Rare earth theory

[zhao]

final fail of the day:

 

[noel emits]

Organocentrism. It's not so much anthropic thinking as based on multiple huge assumptions about the essential nature of life. These assumptions are built right into many of the factors of the Rare Earth equation.

I'm pretty much in agreement with this David Darling guy quoted on the wiki wiki:

According to Darling, the Rare Earth hypothesis is neither hypothesis nor prediction, but merely a description of how life arose on Earth.[33] In his view Ward and Brownlee have done nothing more than select the factors that best suit their case.

"What matters is not whether there's anything unusual about the Earth; there's going to be something idiosyncratic about every planet in space. What matters is whether any of Earth's circumstances are not only unusual but also essential for complex life. So far we've seen nothing to suggest there is."

 

[Mr. Tea]

Good point, Noel. Surely every Dissensian has read enough Howard P. to appreciate that life could take on forms so utterly alien to our sheltered mortal existence as to outstrip the diseased fancy of our most fevered nightmares!

 

[Dusty]

I think it was an Iain Banks novel that had a planet made almost entirely of water, within which an intelligent race of creatures evolved for whom space travel was impossible because of the lack of building resources.

Bit like the dolphins really.... who knows what those little feckers are plotting, only to be stumped at the final hurdle by the lack of an opposable digit.