3 ms·

Can someone sum this up for me? The site is too slow/buggy for my phone.

sidlls 9y ago
Observations have allowed astronomers to put a much higher lower bound on the age of the TRAPPIST dwarf star (~5.4b years) than previously known (~500M years). The rest is primarily conjecture about the atmospheric compositions of its planets and whether life could have evolved on them.
konart 9y ago
TRAPPIST-1, a system of seven Earth-size worlds orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star about 40 light-years away. Researchers say in a new study that the TRAPPIST-1 star is quite old: between 5.4 and 9.8 billion years. This is up to twice as old as our own solar system, which formed some 4.5 billion years ago.
- taeric 9y ago
  Having recently read Eerie Silence, findings like this do underscore the question of just how likely life is. More, given life, is intelligence a given? And if there is intelligence, is scientific expansion style intelligence a given? I confess these are obvious questions. I had never considered them, though. Is crazy interesting to consider.
  - pavel_lishin 9y ago
    > More, given life, is intelligence a given? Isn't intelligence just one particular adaptation that helps reproductive success? I'm not sure why it would be more common than flight or warm-bloodedness.
    - PoachedSausage 9y ago
      It seems intelligence is more of a 'master key' that unlocks reproductive success in a variety of environments and at large scale. The jury is still out on whether it's a given that intelligence ultimately destroys itself.
      - throwaway7645 9y ago
        As in the "great filter"
    - taeric 9y ago
      The assertion wasn't that it would be more common. Just that it might be inevitable. (Indeed, it seems less common on our earth than either of the things you mentioned, so I don't know why we would think it would be more common.) And again, I concede that these are somewhat obvious questions. My main assertion at this point is just an affirmation that I find this topic really interesting.
    - tbabb 9y ago
      All evidence says it's exceedingly rare. As far as we can tell, it's only emerged once in the entire 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth. On top of that, Earth may be a very rare sample of planets that have intelligent life, among a far larger population of life bearing planets that don't ever give rise to it at all.
      - jbattle 9y ago
        Ravens, octopus, canids, dolphins - surely behind us in intelligence - but we aren't the only brainy lifeforms Earth has brought forth
        tbabb 9y ago
        Since "intelligence" is ill-defined and "consciousness" can't be measured, some disambiguate with the term "technological". Take what I said to mean that if you prefer. :) My point: If technological civilizations were common, we'd probably expect to have seen a few pop up in Earth's long history of life. Since it's only us, it's not likely to be more common than "one for every 3.5 billion years of life", and there's no bound how much rarer it could be than that.
  - throwaway7645 9y ago
    I re-read eerie silence every couple of years. Paul Davies is a phenomenal writer. I never even knew about chirality playing a role in looking for life on Mars (basically all Earth DNA from anything has always shown the helix to twist in one direction, but there is no reason why it can't go the other way, so if we find DNA on another planet that twists the other way, it is extremely unlikely to be a contaminant brought on the probe from earth).
  - int_19h 9y ago
    Before you can ask these questions, you have to define what "intelligence" is. And it's not at all obvious what the definition would be. And, indeed, whether it's even a quantifiable thing, or a smooth spectrum.

Observations have allowed astronomers to put a much higher lower bound on the age of the TRAPPIST dwarf star (~5.4b years) than previously known (~500M years). The rest is primarily conjecture about the atmospheric compositions of its planets and whether life could have evolved on them.

konart 9y ago

TRAPPIST-1, a system of seven Earth-size worlds orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star about 40 light-years away. Researchers say in a new study that the TRAPPIST-1 star is quite old: between 5.4 and 9.8 billion years. This is up to twice as old as our own solar system, which formed some 4.5 billion years ago.

taeric 9y ago
Having recently read Eerie Silence, findings like this do underscore the question of just how likely life is. More, given life, is intelligence a given? And if there is intelligence, is scientific expansion style intelligence a given? I confess these are obvious questions. I had never considered them, though. Is crazy interesting to consider.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  > More, given life, is intelligence a given? Isn't intelligence just one particular adaptation that helps reproductive success? I'm not sure why it would be more common than flight or warm-bloodedness.
  - PoachedSausage 9y ago
    It seems intelligence is more of a 'master key' that unlocks reproductive success in a variety of environments and at large scale. The jury is still out on whether it's a given that intelligence ultimately destroys itself.
    - throwaway7645 9y ago
      As in the "great filter"
  - taeric 9y ago
    The assertion wasn't that it would be more common. Just that it might be inevitable. (Indeed, it seems less common on our earth than either of the things you mentioned, so I don't know why we would think it would be more common.) And again, I concede that these are somewhat obvious questions. My main assertion at this point is just an affirmation that I find this topic really interesting.
  - tbabb 9y ago
    All evidence says it's exceedingly rare. As far as we can tell, it's only emerged once in the entire 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth. On top of that, Earth may be a very rare sample of planets that have intelligent life, among a far larger population of life bearing planets that don't ever give rise to it at all.
    - jbattle 9y ago
      Ravens, octopus, canids, dolphins - surely behind us in intelligence - but we aren't the only brainy lifeforms Earth has brought forth
      - tbabb 9y ago
        Since "intelligence" is ill-defined and "consciousness" can't be measured, some disambiguate with the term "technological". Take what I said to mean that if you prefer. :) My point: If technological civilizations were common, we'd probably expect to have seen a few pop up in Earth's long history of life. Since it's only us, it's not likely to be more common than "one for every 3.5 billion years of life", and there's no bound how much rarer it could be than that.
- throwaway7645 9y ago
  I re-read eerie silence every couple of years. Paul Davies is a phenomenal writer. I never even knew about chirality playing a role in looking for life on Mars (basically all Earth DNA from anything has always shown the helix to twist in one direction, but there is no reason why it can't go the other way, so if we find DNA on another planet that twists the other way, it is extremely unlikely to be a contaminant brought on the probe from earth).
- int_19h 9y ago
  Before you can ask these questions, you have to define what "intelligence" is. And it's not at all obvious what the definition would be. And, indeed, whether it's even a quantifiable thing, or a smooth spectrum.