Yes, vast distances over both space and time. Another civilisation checking our solar system for intelligent life at any time other than in the last 120 years over the last 10 billion years would find no radio waves as an indicator of technologically advanced life.
Spin-off: The Rare Earth hypothesis
- Sy Borg
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Re: Spin-off: The Rare Earth hypothesis
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Re: Spin-off: The Rare Earth hypothesis
This is a great point, one I was going to raise myself. The fact that only one genisis of life has ever been found on earth makes biologists sceptical towards the idea that life may exist else where. Yet on the other hand some biologists point out that life emerged fairly early relative to the age of the planet, suggesting it may not be as improbable as it seems.Atreyu wrote: ↑March 19th, 2018, 5:14 pm The main problem with "The Rare Earth" hypothesis is that is assumes that the only life that could exist in the Universe is life as we already know and define it.
Once this assumption is eradicated, a new view of the Universe can be had, one in which life could possibly be the rule rather than the exception...
Of course this would not be the case if life arrived here via transpermia, making the search for life quintessential to a better understanding of our own origins.
Another interesting thought is the fact that things don't appear to occur singularly. We once thought earth was the only planet, the moon was the only sattelite and our sun the only star which planets orbit. We then thought there was only one solar system and one galaxy, boy were we wrong! But there can only be one Univerese right? Now this is even being challenged.
I feel it is less rational to believe in the existence of gods than it is to believe that intelligent life may exist elsewhere in the Universe.
- Sy Borg
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Re: Spin-off: The Rare Earth hypothesis
Biology can only appear on a geologically active planet. The geology undergoes its own evolution towards complexity and one of those stages we refer to as abiogenesis, which is not so much the dawn of life but the dawn of biological life.
As mentioned above, ours is a chemistry based on water and carbon. While this seems to be easily the best combination to bring about the complex chemistry of biology, ours is only one example and there may be other configurations.
What is life anyway but a local entity that processes energy in the environment in ways that dramatically slow its re-absorption into that environment?
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
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Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023