Life and evolution
Nanobots were just an example, Marcia.
What I'm interested in (here), is about chance being so influential towards the evolution of life. If things were evolving much faster than on Earth, would that be about life as we know it or about something we don't call "alive" but that does evolve too.
We don't have yet an acceptable definition for the word "life".
And that leaves open all kinds of possibilities. Since 1976 (Viking) we've discovered extremophiles on Earth but do they need acceptable conditions, reproduce themselves and later get adapted to conditions very different from the initial ones, or did they, from the start, live and thrive in the same extreme environment?
No answer yet....just questions.