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Yes, we don't know whether ours specifically is a good sample planet or not, but statistically it is, and out of all the universe's planets' statisticians, most
by croon 5y ago
Yes, we don't know whether ours specifically is a good sample planet or not, but statistically it is, and out of all the universe's planets' statisticians, most postulating this theory are.
- simiones 5y agoExactly - so, the statistical argument tells us absolutely nothing about other aliens at all. With different distributions of aliens in the universe, we would be more or less likely to be wrong. You could also use this same argument to claim that most aliens speak English, Chinese or Indian; that they are Christian, Hindu or Muslim, that they have whitish skin, brown eyes, brown hair, 2 arms, 2 legs, 10 fingers, etc. In fact, according to this argument, aliens are quite likely to be humans in fact. In other words, the (correct) statistical argument that the article devotes its first half to is completely inconsequential. Only the second, much more argumentative side, the one that uses speculative biological and chemical knowledge, has any predictive power, and it is on very shaky ground given our extremely limited understanding of the possibilities of non-Earth life.