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I'd argue that the jump from 0 to 1 of "knowledge of life on other planets" would be huge. Currently, we have an almost pseudo-religious understanding of what p

I'd argue that the jump from 0 to 1 of "knowledge of life on other planets" would be huge. Currently, we have an almost pseudo-religious understanding of what place life holds in the universe, but that's based on the fact that when we've looked up at the cosmos for all of history, it seemed impossibly devoid of anything familiar. The discovery of life on another planet (even if that life somehow originated on Earth), turns the proposition of finding intelligent life elsewhere from at best a 50/50 question of belief into a near certainty. And that is huge.

wallace_f 7y ago
>we've looked up at the cosmos for all of history, it seemed impossibly devoid of anything This is popularly misunderstood. We obviously don't see Type 3 civilizations, but if another of our own civilization was in our galaxy, we would have had an very small to extremely small chance of seeing it. I'd wager life is everywhere, and just as is the case on earth, it pays, in terms of survival, to blend in with your surroundings.
rgross1 7y ago
Disagree- folks outside of the sci-fi bubble won't appreciate microbes on other planets. 0 to 1 happens when we find multicellular organisms with cognitive capabilities IMO
- gsich 7y ago
  Doesn't really matter.
- ksaj 7y ago
  Those come later, in the form of evolution. If we find the precursors alone, novel forms of single cell life still at that early stage, we can learn a whole lot about how multi-cellular life came about.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  "Folks outside of the sci-fi bubble" rarely appdeciate much about non-monetary impacts of space. But discovering life - even alien life - would really shake up many big religions, which tend to assume we're special, unique creations. I'm sure religions would eventually evolve to accomodate the discovery in their belief systems, but it would get noticed by regular Joes and Janes.

wallace_f 7y ago

>we've looked up at the cosmos for all of history, it seemed impossibly devoid of anything This is popularly misunderstood. We obviously don't see Type 3 civilizations, but if another of our own civilization was in our galaxy, we would have had an very small to extremely small chance of seeing it. I'd wager life is everywhere, and just as is the case on earth, it pays, in terms of survival, to blend in with your surroundings.

rgross1 7y ago

Disagree- folks outside of the sci-fi bubble won't appreciate microbes on other planets. 0 to 1 happens when we find multicellular organisms with cognitive capabilities IMO

gsich 7y ago
Doesn't really matter.
ksaj 7y ago
Those come later, in the form of evolution. If we find the precursors alone, novel forms of single cell life still at that early stage, we can learn a whole lot about how multi-cellular life came about.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
"Folks outside of the sci-fi bubble" rarely appdeciate much about non-monetary impacts of space. But discovering life - even alien life - would really shake up many big religions, which tend to assume we're special, unique creations. I'm sure religions would eventually evolve to accomodate the discovery in their belief systems, but it would get noticed by regular Joes and Janes.