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April 07, 2005
Rare Earth Theory
It's interesting how when you start thinking about some topic you suddenly start stumbling over information about it. Of course, it's more likely that information related to it is going to catch your attention when otherwise it would just slide on by unnoticed. Case in point: I've been using the free processor time on my computers to crunch seti@home units for a few years, hoping, of course that evidence of ET would be discovered by the data crunched on my computer. It hasn't happened yet. In fact, lately I've decided that it's very unlikely to ever happen on anyones computer. I've been rereading The Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and have been struck again at the great odds against intelligent life evolving to the point where someone could even conceive of radio, must less build a transmitter. So often on the path to our existence there were catastrophes such as meteorite strikes and epidemics that helped clear out other species and allow our forebears to continue to eke out an existence. And yesterday there was a story on Daily Planet regarding the Rare Earth hypothesis. This theory suggests that while bacteria may likely thrive on other planets, the chances of animal life evolving are very slim. Even on our planet they're suggesting that this portion of our earths history is limited and that we're running out of carbon dioxide and in a few billion years the plants will starve. Without plants all animals die. The planet goes back to being a home for just bacteria. The good news is (and this my personal conjecture), since the planet is a closed system bits of us will still live on long after we become grass food.
Posted by John at April 7, 2005 11:27 PM
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