Thanks for replying. For some reason to me, human beings are what we earth types are (unless Zenn-La was founded by earthlings in the future, err, I guess it would be the past?). I would have preferred him to say, "mere mortal" or "sentient being" or "living thing." I always liked how the surfer was an outsider and that gave him some limited authority to comment on the collective "us" (earth people) and try to set us straight from our bad ways.
I think it's writer's prerogative, like a writer will determine if getting hit by a car will hurt Iron Man or not. I tend to think along the lines of Star Trek and Star Wars, where humans are throughout the galaxy mixed with alien races here and there.