Science continues to expand in every direction – micro and macro, from subatomic to celestial, computers, robots, mapping the brain, developing new materials, the list goes on and on and each step forward in one field is an extra spin on the old merry go round and so, I’m convinced that we are coming to a day when we can solve all of humanity’s problems through technology – that is, if we can survive until then.
There is one scientific question, though, which we do not have the answer to, and when we do, it will come as a bolt of lightning. Is there life on other planets?
They Are Out There. Sooner or Later, We Will Find Them
The thing is, and the subject of my blog tonight is, this is really more than one question. When I see the argument made (and it’s made all the time) that life on Earth originated on Mars, I am left wondering: do they mean some kind of Martian microbes which were carried here on an asteroid and became our single-celled ancestors (which would be a fun little factoid to know but not really any more mind boggling than the lightning strike in the primordial soup theory) or do they mean that at one point there was an intelligent civilization on Mars and as it’s atmosphere evaporated, or the planet’s orbit drifted out of the Goldilock’s zone, or the ancient Martian version of teabaggers seized the reins of power and blew everything to smithereens in a nuclear war so a few intrepid pioneers got on a spaceship and started the human race on Earth?
I’d like the 2nd version better, but I consider it highly unlikely. Anyway, I believe it was Carl Sagan who said that chances are the first extraterrestrial life we discover is likely to be a bacteria of some kind, because small organisms are so much more common than larger, more well developed organisms.
I’m not so sure. An intelligent, space faring species might actually be interested in contacting us back, whereas looking for the alien bacterium is looking for a really tiny needle in the hugest haystack imaginable. It could go either way, I suppose, but I’m hoping for the big contact.
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