Astronomers speculate on how will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life?

[gary]

In a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the "Great Debate" between
Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis which argued on the scale of the Universe,
Michigan Tech have posted submissions from astronomers on the topic of "2020: Life in the Universe Debate".



Debate Question: How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life?
First released answers here :-
https://phy.mtu.edu/debate/debate100th.html

[gts055]

Hmmm, of the 16 scientists who have replied so far, to me the best thought so far is from Caleb Scharf "will we recognize life when we see it". Most replies are looking for a life form as we know it, or is familiar to us. Maybe because we are limited to looking for what we know. Also, our concepts are based on the mathematics, physics, chemical and biologic models we have developed. Perhaps there are other methods unknown to us, and possibly "life" forms that we are unaware of as they bear no relation to what we consider as living. Mark

[Shiraz]

I thought that Sabine Hossenfelder's observation on superluminal comms was the most interesting.

[Steffen]

I haven’t even picked out a tie...

[tonybarry]

Sabine Hossenfelder is amazing ! Her blog is well worth a read. Calls out the bullshirt on many dubious science papers.

Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG