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> Could we even recognize them as alive, much less intelligent? If we focus on recognizable features, we may look for organisms with self-replication skills (a

> Could we even recognize them as alive, much less intelligent? If we focus on recognizable features, we may look for organisms with self-replication skills (a feature of living organisms) and prediction skills (a feature of intelligent organisms). On the intelligence aspect, the skill to predict the future in general, and imminent threats in particular is useful for structured organisms less resistant than rocks to survive. On that matter I wonder, do unicellular organisms on earth have prediction skills? What also helped those fragile structures to continue existing along rocks after a long time might be their ability to replicate themselves before being destroyed. Reproductive skills might actually be the first interesting feature to look for in extraterrestrial organized structures.

rendall 5y ago
> we may look for organisms with self-replication skills... and prediction skills... Sure, but I imagine this is easier said than done. We 21 c. humans would be most likely to recognize as intelligent life something obviously not a natural feature of the landscape, that operates on a time scale under a year and above a split second or so, that predicts that which we can predict, and most importantly has a form corresponding to Earth creatures. Without ticking all those boxes, especially in a truly strange chemical environment, we will have people asserting that they are a complicated chemical processes, but in no sense alive the way we are alive, if we can even recognize them at all.