This is the third book in the series that included 'The Theory of Nothing' the "The Universe Revealed.' My purpose in this new book is to more fully explain how science is actually done and how science fits into our culture along with religion and p...
The last essay discussed the fate of the universe, which is currently impossible to determine with certainty. The other big question is whether there is other intelligent life out there in the vast universe. In other words, are we alone?
As long as humans have looked up at the sky, they have wondered if they were the only intelligent creatures in existence. Down through the ages, philosophers, cosmologists and biologists have debated this question without resolving it. Human imagination has created all sorts of extraterrestrial creatures, both intelligent and not. Science fiction loves this idea. It's almost as if we want to believe in other intelligent creatures out there in the universe. Unfortunately, there is no solid evidence that there are other creatures like us out there despite all of the pseudo proof of alien life. I've already discussed extraterrestrial life. In this discussion I wish to explore if life could form out there and if that life could evolve to become intelligent.
If we assume that life began either on Earth or out on some other place like Mars or even asteroids, then it had to have formed because of the availability of the chemicals that make up life, specifically the ingredients of DNA, which are the chemical coding agents that are found in all life on Earth, including bacteria, plants, insects and all other life. Somehow, DNA was formed from available chemicals that existed soon after the solar system was formed. We already know that large blue stars formed the higher elements during fusion and when they exploded in supernovae. We also know that some of the chemicals that go into DNA are formed out in space on asteroids and dwarf planets. There is no doubt that DNA was produced by these available chemicals and these came together to form primitive single celled creatures, which eventually formed multicellular beings. The exact mechanism for this synthesis of life is not yet known, but it's obvious that it did happen.
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Since star formation has been observed in all galaxies it should be safe to say that life also could form on planets in those galaxies. In other words the formation of life is a universal action. The next question is whether life could evolve into intelligent life.
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Since intelligent life formed and evolved on Earth, it would suggest that the same thing would happen on similar planets around other stars. However, it is a large stretch to go from simple life to intelligent life. This process would require perfect conditions. However, all of the possible schemes to intelligent life are not known. The only scheme we know about is the one that created us, and that was a very complex and intricate course that could have easily failed. The following conditions were needed to create us.
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1. A fairly large planet orbiting the habitable zone of a stable dwarf star that would remain stable for billions of years and be in a location of its galaxy that would not be irradiated with intense radiation. It is assumed that such a planet would have liquid water on its surface.
2. A planet with a stable spin, which in our case was provided by a fairly large moon.
3. Stable seasons of both warm and cold.
4. The evolution of edible plants and animals to provide nourishment.
5. An atmosphere with a reasonable amount of oxygen. Too little oxygen would suppress the development of larger animals. Too much oxygen would cause combustion danger.
6. The evolution of a creature from a diverse animal population that would be capable of evolving a large brain and the necessary sensory organs.
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These are not all of the possible requirements, but they are the most critical.
The question then becomes whether these planets exist out there in our galaxy and other galaxies. Recent discoveries have shown that this is the case. However, we still don't know if exo-planets have oxygen atmospheres and liquid water. The equipment is not good enough to determine that.
All of this assumes that the only type of intelligent life that could form would be like us. We have no other way to determine if other systems are feasible. All we know is what we see here on Earth. My guess is that life is everywhere out there, but intelligent life is also all over the universe, and I would bet that they are wondering if there is anyone else out there.
