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>Life is a pretty rare occurrence, as far as we're aware. I don't know where you get this from...just because we have not observed it directly? Based on every

by jabits 8y ago

>Life is a pretty rare occurrence, as far as we're aware. I don't know where you get this from...just because we have not observed it directly? Based on everything we have learned so far about life here on Earth, it seems entirely reasonable to think that life would be very common throughout the universe.

henriquemaia 8y ago
If our nearby system (star, planets, and all in between) is to serve as an observation parameter to determine the probability of the occurrence of life, life in not very common. Yes, it is true that you have plenty of life here, but you have it only on a very (and I mean very) thin layer on this floating rock. It seems a lot on the surface (pun intended), but it actually isn't.
Will_Parker 8y ago
It's reasonable to think life is very common. It's also reasonable to think that life might be very rare in the universe, or that we could be alone. Science, so far, hasn't really narrowed down orders of magnitude on some of the potential Great Filters. So it doesn't have that much to say about this question, yet. (And, if you are willing to invoke some form of the anthropic principle, maybe a universe that can support even one instance of intelligent life is itself incredibly rare in some landscape?)
PavlovsCat 8y ago
Something being reasonable to think (while it's also reasonable to think the opposite, no less) and being aware that something is a fact are two very different things.
gowld 8y ago
Are you conflating "common" with "possible"? Study of exonoplanets finds earth-like ones relatively rare, and being Earth-like is still a far cry from. There may be a large number of life-hposting planets in the Universe, while still fitting current data that they are extremely rare as a fraction of, for example, the region of space reachable by humans, by floating space rocks, or perhaps even the Earth's light-cone.

by jabits 8y ago

henriquemaia 8y ago

If our nearby system (star, planets, and all in between) is to serve as an observation parameter to determine the probability of the occurrence of life, life in not very common. Yes, it is true that you have plenty of life here, but you have it only on a very (and I mean very) thin layer on this floating rock. It seems a lot on the surface (pun intended), but it actually isn't.

Will_Parker 8y ago

It's reasonable to think life is very common. It's also reasonable to think that life might be very rare in the universe, or that we could be alone. Science, so far, hasn't really narrowed down orders of magnitude on some of the potential Great Filters. So it doesn't have that much to say about this question, yet. (And, if you are willing to invoke some form of the anthropic principle, maybe a universe that can support even one instance of intelligent life is itself incredibly rare in some landscape?)

PavlovsCat 8y ago

Something being reasonable to think (while it's also reasonable to think the opposite, no less) and being aware that something is a fact are two very different things.

gowld 8y ago

Are you conflating "common" with "possible"? Study of exonoplanets finds earth-like ones relatively rare, and being Earth-like is still a far cry from. There may be a large number of life-hposting planets in the Universe, while still fitting current data that they are extremely rare as a fraction of, for example, the region of space reachable by humans, by floating space rocks, or perhaps even the Earth's light-cone.