Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

At Scientific American: Maybe aliens live too fast or too slow for us to recognize

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Alien Life Form
Blue bark. Would we recognize an alien life form?

Even on Earth. And that is why we don’t see them, astrophysicist suggests:

For example, could the messy chemistry we see in fossil fuels on Earth – a smorgasbord of organic reactions, a seemingly tarry chaos – be simply a short-term view of a living system that functions across hundreds of millions of years?

Or consider a chunk of complex rock, a mixture of minerals and carbon chemistry. It may be bathed for a billion years in cosmic rays and indigenous particle radiation. It changes over that timescale, electrons are freed and captured, slow, slow chemistry and structural variation happens. Your pet rock might be just that, except you’re living too fast to notice.

Of course, rather frustratingly, to make proper hypotheses for these options we need a robust definition of life, but to make that robust definition we may need to first know the extent of options for life in the universe. Caleb A. Scharf, “[article title]” at Scientific American

This general approach comes up every so often in the so-far fruitless search for life as we don’t know it. But now that we are back on solid enough ground for conventional reality to matter, our problems defining life—as we do know it—are only complicated by claims about life as we don’t.

See also: SETI reacts to the new study that says not to wait up for extraterrestrials

Researchers: We have dissolved the Fermi Paradox! (They’re NOT Out There)

and

Astrobiologist (Caleb A. Scharf): Why time travel can’t really work

Comments
My issue is more related to the hypocritical take people have for the issues, honestly I dread the thought we might be alone, and I couldn’t agree more with you. It’s the flag dropping from one side that is the issue. Life on other planets = Darwinian victory. When it honestly doesn’t. I agree a vast universe like this I would think would be a little more full. However we really don’t know quite yet. For all we know we have another group somewhere else talking about the same thing, like we are. We just can’t make the trip yet. That I can get behind. Not trans-dimensional aliens that sport the same abilities as angels so they can hide themselves from us specifically and then say angels and demons don’t exist but these aliens do. They are effectively the same thing. Drives me bonkersAaronS1978
August 21, 2018
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In an Intelligently Designed universe I would expect more than one technologically capable civilization. So I don't understand the issue. It's only if we are the result of necessity and chance would anyone say that we are alone.ET
August 21, 2018
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You know this is not the first time I’ve heard that aliens are too advanced for us to notice or see or interact with, they are fourth dimensional beings. The same people don’t believe in God, demons, and angels or any of that suppose it nonsense. But aliens can do it and they certainly do exist they have to. I apologize I can’t stand how hypocritical people can be.AaronS1978
August 21, 2018
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