Well I’ve always thought that there is other life in the universe. I envisage creatures similar to us who have mastered technology in some form, able to cure diseases and willing to share knowledge that will advance our species.
Reading this article though it seems that although scientists also think there is life. It is much, much simpler. The basic building blocks of life. I must admit that the odds are actually for this as extraterrestrial life rather than something like the different races in the Sci-Fi movies which is a bit of a blow.
It’s also a moral problem for us. The first is we won’t actually learn all that much. Sure it’ll be a field day for the life science geeks. They will have enough to keep them going for several lifetimes and careers will be made there. The big problem though is we would quickly colonise the planet and become the dominant creature on that planet. Sure, we will get eaten by some blue slug thing that looks like a balloon but only till we learn it’s routines and find out how to kill it.
It’s one of our moral dilemmas we need to resolve before we go into space and it’s one we will probably ignore when it suits us. After all what would you do if you found a planet exactly like Earth with all it’s vegetable and mineral glory and you found in an isolated island a small pygmy proto human species but clearly developing. The little pygmies better hope they are met by scientists rather than prospectors that’s all I can say.
We really have a low opinion on life and if it isn’t near our level of intelligence I’m betting that most of us wouldn’t blink before eradicating it. Just something to think about while we search for life and we need to make some decisions about how we are going to handle all these different types of life.
Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.
What is life exactly?
Well I’ve always thought that there is other life in the universe. I envisage creatures similar to us who have mastered technology in some form, able to cure diseases and willing to share knowledge that will advance our species.
Reading this article though it seems that although scientists also think there is life. It is much, much simpler. The basic building blocks of life. I must admit that the odds are actually for this as extraterrestrial life rather than something like the different races in the Sci-Fi movies which is a bit of a blow.
It’s also a moral problem for us. The first is we won’t actually learn all that much. Sure it’ll be a field day for the life science geeks. They will have enough to keep them going for several lifetimes and careers will be made there. The big problem though is we would quickly colonise the planet and become the dominant creature on that planet. Sure, we will get eaten by some blue slug thing that looks like a balloon but only till we learn it’s routines and find out how to kill it.
It’s one of our moral dilemmas we need to resolve before we go into space and it’s one we will probably ignore when it suits us. After all what would you do if you found a planet exactly like Earth with all it’s vegetable and mineral glory and you found in an isolated island a small pygmy proto human species but clearly developing. The little pygmies better hope they are met by scientists rather than prospectors that’s all I can say.
We really have a low opinion on life and if it isn’t near our level of intelligence I’m betting that most of us wouldn’t blink before eradicating it. Just something to think about while we search for life and we need to make some decisions about how we are going to handle all these different types of life.