I think we will because we have found things like rocks that trace back to water, rocks that trace back to planets, and we have found some chemicals that trace back to oxygen. And plus there were left-overs of rivers on Mars, so I think that we can find life on other planets.
Everything that has ever been or ever will be is part of a grand evolutionary process. The exploration of possibilities is a universal law, a law with every conceivable speck of existence under its jurisdiction, a law that sets the most essential precondition for all evolution, a law that simultaneously spawns and serves curiousity. On this planet which we in our arrogance dare to call ours, on the surface of this space-pebble, on Mother Earth, there have arisen from myriad puddles of organic material countless complex life forms. Amoeba, Fungi, Plants and Animals all survive within enormous external systems, such as the various life cycles and social structures of which all beings are a part, by virtue of the proper functioning of their intricate internal systems, such as the stability of interdependent biological and psychological processes that form each being. This is a beautiful thing in and of itself, but more beautiful still is that these beings all experience different states of mind. We are humans, so reality as experienced with a state of mind available to a mushroom or a fox, a flower or a whale, a dinoflagellate or a dinosaur are all experiences unavailable to us, beyond our comprehension. But so are our experiences beyond the comprehension of any other being, for each life form is unique.
We are humans, and we always search for something to set us apart from the rest of the particular fragment of the grand evolutionary process that happens to cling to this particular stone, to identify that which supposedly makes us better than the rest of Life on Earth. This thinking is foolish and egoistic, but it may produce interesting questions and fascinating answers. Dolphins and humans both engage in recreational sex, a practice which shows incredible wisdom and stands to testify that life on earth has evolved beyond the point where survival must be the sole obsession of every creature. Humans are unique from dolphins in many ways, but the only truly important way is that humans choose to engage in recreational drug use. Not only does this allow for human beings to explore other possible states of mind available to their organism, experiencing internal and external worlds in countless different ways so to constitute entire new realities, but it allows our consciousnesses to interact with those of other Earthen forms of life from which drugs are derived.
I'm also interested to see what kind of response you got to that post on the other forum, Squalick :P
But srsly, you are so right, so long as everybody else keeps in mind that evolutionary theory is the description of a process and has broader applications.
Dolphins and humans both engage in recreational sex
In various permutations, no less!
truly important way is that humans choose to engage in recreational drug use
I'm pretty sure that certain forms of marine life have psychoactive properties..."Du-u-u-ude, your blowhole is totally swallowing me up...it's swallowing the universe up...aw man, that's totally effed up right there."
Dude, you just did not put a double-entendre in my post while I wasn't looking, did you?
ZOMG :O
I feel slightly disenfranchised in this thread, seeing as I'm the type who actually genuinely likes not being 420'd. I mean, I don't even need drugs to get down with the interspecies interaction. How awesome is that!?
Strop, I do not know how awesome that is. I do know that it is not as awesome as I! Foul troll.
Okay, as for life on other planets... to know for certain, we would need to know if the universe was infinite, or finite. Now, I know that if a universe if finite, that doesn't rule out the existance of extraterrestrials, but it would be more probable if the universe were infinite. I do not mean to stray this thread into another topic, but it is true.
My personal beliefs are that extraterrestrials do exist, but considering the vastness of the universe, they could be very near, for extremely far away. Of course, sending radio signals might not always work, either. Extraterrestrials do not have to be intelligent, they could be more primitive that us.
Now, I know that if a universe if finite, that doesn't rule out the existance of extraterrestrials, but it would be more probable if the universe were infinite.
Well, I'm not too sure, really. Hmm, well, there would be more space... more galaxies and therefore more planets than a finite universe with a finite number of planets. It's logical to say that the chance of extraterrestrials existing is larger in an infinite universe!
Well, here's a way to look at it: I have read somewhere that there is a certain percentage chance of a planet being able to support life, if there are infinite planets, this increases the number of these planets, therefore increasing the likelihood of extraterrestrial life.
I was just wondering whether convergence figured into this. That is, the law of large numbers- if a number is a probability, then as the sample set grows to infinitely large, the proportion of elements in that sample set that satisfy the outcome will converge on that number.
So if there are infinite planets, then the true expression of proportion of planets that there is life on approaches this number...but this is where I stumble because this doesn't have anything to do, in my mind, with empirical data. We're still dealing with unknown quantities, so it's meaningless to speculate on statistical probability when the quantities are still unknown.
That's why the whole of cosmology just boggles my poor brain @_@