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I disagree, close in proximity to 'stunning', however, finding true unique life that originated on a planet by itself organically goes a long way towards provin
by gremlinsinc 6y ago
I disagree, close in proximity to 'stunning', however, finding true unique life that originated on a planet by itself organically goes a long way towards proving/disproving the fermi paradox.
I think it was maybe Carl Sagan who said (something like): if we find life in our solar system it's probably game over for us, as it means the great filter is likely ahead of us, not behind us.
Though, you can take one look at the world right now, and not see how easy it would be to just destroy it if we aren't careful (and we're not being careful).
- thechao 6y agoI agree with Nick Lane: the great filter is likely to be the Eukaryotic event.
- cmrdporcupine 6y agoYep, I agree with him that we're likely to find bacterial type life all over the place where there's water. At least if we can travel to places. But 'complex life' is going to be beyond scarce. Though it's quite possible that if there is something on Venus or Mars it's Earth-origined, since conditions here 4 billion years ago look better for abiogenesis.
- ewindal 6y agoThere’s nothing stopping there from being several great filters.
- T-hawk 6y agoThere is the power law heuristic, that 90% of results are often due to 10% of phenomena. If there are several filters, then they may differ in effectiveness by many multiples, and then it's semantics as to whether you say any beyond the largest are "great".
- ls612 6y agoEither that or the Reapers I guess ;)
- hackeraccount 6y agoThanks for posting this- I've not heard of Nick Lane but this thought is exactly what I've considered the likely state of affairs.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]