LogFAQs > #959251981

Mead posted...

Looking at how simple basic lifeforms are in their overall structure and function, its almost unfathomable to imagine that life is only on earth

I would wager that there is probably an abundance of life on other planets and moons in our solar system, maybe even on/in some asteroids. But the conditions probably dont allow for anything more than mostly basic microbes.

Until we can definitively find microbes elsewhere (entirely unconnected to the ones on Earth), or somehow objectively determine the exact statistical likelihood of "life" forming from organic molecules, we can't even really say that much. For all we know, it might be a statistical unlikelihood that WE exist, let alone life anywhere else.

Though it's also worth remembering that when most people talk about life on other planets, they're not really talking about simple life. They're thinking more in terms of advanced life - sentience if not sapience. Complex animal structures or full-on intelligent, technological species. Especially since that's what you'd need to justify aliens who can travel to Earth.

And for that, you're factoring in a lot of limiting variables above and beyond just "how likely is it for life to spawn?" Which is when you start getting into things like the Fermi Paradox and the Great Barrier. Not to mention questions of primacy (ie, even in a universe with a million species, ONE of them has to be "first" - and as old as the universe seems to US from our perspective, it's relatively "young". For all we know WE are the first, and we're going to wind up being the precursors/first contact for some other race eventually).

It's why the argument "There are a lot of planets that seem capable of supporting life, therefore life must exist on some of them" really isn't proof of anything. It's a supposition that could be entirely wrong for a multitude of reasons.
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