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If the universe does not contain 'earth like' life

Me Myself

Me Myself

Back to my username
I agree with the if another planet harbors life it could be so alien that we do not recognise it. I ve thought that could be the case for long.

Wo is to say all forms of life need what earth life hav needed? Who is to say there only exists carbon based life forms?
 
The Sum of Awe

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Staff member
Premium Member
Me Myself said:
I agree with the if another planet harbors life it could be so alien that we do not recognise it. I ve thought that could be the case for long.

Wo is to say all forms of life need what earth life hav needed? Who is to say there only exists carbon based life forms?
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Exactly, we can't know for sure, at least yet, if something has consciousness or not.
 
Me Myself

Me Myself

Back to my username
The Sum of Awe said:
Exactly, we can't know for sure, at least yet, if something has consciousness or not.
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Pretty much. I mean as far as we know, rocks could have a consciousness.

We cant really know what makes consciousness. We have some understanding of how our human bodies interact with our human consciousness, but how does that tell us that is the only consciousness that there exists?
 
F

fenrisx

Member
stephenw said:
How do you feel about the idea that the universe may not contain earth like life?
Universe may not contain

I always just sort of presumed that there is other life out there.
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Then giant space squid come here and waster a year of their time trying to talk to us, and eventually give up in frustration and fly off gurgling something in the methane based salad dressing they think is normal as an eco system.
 
painted wolf

painted wolf

Grey Muzzle
Why would life have to be "Earth like"... and in what way are we qualifying that?

Essentially what I take away from that article is that alien life is just as likely to not have the same biochemistry as we do... so expecting to find life in the universe by looking for the traces that we leave behind is a bit silly.

Oxygen is not a requirement for life... so insisting on finding a particular concentration of oxygen as evidence of life is pretty useless. Finding life is going to be harder than most people assume, because life isn't limited to what we are.

wa:do
 
T

TommyDar

Member
Alceste said:
Considering the numbers involved, I'm sure it's impossible that earth is the only planet in the whole universe with life on it.

I'll let this guy explain it for me...

[youtube]rDRXn96HrtY[/youtube]
Dr. Neil DeGrasse - A fascinatingly disturbing thought - YouTube
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Alceste, that was a very good video.

According to a biologist friend I have, there are two competing factors in intelligent life. The first is that given the size of the universe, as the age of the universe keeps getting bigger, the possibility for at least one other planet with life is more likely. On the other hand, self-assembling molecules which are required for life to contine and perpetuate, are rare, and reaching a complexity that is capable of sustaining intelligent life is rarer yet.

But he also said that nature is a much more inventive force than we are, so the fundamental biochemistry, such as amino acids or being water based, need not even be similar to ours, not to mention outward forms.
 
LegionOnomaMoi

LegionOnomaMoi

Veteran Member
Premium Member
stephenw said:
How do you feel about the idea that the universe may not contain earth like life?
Universe may not contain

I always just sort of presumed that there is other life out there.
Click to expand...
Despite the tone of the article, this is kind of old news. When Ward & Brownlee wrote Rare Earth over a decade ago, it was at least somewhat controversial. The SETI project began with a great deal of optimism, and it continued with much the same despite of the results. However, it also began before we knew as much as we do about life, the universe, and everything (and not just the book). Astrobiology is a fairly new field, but the consensus has changed since the time of the Drake equation, Sagan, and all the other indicators that we'd be finding ET outside of hollywood any time now. Springer has been publishing the series Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics for some time now, and it is not alone (Cambridge Astrobiology is perhaps even more influential). I can't say whether or not there is a consensus, but I can say that there are a large number of scientists from various backgrounds who believe that complex life is extremely rare, perhaps even unique to earth.

On the other hand, even among those who believe that multicellular life is extremely rare, there still seems to be a good deal of optimism. Personally, I agree with the authors of a study I cited very soon after I became a member here. We know of one place where earth-like life developed- earth. And we know of one way in which it developed- how it did here. Asking about the probability that life exists elsewhere is like picking a winning lottery number when you have no idea whether how many numbers you had to choose from: it could be several hundred, or googolplex. If you don't know the probability space, the only thing you can really say is that it is possible.
 
YmirGF

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
I'm a bit puzzled why human animals would assume that their form of so-called "intelligent life" is the only form of "intelligent life" possible. Project much?
 
Kilgore Trout

Kilgore Trout

Misanthropic Humanist
YmirGF said:
I'm a bit puzzled why human animals would assume that their form of so-called "intelligent life" is the only form of "intelligent life" possible. Project much?
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Sometimes I doubt that truly intelligent life would even recognize us as such.
 
sandandfoam

sandandfoam

Veteran Member
YmirGF said:
I'm a bit puzzled why human animals would assume that their form of so-called "intelligent life" is the only form of "intelligent life" possible. Project much?
Click to expand...

I think that the article is talking about carbon based life rather than 'intelligent'.
 
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