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I love this fact. Also: life on earth is almost as old as the universe itself, within the same order of magnitude. 4.1 GYA (billion years ago) vs 13.8 GYA. We'

by echelon 10mo ago

I love this fact. Also: life on earth is almost as old as the universe itself, within the same order of magnitude. 4.1 GYA (billion years ago) vs 13.8 GYA. We're old and intelligence is hard.

baxtr 10mo ago
I think there is a theory that we’re not seeing any aliens simply because life on Earth started so early.
- ssl-3 10mo ago
  Or there are many planets with life, with each harboring their own equivalent to our sharks. (And none of those shark-equivalents have developed a space program.)
  - baxtr 10mo ago
    That would be unfortunate. I’d love to see some space sharks!
    - ssl-3 10mo ago
      We'd almost certainly find some way to kill them if we ever ran across any of them. We're pretty good at accomplishing things like that. One day, there's some space sharks swimming in a sea of liquid helium and doing deep dives to get to the smaller creatures that devour the seabed of diamonds. The next day, we're figuring out how to use space shark squeezings in our fusion reactors. Unless, of course, the space sharks figure out how to kill us first. They will probably try if that's useful to then. It's the circle of life.
      - JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
        > We'd almost certainly find some way to kill them if we ever ran across any of them There is a credible argument that what the literature terms genocidal tendencies—where conflict isn’t resolved when it ends, but when the enemy is destroyed—is a precondition for conquering a world. So if we met space sharks, barring enlightenment, they’d probably seek to destroy us, too.
  - computerex 10mo ago
    There is life, then intelligent life like humans. Plus you have physical constraints like the speed of light.
    - alex1138 10mo ago
      I would love a "chatty" universe like Mass Effect but the problem is we'd probably be fighting Reapers
    - readthenotes1 10mo ago
      Light is slower in water. I think that explains why we are still waiting
- BurningFrog 10mo ago
  I think this is clearer: Since we're not seeing any aliens, life on Earth must have started very early.
  - simmerup 10mo ago
    It’s more inaccurate as it’s stating an assumption as fact
Ericson2314 10mo ago
Yes I love it too, wish more people appreciated it
yread 10mo ago
That's not that early, no? There was probably enough C, H, N, O, P, S, Na atoms for life to start 10B years ago. You probably couldnt rely on iron being everywhere though but that's not such a hard requirement.
- echelon 10mo ago
  It's fascinating to ponder, for sure. The universe still has plenty of time to burn, especially red dwarfs. It's sad to think about starless skies, though. The heme is pretty magical. Probably not a hard requirement, but it sure has been useful for us here.

by echelon 10mo ago

I love this fact. Also: life on earth is almost as old as the universe itself, within the same order of magnitude. 4.1 GYA (billion years ago) vs 13.8 GYA. We're old and intelligence is hard.

baxtr 10mo ago

I think there is a theory that we’re not seeing any aliens simply because life on Earth started so early.

ssl-3 10mo ago
Or there are many planets with life, with each harboring their own equivalent to our sharks. (And none of those shark-equivalents have developed a space program.)
- baxtr 10mo ago
  That would be unfortunate. I’d love to see some space sharks!
  - ssl-3 10mo ago
    We'd almost certainly find some way to kill them if we ever ran across any of them. We're pretty good at accomplishing things like that. One day, there's some space sharks swimming in a sea of liquid helium and doing deep dives to get to the smaller creatures that devour the seabed of diamonds. The next day, we're figuring out how to use space shark squeezings in our fusion reactors. Unless, of course, the space sharks figure out how to kill us first. They will probably try if that's useful to then. It's the circle of life.
    - JumpCrisscross 10mo ago
      > We'd almost certainly find some way to kill them if we ever ran across any of them There is a credible argument that what the literature terms genocidal tendencies—where conflict isn’t resolved when it ends, but when the enemy is destroyed—is a precondition for conquering a world. So if we met space sharks, barring enlightenment, they’d probably seek to destroy us, too.
- computerex 10mo ago
  There is life, then intelligent life like humans. Plus you have physical constraints like the speed of light.
  - alex1138 10mo ago
    I would love a "chatty" universe like Mass Effect but the problem is we'd probably be fighting Reapers
  - readthenotes1 10mo ago
    Light is slower in water. I think that explains why we are still waiting
BurningFrog 10mo ago
I think this is clearer: Since we're not seeing any aliens, life on Earth must have started very early.
- simmerup 10mo ago
  It’s more inaccurate as it’s stating an assumption as fact

Ericson2314 10mo ago

Yes I love it too, wish more people appreciated it

yread 10mo ago

That's not that early, no? There was probably enough C, H, N, O, P, S, Na atoms for life to start 10B years ago. You probably couldnt rely on iron being everywhere though but that's not such a hard requirement.

echelon 10mo ago
It's fascinating to ponder, for sure. The universe still has plenty of time to burn, especially red dwarfs. It's sad to think about starless skies, though. The heme is pretty magical. Probably not a hard requirement, but it sure has been useful for us here.