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Ask HN: Why isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that life is only on Earth?

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Re: Ask HN: Why isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that life is only on Earth?

#61
post #11

The easier explanation is a higher power seeded life here. If you find a functioning phone on a beach, you don't just think a bunch of silicon molecules just evolved into a phone over millions of years. Someone is manipulating those molecules via complex processes. Most of the universe is entirely predictable. Planets and stars go in predictable orbits for billions of years. Climates are fairly predictable. But as so…

> The easier explanation is a higher power seeded life here. If you find a functioning phone on a beach, you don't just think a bunch of silicon molecules just evolved into a phone over millions of years. Someone is manipulating those molecules via complex processes. You should read The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins as it directly refutes your claims. This is not a new debate in the field of theology.

There might be a misunderstanding here, as it seems similar to other arguments. I'm not saying evolution cannot create eyes or intelligent life. I'm saying evolution cannot create mobile phones.

I'm not saying evolution does not exist. It is a self-organizing system. But it's the weakest and slowest one of all. It is nature for systems to self-organize, and create increasingly complex self-organizing systems. A mobile phone is proof that self-organizing systems can be much more powerful than evolution.

I am arguing that the billion year head start is long enough for some other lifeform to create a godlike lifeform, which is capable of manipulating us. Dawkins himself literally supports this view in The Blind Watchmaker, "If we want to postulate a deity capable of engineering all the organized complexity in the world, either instantaneously or by guiding evolution, that deity must have been vastly complex in the first place."

This is not even capital-G God. It's simply a higher power. Capitalism makes humans need money. Someone farms chickens for eggs. Eggs are eaten by some humans for protein. But the protein creates the eggs, chicken, human, capitalism. Systems evolve from the bottom up. The protein is unaware of their role in capitalism.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that life is only on Earth?

#62
post #57
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll just counter that there is one very serious and practical reason to have a better understanding of life in the universe—if a spacefaring civilization develops fast travel and reaches Earth first, then humanity will be enslaved and subjugated.

Aren't we already enslaved and subjugated by the ruling class? (Again, a philosophical one)

There hasn’t been a singular ruling class throughout human history. But if another organism competes with us for apex status and wins, then that will change the nature of the ruling class. The ruling class, thus far, in different societies over time has consisted of people of different cultures.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that life is only on Earth?

#63
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trillions is an unfathomable number. There are trillions of planets out there. Statically there is life on one of the trillions of planets besides earth.

I get what you're saying, but I'd expect that we'd at least get fossil records on some of our nearby neighbors.

The nearest neighbors are not ‘near’. It is unfathomable for some, like me, to think that there is no life out there - as we know it or something totally different. The number of galaxies, stars, planets are way too many. You don’t have to agree.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that life is only on Earth?

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Roadsters in space is fund a mental.

Indeed, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten self landing rockets.

it'd be funny in a movie.

in real life it's dead. serious.

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that life is only on Earth?

#66
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get what you're saying, but I'd expect that we'd at least get fossil records on some of our nearby neighbors.

The nearest neighbors are not ‘near’. It is unfathomable for some, like me, to think that there is no life out there - as we know it or something totally different. The number of galaxies, stars, planets are way too many. You don’t have to agree.

You’re wrong, water has always existed on Mars in some form [1], and Mars is older than Earth.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_on_Mars

Re: Ask HN: Why isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that life is only on Earth?

#67
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trillions is an unfathomable number. There are trillions of planets out there. Statically there is life on one of the trillions of planets besides earth.

I get what you're saying, but I'd expect that we'd at least get fossil records on some of our nearby neighbors.

“Nearby neighbors” might be tough if that is your primary concern, especially if you want fossils.

The next closest star is 4.24 light years away. 25 trillion miles.

Although, Venus could have been like Earth at one point.

One theory is that even if life existed, a city like New York would have turned to dust over a billion years due to the conditions Venus has today. There would be no evidence it ever existed.

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