Re: News: Is there anybody out there?

Anthony Campbell wrote:

On 2008-04-21, dkomo <dkomo871@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Robert Karl Stonjek wrote:

Is there anybody out there?

Is there anybody out there? Probably not, according to a scientist from
the University of East Anglia.

A mathematical model produced by Prof Andrew Watson suggests that the
odds of finding new life on other Earth-like planets are low, given the
time it has taken for beings such as humans to evolve and the remaining
life span of the Earth.


An argument could be made that Earth throughout its history has not been
a very life friendly place. From bombardment by asteroids to sporadic
spasms of hyper-volcanic activity spewing huge amounts of methane and
other greeenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Solar luminosity
increasing by 30%. Snowball earth. The Permian, KT and many other mass
extinctions. Periodic ice ages. Drifting continents.

Throughout deep time it's been one thing or another -- Mother Earth
giving its living inhabitants a very rough time. No wonder it's taken
billions of years to evolve intelligent life, and a rather unremarkable
example of such in humans.

This sad story does not necessarily have to be repeated in other solar
systems. On halcyon planets it's possible that life goes from
abiogenesis to beings much more intelligent than us in a few hundred
million years.



I've often thought that this whole debate is based on the hidden
assumption that it's somehow the "purpose" of the universe to produce
intelligent life. Is this perhaps the last refuge of anthropocentrism,
the ultimate hubristic delusion? As J.B.S. Haldane remarked, if we look
at the reality of the situation it suggests that the main aim of
evolution is to produce beetles. It hardly seems that the goal is the
production of intelligence. The dinosaurs had 150 million years to do
so but didn't take the opportunity.


I think the debate is based on the obvious fact that life on earth went
through a series of many progressions across enormous time spans before
it arrived at creatures with high intelligence. If it had happened that
intelligence had developed right after the appearance of multicelluar
life, and that then, much later, jellyfish and snails came along, your
anthropocentric complaint might have a better basis.

Do insects, bats and birds think that the purpose of evolution is to
produce creatures capable of flight?


We're focused on intelligence because it is an obvious marker in the
search for life in other parts of the universe. It is much harder to
search for biochemical markers on planets in solar systems light years
from our own.


--dkomo@xxxxxxxx


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: i swear it is true>>>
    ... He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. ... nature and the universe were like machines that functioned on their ... Considering the conditions necessary for life, ... Earth to the level of gases in the atmosphere, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: i swear it is true>>>
    ... He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. ... nature and the universe were like machines that functioned on their ... Considering the conditions necessary for life, ... Earth to the level of gases in the atmosphere, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • The Fine Tuning in the Universe
    ... The Fine Tuning in the Universe ... He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. ... Considering the conditions necessary for life, ... Earth to the level of gases in the atmosphere, ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Re: i swear it is true>>>
    ... He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. ... nature and the universe were like machines that functioned on their ... Considering the conditions necessary for life, ... Earth to the level of gases in the atmosphere, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • i swear it is true>>>
    ... He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. ... nature and the universe were like machines that functioned on their ... Considering the conditions necessary for life, ... Earth to the level of gases in the atmosphere, ...
    (talk.origins)
Loading