CDZ Which is more unique: Earth or Human Beings?

[jwoodie]

This may be a chicken-and-egg question, but I have a hard time imagining a replication of our world somewhere else in the universe. Despite the continuing "discovery" of "Earth-like" planets, the peculiar combination of conditions existing on our Earth defies the astronomical odds against it. Only by infinite multiplication can a reasonable probability of duplication be concocted.

Similarly our own existence, uniquely different from all of the other unique life forms on Earth, seems to be such an anomaly that we shouldn't be here in the first place. Absent a belief in extraterrestrial visitation and creation of human species, does anyone really expect to meet his body double on Planet X?

Or maybe my body double is actually posting this thread right now...

 

[fncceo]

Given the literally Trillions of ways life can evolve, I find it very unlikely there is an 'evil' version of me with a cool goatee somewhere else.

But, if it turns out there isn't intelligent life of some sort out there ... it would seem a huge waste of space.

 

[jwoodie]

Trillions of ways life can evolve

I didn't know there were that many different species on Earth.

 

[fncceo]

Trillions of ways life can evolve

I didn't know there were that many different species on Earth.

There aren't. That's the point.

Earth represents only a single environment where life has evolved and although quite diverse, can't even begin to describe what might be possible in a completely different environment.

Drake's Equation gives us only a tiny idea of just how wide spread life in the cosmos might be.

 

[jwoodie]

Trillions of ways life can evolve

I didn't know there were that many different species on Earth.

There aren't. That's the point.

Earth represents only a single environment where life has evolved and although quite diverse, can't even begin to describe what might be possible in a completely different environment.

Drake's Equation gives us only a tiny idea of just how wide spread life in the cosmos might be.

So what did you come up with for N and A? Is that where you got the "trillions of ways life can evolve?

P.S. Drake forgot to include the likelihood of two or more technologically advanced civilizations at nearly the same time (i.e., practical reality). For example, if the Earth is consumed at some point by the Sun, the question of whether it ever existed becomes entirely theoretical.

P.P.S. What about the probability of a "God Particle" existing?" How many of them does Drake's Equation suggest?

 

[fncceo]

Trillions of ways life can evolve

I didn't know there were that many different species on Earth.

There aren't. That's the point.

Earth represents only a single environment where life has evolved and although quite diverse, can't even begin to describe what might be possible in a completely different environment.

Drake's Equation gives us only a tiny idea of just how wide spread life in the cosmos might be.

So what did you come up with for N and A? Is that where you got the "trillions of ways life can evolve?

P.S. Drake forgot to include the likelihood of two or more technologically advanced civilizations at nearly the same time (i.e., practical reality). For example, if the Earth is consumed at some point by the Sun, the question of whether it ever existed becomes entirely theoretical.

P.P.S. What about the probability of a "God Particle" existing?" How many of them does Drake's Equation suggest?

Fp = number of solar systems with potential planets. Our best guess is 200 Billion. If one in 100 of those is capable of supporting life then Ne = 2 Billion

There are nearly 9 million distinct species on earth. 2 Billion Planets capable of supporting life times 9 millions species per planet gives a possible combination of 18 Quadrillion potential species.

For the purposes of Drake's equation, we count the Human Civilization as the single representation of the collective human civilizations on the planet. If two different species develop technological civilizations independently then it is assumed that one will dominate the other. We know this because this is precisely what happened on Earth.

As for the Higgs Boson, it is a theoretical construct necessary to explain the Big Bang, not really relevant to the number of potential life forms in the galaxy.

 

[Flash]

Trillions of ways life can evolve

I didn't know there were that many different species on Earth.

There aren't. That's the point.

Earth represents only a single environment where life has evolved and although quite diverse, can't even begin to describe what might be possible in a completely different environment.

Drake's Equation gives us only a tiny idea of just how wide spread life in the cosmos might be.

That is a very antiquated equation that was derived using only one data point. Nothing more than a guess disguised as a mathematical equation.

There are really two questions. The first is there life outside of our planet? We don't know because we only have one data point. The second question is if there is life elsewhere can it evolve into higher forms like here on earth, eventually (after 500 million years) leading to an intelligent species?

I have read the book "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life in the Universe is Uncommon in the Universe".

Rare Earth hypothesis - Wikipedia

Rare Earth hypothesis

According to the hypothesis, complex extraterrestrial life is an improbable phenomenon and likely to be rare. The term "Rare Earth" originates from Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (2000), a book by Peter Ward, a geologist and paleontologist, and Donald E. Brownlee, an astronomer and astrobiologist, both faculty members at the University of Washington.

Requirements for complex life

The Rare Earth hypothesis argues that the evolution of biological complexity requires a host of fortuitous circumstances, such as a galactic habitable zone, a central star and planetary system having the requisite character, the circumstellar habitable zone, a right-sized terrestrial planet, the advantage of a gas giant guardian like Jupiter and a large natural satellite, conditions needed to ensure the planet has a magnetosphere and plate tectonics, the chemistry of the lithosphere, atmosphere, and oceans, the role of "evolutionary pumps" such as massive glaciation and rare bolide impacts, and whatever led to the appearance of the eukaryote cell, sexual reproduction and the Cambrian explosion of animal, plant, and fungi phyla. The evolution of human intelligence may have required yet further events, which are extremely unlikely to have happened were it not for the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago removing dinosaurs as the dominant terrestrial vertebrates.

In order for a small rocky planet to support complex life, Ward and Brownlee argue, the values of several variables must fall within narrow ranges.

 

[fncceo]

Either the galaxy is teeming with lifeforms, each diverse from the next, or it's not and we're all there is.

Either theory is just as speculative and neither will be proved or disproved in our lifetimes.

However, if you're going to speculate, isn't it more fun to speculate a crowded galaxy than an empty one?

At least with the crowded one, you get to do math.

 

[Flash]

[Q


Fp = number of solar systems with potential planets. Our best guess is 200 Billion. If one in 100 of those is capable of supporting life then Ne = 2 Billion

Unfortunately statistics do not produce life. For statistics to be valid we need to run the numbers with more than one data point. Until we get another data point other than earth we have nothing. Absolutely nothing.

If the universe is finite then there can be unique things in it. It just may be that our planet and the life on it is unique.

The problem is that we have been brainwashed with Science Fiction and we are all convinced that Captain Kirk's Orion Green Slave Women exist if we can just go star trekking across the universe to find them.

The universe just may be filled with rocks and energy sources and we are the only planet in existent that has life.

 

[fncceo]

[Q


Fp = number of solar systems with potential planets. Our best guess is 200 Billion. If one in 100 of those is capable of supporting life then Ne = 2 Billion

Unfortunately statistics do not produce life. For statistics to be valid we need to run the numbers with more than one data point. Until we get another data point other than earth we have nothing. Absolutely nothing.

If the universe is finite then there can be unique things in it. It just may be that our planet and the life on it is unique.

The problem is that we have been brainwashed with Science Fiction and we are all convinced that Captain Kirk's Orion Green Slave Women exist if we can just go star trekking across the universe to find them.

The universe just may be filled with rocks and energy sources and we are the only planet in existent that has life.

I vote for green slave girls

 

[harmonica]

.....so '''god''[ or whatever ] made Billions of planets--that humans can't even see!---for what purpose, if not to evolve into life....???!!!??

 

[Likkmee]

Those who claim to be that are not. The "self chosen"...........your owners

 

[Flash]

.....so '''god''[ or whatever ] made Billions of planets--that humans can't even see!---for what purpose, if not to evolve into life....???!!!??

Maybe He made a bunch of rock and gas planets. Until we find another with the unique characteristics of Earth we will never know, will we?

 

[jwoodie]

Until we find another with the unique characteristics of Earth we will never know, will we?

Even then, the spontaneous generation of life forms is not guaranteed, nor is the development of a species intelligent enough to ponder these questions.

 

[Flash]

Until we find another with the unique characteristics of Earth we will never know, will we?

Even then, the spontaneous generation of life forms is not guaranteed, nor is the development of a species intelligent enough to ponder these questions.

I honestly think humans will die out as a species without ever knowing the answer to the question of life elsewhere.

The distance between stars is simply too enormous for star trekking across the universe. Warp drive is the dream of SF writers, not the reality of science.

Just think about one factor that is not included in that antiquated Drake equation.

Multi-cellular life took off on earth about 500 million years ago. In another 500 million years the sun will start its expansion and probably fry all life on earth, if we don't have another mass extinction event prior to that. The earth will probably be around for ten billion years with life only existing for one billion. That means that if we find another earth like planet we may only have a one in ten chance of visiting it at the time where multi cellular life could exist.

 

[Likkmee]

Humans. The earth will.....WILL survive without humans........just like " as it was in the days of Noah"

 

[cnm]

Which is more unique: Earth or Human Beings?

How can anything be more singular than single?

 

[sartre play]

Nothing would get our minds off of how we feel about other humans who look or think differently than our self's, than a visit from a galaxy from far far away

 

[jwoodie]

Which is more unique: Earth or Human Beings?

How can anything be more singular than single?

Perhaps I should have used the term "improbable."