If life then what?

[Chaigidel]

just a speculation here based on what facts we have.


life on other worlds do you think it will take wild and unimaginable forms?

or perhaps things like pondscum, cynobactieria, nematodes, and lichen are life forms that would spread on any world in pretty much the same way. given similar conditions.

or would just the subtle variations in location cause wildly different lifeforms barely recognizable to humanity?

[issues]

just a speculation here based on what facts we have.


life on other worlds do you think it will take wild and unimaginable forms?

or perhaps things like pondscum, cynobactieria, nematodes, and lichen are life forms that would spread on any world in pretty much the same way. given similar conditions.

or would just the subtle variations in location cause wildly different lifeforms barely recognizable to humanity?

I was watching a show about Saturn on the History Channel yesterday (The Universe), and it mainly focused on some its moons, one being Enceladus (sp?) where they have pictures of geysers of water spraying on its south pole. They mentioned that if any life is found on any of the moons it would be bacterial, which I guess is as good as we can hope for until aliens start knocking on our door.

[Niles Crane]

I'm hoping for a silicon based life form (+ rep to whoever gets the reference).

[Tecumseh]

I'm hoping for a silicon based life form (+ rep to whoever gets the reference).

Dr. Hibbert("Springfield Files" episode)? Or Star Trek(Devil in the Dark/Horta)?

[Niles Crane]

Dr. Hibbert("Springfield Files" episode)? Or Star Trek(Devil in the Dark/Horta)?

Wrong. But it's in the science fiction genre.

[Vanquisher]

Alien man - AKA, Bishop

[Niles Crane]

Alien man - AKA, Bishop

God, I didn't realise the idea of a silicon based lifeform was so widespread. Incorrect too.

Hint: It's from a 90s TV show.

[Juvenal]

There are two strands of speculation about the possibilities of alien life:

• Its chemical nature.
• Its intellectual nature.

Chemical arguments come about in the context of where we think life might be possible. "Life as We Know It" (carbon based with oxygen metabolism using water as a solvent) was thought to only be possible between the orbiits of Venus and Mars because this was the only region of the solar system where liquid water could exist.

Speculation has suggested that "Life Almost as We Know It" using other chemical bases such as methane or ammonia might work further out from the Sun, while Silicon based life might be possible where it is too hot for water.

Once freed from the constraints of how known life-forms actually operate, we can speculate much more freely - imagining Plasma life-forms populating the Sun (see Fred Pohl's World at the End of Time) or electro-magnetic gas cloud life-forms filling the spaces between stars (see Greg Benford's The Sunborn).

Even more interesting than possible chemical bases for life (at least to the layman) are the intellectual possibilities. Are they superior to us?, can we understand their motivations?, can we negotiate with them?

Almost all alien life in films has been viewed from the aspect of their attitude towards humanity. We have Bug-Eyed-Monsters who want to enslave/exterminate/eat humanity (such as H.G.Wells' Martians, and most aliens in film ever since) and we have mis-understood peaceful Aliens who have to be protected from the paranoia of the government (E.T., K-PAX).

There are plenty of other possibilities (usually explored only in book form). Aliens might be indifferent to us or might not even notice that we exist. They might not have individual personalities (see Greg Bear "Hard-Fought" and of course Starship Troopers) they might have fundamental drives that force them to compete with us (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Moties).

We might even create our own aliens - killer robots (Terminator), artificial intelligences (William Gibson's Neuromancer) or some new gene-engineered or nano-technic plague (popularly know as "Grey Goo" - see Greg Bear's "Blood Music").

We are still discovering new forms of life on Earth (such as anaerobic life living on undersea volcanic vents, or inside rocks several kilometres under the earth, so there really is no end to the possibilities out in space.

[Captain Arrrgh!]

God, I didn't realise the idea of a silicon based lifeform was so widespread. Incorrect too.

Hint: It's from a 90s TV show.

....uhhhh..... Seinfelt?

[Niles Crane]

Oh, I give up on you people. It's from The X-Files. The episode 'Firewalker' in Season Three. Has nobody seen this fantastic series?

Ah, go back to your boring discussion.

[numerosdecimus]

while Silicon based life might be possible where it is too hot for water.

Shouldn't Silicon based organisms be able to live in enviroments of relatively great temperature variations, from low temperatures to high temperatures? And not just high temperatures? Or am I saying something wrong here? :hmmm:

[Chaigidel]

Im not sure-- have we discovered any silicate based life yet? :O other than our own machines?

[numerosdecimus]

Im not sure-- have we discovered any silicate based life yet? :O other than our own machines?

And our machines certainly aren't good at sustaining quick temperature changes, just look at the first XBOX CPU chips or the 360.

Anyway, the thing is, it's silicon based, not silicon.

[Gary88]

i'm gonna put my money on prokaryotic life rather than 'wild an exotic forms' at least in the sense that it wont be sci fi style monsters. chemically they might be very different to us, but not that unimaginable

[Chaigidel]

yeah I think pondscum will be pretty much everywhere-- and those things around vents --- probably on europa and that life will go on long after earth is gone because it relys simply on jupiter.

but yeah I would bet on some sort of familiar life but I wouldnt be totally suprised if it was exotic

[Quacky]

Silicon based life isn't actually as random as it might sound, after carbon its about the best element to pick really. They're in the same group and can bond pretty nicely to form complex molecules in the same sort of way carbon does but since its generally locked up in huge lattices as sand on this planet its a bit inaccessible.

Prokaryotic life could be existing on other bodies in the solar right now. Its quite amazing how hard it is to kill some of them with some able to go into a sort of stasis for a thousand years and live anaerobically provided they have found some source of energy such as the sunlight and landed somewhere with water like a comet perhaps and some carbon available for growth. These would be evolved on earth and blasted out, meteors hitting earth or on spaceships.

Other further out life starting on other planets is likely carbon or silicon based but it depends what is available to use on the planet. I always start thinking of life at its most primitive on other planets so something that could control the interior of its cell (in the sense that it would have a barrier with the environment not that its cell biology would represent that of cell as we know it here). When you can consider a planet may be capable of basic life then any more advanced forms are always possible but the chances of finding a super advanced culture of aliens is much less than finding some microscopic basic life.

[Chaigidel]

I saw some show about a microbe called a "water bear"

it seems quite relevant on the tenacity of lifeforms

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/...0/mmbearp.html

[Medicus]

Microbes. They could survive on Earth 3 and a half billion years ago, and back then Earth was as close as you could get to hell.

If they evolve into multi-celled organisms, then I have no idea.

[Ummon]

Now, where I am now it is difficult for me to get a reference, though I remember specifically that many authors (including Asimov, who after all was a biologist) are/were skeptical about silicium based life, based on chemical properties of silicates. The ability to for 4 covalent binds is not the only important thing, and if I remember correctly there were stereoscopical criteria and also problems with the absence of proper solvents (silicon and silicium-based compounds are often impermeable).

[numerosdecimus]

Now, where I am now it is difficult for me to get a reference, though I remember specifically that many authors (including Asimov, who after all was a biologist) are/were skeptical about silicium based life, based on chemical properties of silicates. The ability to for 4 covalent binds is not the only important thing, and if I remember correctly there were stereoscopical criteria and also problems with the absence of proper solvents (silicon and silicium-based compounds are often impermeable).

I also that silicon life would have some problems with any by-products they would create because all of them would be solid. For instance, their parallel action to our breathing.