Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Translation: Very good news for SETI weenies.

I was never too worried about it
Robert — (archived)

I'm a believer in the utter mediocrity of humans, our planet, our star and solar system; and I've always thought that the burden of proof is on assertions of uniqueness or uncommonness (such as the "rare Earth" hypothesis that was fashionable a few years back).

I'll take a few principles as articles of scientific faith (purists forgive me for that phrase). Starting with the principle that the laws of physics are the same everywhere. When we look out there and see stars like our own run-of-the-mill G-type star, it seems improbable that such stars could form planetary systems significantly different than the one our star formed. QED.

Life on those planets? Same perspective--why should Earth be unique? Arguments like the Moon being uniquely large and raising tides necessary to kickstart life always seemed very contrived to me.

Intelligence arising on life-bearing planets? Well, OK, there is some room for debate, especially if you allow for the definitional question of "what is intelligence?" I think our variety arose from the sociability of our species, and maybe that's rare, but maybe not. Cooperation demonstrably facilitates species survival, and I have a hard time believing that nowhere else in the universe did a species hit upon that particular strategy.

I think Fermi's Paradox is more interesting than Drake's equation. "Where the hell are they?", that's the puzzler. Perhaps the fault, dear Reclus, lies not in the stars, but in ourselves--we just need better sensor technology.

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