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J_Robert_Oofenheimer t1_iyaiuzr wrote

Reply to comment by lego_office_worker in Extragalactic SETI looks for life beyond the Milky Way. But where? In game theory one solution is a Schelling point — a single event that draws different group's attention. A binary neutron star merger could act as one, because observers across the universe will all be looking in the same direction. by EricFromOuterSpace

Not really. The universe is just too vast. We don't even know for certain that life HAS to be carbon based. We might see an exoplanet, decide it's not habitable, move on, and all the while a thriving sulfur based life form forms civilizations, learns, grows, puts things in orbit, travels to their moon, then nukes themselves into oblivion for no good reason.

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quintus_horatius t1_iyb0kly wrote

Not to be too much of a downer, because what you say is possible, but odds are overwhelming that extraterrestrial life will be carbon based. Carbon is just so flexible, there's a good reason why organic (carbon-based) chemistry, as a discipline, is larger than inorganic chemistry (everything not involving carbon).

It's also very likely that it will exist along with liquid water. At lower temperatures there just isn't enough energy to lead to complex life in reasonable time frames; at significantly higher temperatures you start bumping into other issues even before you reach plasma (which will probably make life development impossible to bootstrap).

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J_Robert_Oofenheimer t1_iyb2hrb wrote

Oh sure. But when we're talking about even just our galaxy, there are so many planets that we just can't say anything for certain. We have life evolved to live and even thrive at hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean. And our planet is pretty young. 1 in a billion odds mean very little when you get over 100 billion chances. We'll never be able to prove or disprove. That's what's so exciting about the universe. Anything is possible.

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