5 ms·
I wonder where Earth lies on the spectrum between 'Rare Earth' and 'Principle of Mediocrity' [0] Crazy to think that we may have awoken on this planet after an
by mentos 13y ago
I wonder where Earth lies on the spectrum between 'Rare Earth' and 'Principle of Mediocrity' [0]
Crazy to think that we may have awoken on this planet after an unfathomable amount of time and not appreciate how rare we are.
Does our situation get more or less beautiful if we discover no one else is out there?
[0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis
- jotm 13y agoWe've appreciated how unique we are for a pretty long time. Seeing quadrillions of other planets in the sky really makes you rethink that :-)
- atmosx 13y agoGiven the size of the universe[1], believing there's only one planet hosting biologically evolved organisms, falls a bit short IMHO. That said, it won't change anything knowing there's no one else out there. Actually it would be a little bit frustrating because it would mean that there's nothing more to discover... Biologists might feel limited on this planet alone. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size.2C_age.2C_contents.2C_structure.2C_and_laws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe#Size.2C_age.2C_content...
- unclebucknasty 13y ago>it won't change anything knowing there's no one else out there But, we can never know that there's no one else out there, right? We can only discover that there is.
- joe_the_user 13y agoAnother possibility is that this is a "rare moment" in the history of Earth - we've have maybe 3.5 billion years of life while we've had 100K years of being language using animals and 10K years of civilization. Still, perhaps every moment is rare in some way but we have the advantage of having a way to express that.