book/TV show/etc, that pretty much every alien race has its name capitalized, but "human" is always undercase? It is the name of our species, no different from Asgard, Cylon, Dalek and all those. Do we not deserve the privilege of being capitalized?
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    #2
    Good point, I guess, grammatically speaking, when referring to the race it should be capitalized.

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      #3
      But, we don't capitalise the names of animal species, like dogs, cats, iguanas, llamas, etc- so possibly we shouldn't capitalise the aliens race... Although we do capitalise nationalities- English, American, Polish, etc...

      Is there a line drawn between species and nationalities? Do we capitalise the races because we see them as nationalities, rather than a race?

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        #4
        Most fiction also fails to capitalize "Earth" as well. I do my little part by trying to remember to capitalize every time I type it out.
        "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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          #5
          When Earth is a proper name referring to our planet then it should be capitalized (just like other planets that have proper names like Mars and Venus). It should only be lowercase when earth refers to dirt or soil (which covers much of the planet Earth).

          As for "human"... hmmmm.... good question.

          My guess is that human is a generic category, not a proper noun for a specific group. The dog comparison is a good one. We do not capitalize "dog" but we do capitalize "German Shepherd," because it is the proper name for a specific group of dogs. Same thing with people. Specific groups (whether social, racial, linguistic, political, religious, etc.) are capitalized. Like Spanish, Dutch, Jewish, Republican, etc). But the word "humans" is more like the word "people." It's too generic to be considered a proper noun.

          So if there are humans on multiple planets that do not form a cohesive group, then I guess that each group would have their own proper name (which would then be capitalized). As for aliens... we generally give them proper names in order to distinguish "them" from "us." We view alien races as specific, unified groups. So we capitalize their names.


          Okay, I'm not entirely sure if that explanation made sense or not, but I'm an English major, so I had to give it a try.
          Chief of the GGP (Gateworld Grammar Police). Punctuation is your friend. Use it!

          Great happy armies shall be gathered and trained to oppose all who embrace doubt. In the name of Hope, ships shall be built to carry our disciples out amongst the stars, and we will spread Optimism to all the doubters. The power of the Optimi will be felt far and wide, and the pessimists shall become positive-thinkers.
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