As a former astrobiologist, I respectfully disagree. The future and past are intimately related, and our planet's future may be examined through other planets'

As a former astrobiologist, I respectfully disagree. The future and past are intimately related, and our planet's future may be examined through other planets' pasts (e.g. Venus). Other than genetics, we have zero evidence about life 3.5 billion years ago, so everything is speculation, and an engineer can do that as well as a biologist.