Is there anybody out there?
Jan. 13th, 2012 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestI've been reading comments to this post on Why Evolution Is True, and thinking my own thoughts.
Before you go to read them for yourself, tell me—do you think there is life elsewhere in the Universe? Or are we on Earth all there is? And, why?
My own feeling is that yes, there is life elsewhere. I'd put money on it, but it's the sort of bet that can only be proved in one direction. The way I see it is that the universe is so beyond-imagination huge that even if Life is pretty damn unlikely, there are an awful lot of dice-throws available. A million-to-one shot really does become a certainty. If this is really the only place in the whole mighty universe where life has ever happened, the *odds* against life become another one of those mind-bogglingly large numbers that I cannot get my head around. I admit, I don't actually *want* to believe that—but since we can't tell what the statistics are, I'm not denying any facts by choosing not to.
Anyway. We can't hope to look everywhere and everywhen in the universe, so we'll never know for sure that there is *no* life elsewhere. If life's a very rare occurrence, chances are it'll occur far beyond our scope. If, on the other hand, it's comparatively simple for Not-Life to start self-replicating and turn into Life, we might find proof. We might find it locally. We might find it on Mars, or on one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn. And if there turns out to be Life, most likely in the form of teeny tiny bacteria-like organisms, elsewhere in our solar system—assuming it turns out to be Life that isn't related to Life on Earth—then the odds of there being *intelligent* life shoot right up. Which is exciting!
Before you go to read them for yourself, tell me—do you think there is life elsewhere in the Universe? Or are we on Earth all there is? And, why?
My own feeling is that yes, there is life elsewhere. I'd put money on it, but it's the sort of bet that can only be proved in one direction. The way I see it is that the universe is so beyond-imagination huge that even if Life is pretty damn unlikely, there are an awful lot of dice-throws available. A million-to-one shot really does become a certainty. If this is really the only place in the whole mighty universe where life has ever happened, the *odds* against life become another one of those mind-bogglingly large numbers that I cannot get my head around. I admit, I don't actually *want* to believe that—but since we can't tell what the statistics are, I'm not denying any facts by choosing not to.
Anyway. We can't hope to look everywhere and everywhen in the universe, so we'll never know for sure that there is *no* life elsewhere. If life's a very rare occurrence, chances are it'll occur far beyond our scope. If, on the other hand, it's comparatively simple for Not-Life to start self-replicating and turn into Life, we might find proof. We might find it locally. We might find it on Mars, or on one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn. And if there turns out to be Life, most likely in the form of teeny tiny bacteria-like organisms, elsewhere in our solar system—assuming it turns out to be Life that isn't related to Life on Earth—then the odds of there being *intelligent* life shoot right up. Which is exciting!
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Date: 2012-01-14 10:18 am (UTC)I suspect that all the SF I've read inclines me to the belief that life isn't exclusive to Earth—although I don't think we'll find intelligent, able-to-communicate-with-us life; the universe is too big. But at least it's a question that we might be able to answer in the affirmative.