Is it really inevitable? You'd think someone in power would be making solving this the very, very top priority.Our failure to detect intelligent extraterrestrials may indicate not so much how rarely these have evolved, but rather how rapidly they have destroyed themselves after developing technological civilizations.
-- John Leslie
John Leslie is author of The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction.
The chances of there being the existence of very basic life forms in the universe is either next to zero or extremely high. We do not, as yet, know how easy it is for single cell organisms to evolve from inorganic components.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the chances of anything more advanced than this evolving elsewhere than the earth is very close to zero (although in such a massive universe, mathematically not impossible). This is because of the uniqueness of the earth, and all the unique events and fortuitous circumstances that make it unique. Our planet and our solar system are very unusual.
Of course, if intelligence is involved in creation and/or evolution then probabilities go out the window.
Scientists play up the life elsewhere scenario to get more funding out of the public via their governments.
Forgot to tick the follow up box.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Your comment is very thought-provoking.
ReplyDeleteScientists play up the life elsewhere scenario to get more funding out of the public via their governments.
I honestly never thought of it that way. I guess I'm not as cynical as I thought I was!
I don't blame them in the slightest.
ReplyDelete