SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post

Von Due · 08-27-16, 03:44 AM

Based on the book I mentioned, some questions one should ask:
How do planets and stars form anyway?
What's up with the different types of stars and why would it matter?
How would double/triple etc star systems affect any planetary system around those stars?
Long story short, if the theories are right or close to being right then we can expect, statistically, billions of planets that can support carbon based life, whether or not life is present on those planets. Statistically, of course.

What is life anyway?
How did life begin on Earth?
What is a species anyway?
How does evolution work? What factors in and what doesn't? How important is it to evolution that we reproduce the way we do? How likely is it that evolution sees a species through the needle eyes and bring sexual reproduction? What other needle eyes are there and how likely is evolution to get us through all of those?
Again, long story short: The probability of life to start at all on a planet suitable for life appears to be high with numbers from above 50% to 100%. From what we can tell, evolution is inevitable when we talk about carbon based life like here on Earth so if life begins then there will be an evolution. That being said, on another planet, evolution would certainly diverge over millions and billions of years from the one here on Earth even if the starting conditions were in every way identical so no humans, no lizards or dinosaurs or jellyfish there.

What is intelligence?
How does the biological evolution take part in the developement of intelligence? How much did it matter that we have sensory organs and how much did it matter that our eyes happen to be sensitive to a narrow band on the E.M. spectrum?
At what point can one say there is a culture and a cultural evolution?
Statistics and what we think we know (in 1978-1980 that is) suggests that intelligence is highly likely to appear as it offers benefits for the species that helps the species survive and get offspring. Would any intelligent alien score well on any earthly IQ test? Not neccessarily.

Time. Just because it may be highly likely that life appears on a planet suitable for life, just because it may be likely that evolution brings on intelligent species, does not in any way mean the universe is filled to the brim with life and civilizations. Not all stars formed at the same time, not every planet formed at the same time, there is no reason to think life somehow started on all these planets at the same time. Then there is the question of how long do stars live, how long do civilizations live? Time is the real killer after all the talk about statistics and likelyhood.

Even if we max out all the probabilities for life and civilizations, thanks to time, we still shouldn't be surprised if we were alone at the moment, nor should we be surprised if there was a civilization 100 light years away.

08-27-16, 03:44 AM	#8
Von Due Sea Lord Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 1,691 Downloads: 30 Uploads: 0	Based on the book I mentioned, some questions one should ask: How do planets and stars form anyway? What's up with the different types of stars and why would it matter? How would double/triple etc star systems affect any planetary system around those stars? Long story short, if the theories are right or close to being right then we can expect, statistically, billions of planets that can support carbon based life, whether or not life is present on those planets. Statistically, of course. What is life anyway? How did life begin on Earth? What is a species anyway? How does evolution work? What factors in and what doesn't? How important is it to evolution that we reproduce the way we do? How likely is it that evolution sees a species through the needle eyes and bring sexual reproduction? What other needle eyes are there and how likely is evolution to get us through all of those? Again, long story short: The probability of life to start at all on a planet suitable for life appears to be high with numbers from above 50% to 100%. From what we can tell, evolution is inevitable when we talk about carbon based life like here on Earth so if life begins then there will be an evolution. That being said, on another planet, evolution would certainly diverge over millions and billions of years from the one here on Earth even if the starting conditions were in every way identical so no humans, no lizards or dinosaurs or jellyfish there. What is intelligence? How does the biological evolution take part in the developement of intelligence? How much did it matter that we have sensory organs and how much did it matter that our eyes happen to be sensitive to a narrow band on the E.M. spectrum? At what point can one say there is a culture and a cultural evolution? Statistics and what we think we know (in 1978-1980 that is) suggests that intelligence is highly likely to appear as it offers benefits for the species that helps the species survive and get offspring. Would any intelligent alien score well on any earthly IQ test? Not neccessarily. Time. Just because it may be highly likely that life appears on a planet suitable for life, just because it may be likely that evolution brings on intelligent species, does not in any way mean the universe is filled to the brim with life and civilizations. Not all stars formed at the same time, not every planet formed at the same time, there is no reason to think life somehow started on all these planets at the same time. Then there is the question of how long do stars live, how long do civilizations live? Time is the real killer after all the talk about statistics and likelyhood. Even if we max out all the probabilities for life and civilizations, thanks to time, we still shouldn't be surprised if we were alone at the moment, nor should we be surprised if there was a civilization 100 light years away.