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Topic	If there is fossilized microbial life on Mars, we will probably find it soon
ParanoidObsessive 02/18/21 4:35:13 PM #5:	Mead posted... If there is fossilized microbial life on Mars, we will probably find it soon Debatable. Unless it's particularly complex life (which seems unlikely), it might wind up being a needle-in-a-haystack sort of scenario. If the only thing there to be found is evidence of monocellular bacteria or relatively simple life, it might not easy to find via a rover that's only going to take a limited number of samples in a limited area. There could be tons of evidence all over the planet that we'd simply fail to find, or maybe only a small amount of surviving evidence that would be difficult for anyone to find. They've maximized their chances of finding it by choosing a promising site, but that doesn't really guarantee anything at all. Mead posted... but at the same time I feel like a lot of people wont appreciate the gravity of the discover if it is found We never really reacted all that interested when it was demonstrated that organic compounds exist in comets and might actually be the source of life on Earth in the first place (comet impacts depositing the organic compounds, which in turn led to the formation of life), and that's arguably more significant - because it suggests that pretty much any planet that experiences comet/metorite impacts (ie, most of them) could conceivably have the building blocks for life present right from the very start. That does take us back to the Drake Equation, though (as most things do), where we have to question what the actual probability is that organic matter can eventually transmute into monocellular life (and not just the asspull numbers Drake plugged in to make the math work). It doesn't really matter if a million planets have organic matter if the odds of anything ever taking the next step are closer to one in a trillion (part of why the "size of the universe" arguments are mostly negated by "infinitesimal probability" arguments). Before the number of planets capable of supporting (or creating) life can actually matter, we need to know how likely the origin of life is. And then, after that, what the odds are of it ever evolving past the most simplistic of forms. LinkPizza posted... This video makes me think otherwise... A little... That's pretty much the reason why I do hope we eventually find it. I for one will welcome our homicidal reaping overlords. Though I have to point out that that video's art style/narration absolutely reminds me of the old Hitchhiker's Guide entries. To the point where I wonder if it was a deliberate stylistic choice on their part when they started the channel. --- "Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76 "POwned again." --- blight family <cite>ParanoidObsessive posted [p:950803930] in If there i... [t:79303580]...</cite> <quote><cite>Mead posted...</cite> <quote>If there is fossilized microbial life on Mars, we will probably find it soon </quote> Debatable. Unless it's particularly complex life (which seems unlikely), it might wind up being a needle-in-a-haystack sort of scenario. If the only thing there to be found is evidence of monocellular bacteria or relatively simple life, it might not easy to find via a rover that's only going to take a limited number of samples in a limited area. There could be tons of evidence all over the planet that we'd simply fail to find, or maybe only a small amount of surviving evidence that would be difficult for anyone to find. They've maximized their chances of finding it by choosing a promising site, but that doesn't really guarantee anything at all. <cite>Mead posted...</cite> <quote>but at the same time I feel like a lot of people wont appreciate the gravity of the discover if it is found</quote> We never really reacted all that interested when it was demonstrated that organic compounds exist in comets and might actually be the source of life on Earth in the first place (comet impacts depositing the organic compounds, which in turn led to the formation of life), and that's arguably more significant - because it suggests that pretty much any planet that experiences comet/metorite impacts (ie, most of them) could conceivably have the building blocks for life present right from the very start. That does take us back to the Drake Equation, though (as most things do), where we have to question what the actual probability is that organic matter can eventually transmute into monocellular life (and not just the asspull numbers Drake plugged in to make the math work). It doesn't really matter if a million planets have organic matter if the odds of anything ever taking the next step are closer to one in a trillion (part of why the "size of the universe" arguments are mostly negated by "infinitesimal probability" arguments). Before the number of planets capable of supporting (or creating) life can actually matter, we need to know how likely the origin of life is. And then, after that, what the odds are of it ever evolving past the most simplistic of forms. <cite>LinkPizza posted...</cite> <quote>This video makes me think otherwise... A little...</quote> That's pretty much the reason why I do hope we eventually find it. I for one will welcome our homicidal reaping overlords. Though I have to point out that that video's art style/narration absolutely reminds me of the old Hitchhiker's Guide entries. To the point where I wonder if it was a deliberate stylistic choice on their part when they started the channel. --- "Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76 "POwned again." --- blight family</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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