The Conversation - fate of most alien life

[Bendy]

Interesting article at The Conversation website on the possible fate of most alien life in the Universe. Probably not new info for many but still worth a read:

https://theconversation.com/rip-e-t-alien-life-on-most-exoplanets-dies-young-60243

[speach]

Come on, we haven't found life outside this planet yet and we are hypothesizing about the death of that life we haven't found!

[el_draco]

The "Conversation" is a sexist e-rag not worth the electrons... Say anything that does not support their agenda and you get censored.... IMHO.

[andyc]

Great article, thanks for posting! The ability of our planet to remain tucked in the habitable zone over geological time with a gradually brightening Sun has always been interesting to me. The interplay between greenhouse gas release & sequestration, modulated by eruptions, silicate weathering, carbonate rock formation, ice albedo feedback among other things is quite impressive. The planetary thermostat is precious!

[Peter Ward]

I recall when the Drake equation was first mooted, one of the assumptions at the time was most stars didn't even have planets.

That has clearly been proven false.

In our typical human-centric view, it seems the argument has shifted to most planets don't have life, which is a rather bizarre stance, given life grabs a foothold on our own planet in places biologists never came even close to predicting (e.g. in shallow regions around deep ocean volcanic smokers/vents). As humans are very poor at communicating with just about every species on this planet (e.g. dolphins, who have brains as big as ours) it beggars belief we should have much luck chatting with E.T. ...as Sagan was fond of saying "about as much chance as having a conversation with a Petunia".

That said, SETI programs might give us chance of detecting the technology ET uses to chat, without giving any insight to what the chat is about...hence I think are still worthwhile.

The big problem I have is the naivety of humanity. Greg Bear in one of his novels compared us to a child crying in the forest because they are alone...unfortunately crying can attract the wolves.

[andyc]

Are you afraid of expert opinion? Compared to some of the popular rags in this country that are routinely opinion rather than news or evidence-based, it's good to hear from people who actually know what they're talking about.

"The Conversation is (http://theconversation.com/au/who-we-are) an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public.

Access to independent, high-quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism underpins a functioning democracy."

Which isn't quite unrelated to the topic and Peter's comment on the naivete of humanity. We have one habitable rock, and a current attitude in major democracies of celebrating ignorance.
(https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/02/professor-brian-cox-interview-forces-of-nature) It's not a good mix.

I was wondering if Sagan's petunia is the inspiration for Douglas Adams' bowl of petunias?