That isn’t a bio signature, Matt. You’ve seen the reports that JWST can’t tell . There are non-bio ways to get what they see. I’m a huge fan of yours, but this post is way too sci-fi (mostly fi). It’s a fun one, though. I work at JPL.
Great piece, and can’t wait for this moment. (Btw, I believe the hypothesized number of total galaxies in the universe is up to 2 trillion. So your math is even greater probability of life-bearing planets, which is 10x extra encouraging!!)
Love the piece. I suspect we'll finally confirm the presence of microbial life on Mars similar to that on Earth. Too many interesting findings dating back to the 1976 Viking landers, including earth-struck meteorites originating on Mars. Boots and more robots on the red planet will help. And then there's the recent data showing amino acids on asteroid Benu. Directed panspermia anyone? What if life is ubiquitous? Can't wait to learn how similar it is to our molecular biology.
Won't it be ironic if a "so called" extremely advanced race of living life form found the human beings living on this planet to be considered as primitive bacteria. Now that is a SciFi story waiting to be written.
"the earth orbits the sun, not vice versa (Nikolaus Copernicus, 1543); that we are just another species of animal (Charles Darwin, 1859); that we use the very same genetic code as a cabbage (Francis Crick, 1953); that far from being sophisticated creatures, we have the same number of genes, indeed mostly the very same genes, as a mouse". None of these facts have anything at all to do with human importance or lack thereof. It seems the author is playing a game of "Humbler Than Thou" which can be commonly observed in church.
Also, I take issue with the author's inference from "200000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (two hundred quintillion CHK) planets in all." How many different ways can chemicals combine an NOT form a DNA or RNA molecule? Much, MUCH greater than 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The author seems to be assuming that any planet "suitable for life' (liquid oceans, etc.) MUST have life. I am not saying there isn't life out there--indeed, there might be. I am saying that the idea that "The universe is so big, there MUST be life out there" is essentially an appeal to faith. Yet religious people get laughed at and called morons for appealing to faith. Go figure.
Mr. Ridley may be right, though he is engaging in the dubious and unimportant practice of predicting when a predicted discovery will be made. I predict he is wrong. What does that make me?
At any rate, Ridley is in the camp of those who are eager to discover extra-terrestrial life while simultaneously believing it will prove humans are less important. I leave it to him whether this fuels his impatience. History is on his side. Remember when Europeans discovered the Americas and its previously unknown inhabitants? That's right, they decided Europeans weren't so important after all.
That isn’t a bio signature, Matt. You’ve seen the reports that JWST can’t tell . There are non-bio ways to get what they see. I’m a huge fan of yours, but this post is way too sci-fi (mostly fi). It’s a fun one, though. I work at JPL.
As no avalanche of praise has been forthcoming from the astronomical world, I'd guess that there are a lot of buts.
Great piece, and can’t wait for this moment. (Btw, I believe the hypothesized number of total galaxies in the universe is up to 2 trillion. So your math is even greater probability of life-bearing planets, which is 10x extra encouraging!!)
Love the piece. I suspect we'll finally confirm the presence of microbial life on Mars similar to that on Earth. Too many interesting findings dating back to the 1976 Viking landers, including earth-struck meteorites originating on Mars. Boots and more robots on the red planet will help. And then there's the recent data showing amino acids on asteroid Benu. Directed panspermia anyone? What if life is ubiquitous? Can't wait to learn how similar it is to our molecular biology.
The law of averages proves that there must be life somewhere else in this vast universe (I know that’s not the word).
Your knowledge of UAP research and the great filter, is sadly lacking in this analysis.
Won't it be ironic if a "so called" extremely advanced race of living life form found the human beings living on this planet to be considered as primitive bacteria. Now that is a SciFi story waiting to be written.
"the earth orbits the sun, not vice versa (Nikolaus Copernicus, 1543); that we are just another species of animal (Charles Darwin, 1859); that we use the very same genetic code as a cabbage (Francis Crick, 1953); that far from being sophisticated creatures, we have the same number of genes, indeed mostly the very same genes, as a mouse". None of these facts have anything at all to do with human importance or lack thereof. It seems the author is playing a game of "Humbler Than Thou" which can be commonly observed in church.
Also, I take issue with the author's inference from "200000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (two hundred quintillion CHK) planets in all." How many different ways can chemicals combine an NOT form a DNA or RNA molecule? Much, MUCH greater than 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The author seems to be assuming that any planet "suitable for life' (liquid oceans, etc.) MUST have life. I am not saying there isn't life out there--indeed, there might be. I am saying that the idea that "The universe is so big, there MUST be life out there" is essentially an appeal to faith. Yet religious people get laughed at and called morons for appealing to faith. Go figure.
Mr. Ridley may be right, though he is engaging in the dubious and unimportant practice of predicting when a predicted discovery will be made. I predict he is wrong. What does that make me?
At any rate, Ridley is in the camp of those who are eager to discover extra-terrestrial life while simultaneously believing it will prove humans are less important. I leave it to him whether this fuels his impatience. History is on his side. Remember when Europeans discovered the Americas and its previously unknown inhabitants? That's right, they decided Europeans weren't so important after all.