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Technically we can confidently say we're the only ones living here, because we've defined the word "life" and what it means. And we tend to define life in a ve
by BulgarianIdiot 5y ago
Technically we can confidently say we're the only ones living here, because we've defined the word "life" and what it means.
And we tend to define life in a very terrestrially and DNA-specific way, despite we don't mention it explicitly.
My favorite are the pointless arguments about whether viruses are alive or not. As if "it's alive" is some objective property of a thing. It's not. It's a word we made up.
Maybe the Moon is conscious for all we know. We know almost nothing.
As for effective communication and interaction with aliens, it'll most likely require cybernetics and genetic engineering.
The idea humans will colonize the universe is very naive. We're Earthlings. We're extremely fragile outside very specific conditions on this very specific planet. To live successfully outside we'll have to change a lot.
Sure, technically whatever that ends up being we can still call "humans" but it won't look like humans do right now, that's for sure.
- mekkkkkk 5y agoI don't know which definition of life you go by, but most of them seems to be pretty lenient. Not sure how you can be confident about earthlings being the only ones living up to those (pun intended).
- Aeronwen 5y agoIt's easy. If aliens turn up, everyone will be too busy worrying about aliens to care about some prediction being wrong.
- BulgarianIdiot 5y agoMaybe you can tell me which definition of life you go by that's "lenient". What I see is bunch of arbitrary capabilities, that we decided sum up to being life. "the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death." Technically if we decide to INTERPET this leniently, then phenomena like crystals and fire would qualify as life. So would viruses. Yet, it also says "the condition that distinguishes from inorganic matter", and those are not "organic matter". And what is organic matter? Well... that happens to be defined as carbon-based DNA/RNA coded proteins. That's QUITE specific to earthlings.