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2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe, each with 100s of billions of stars on average. How weird would it be if life only arose once out of all those c
by suzzer99 2y ago
2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe, each with 100s of billions of stars on average. How weird would it be if life only arose once out of all those chances?
- dudinax 2y agoWe don't know.
- KingOfCoders 2y agoThere are 21 sextillions grains of sand on earth. One of them MUST be the shape of my face. This is not science, this is religion.
- Saigonautica 2y agoA more accurate analogy would be that without looking at very much sand, you already possess one grain of sand in the exact shape of your face. This spikes your curiosity and you ask: What are the chances of finding another?
- KingOfCoders 2y agoI do think these are two different arguments. 1. Aliens can exist because we exist 2. Aliens do exist because of probabilities Mine was about 2
- suzzer99 2y agoI think it would be orders of magnitude more astounding if aliens didn't exist than if they did, just given the sheer odds of life only happening once in the observable universe. That's all I'm saying.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 2y agoHoly straw-man.
- KingOfCoders 2y agoFunny, no-one said straw-man when I had these discussion in philosophy studies at university. Looks like there are different people on HN than those studying philosophy. Learned something!
- snapcaster 2y agoThere probably is one though right? depending on how you define similarity
- thrance 2y agoYou can't know, that's the thing with having a sample of n=1 (Earth). You can't deduce anything. There are no evidence for any alien civilizations. If they existed, you'd expect them to have a great impact on the space around them, just like we had a great impact on our planet. Destroying stars to get the hydrogen, building megastructures, shaping galaxies... Yet, we see nothing unnatural in our neighborood.
- suzzer99 2y agoI can't know what? That there are ~200 sextillion stars in the known universe? I'm not saying I know there's life out there, just that it would be pretty amazing if something only happened once in 200 sextillion opportunities. It's very possible intelligent life destroys itself fairly quickly after becoming industrialized. It's also possible that the technical challenges of doing something at a galaxy scale where we could see it from millions of light years away are insurmountable.
- thrance 2y agoI meant you can't know wether it's weird or not, n=1. Personally, I believe life is extremely rare. The more I learn about geology and biology, the more I think Earth and the Solar System are very special, and life appearing spontaneously is nothing short of a miracle. Now, my crackpot theory: I believe that if there are aliens civilizations out there, they are so far from us that the light from their achievements has not reached us. And if it had, then they would be here already, because they travel at roughly the speed of light in every directions. They would have colonized Earth, which would have prevented us from appearing. Thus why we can't see any aliens in the night sky.
- suzzer99 2y agoI think life is extremely rare too. But 200 sextillion is a big number.