I wonder is why we always define the parameters of Places Life Can Exist based on just what we're used to seeing here.

It narrows down the targets for search. Since we already know that like can exist within our parameters, we look for places that match up with us, increasing our chances of finding life.

gorilla pets human

It all could have gone so wrong. Our primate cousins scare the bejeesus out of me. Especially when their gaze is fixed right on the camera. It's like they're saying, "you guys are such fucking jerks."

For the record, this is my favorite kind of buffistas conversations. Especially the "texting" and "squid have 4g?" insertions.

It's not quite Dogs in Elk, but it will do.

I love you guys.

My brother and I just had a drunken convo about quorum sensing, bacteria and cancer and the mice I helped him irradiate yesterday to undo the tumors inflicted on them ( they were cute and had personalities. #93 was a whiney badass. It's for cancer curing, wee warrior mice!)

Anyway....

I love sciency stuff!

I also love my family but they are driving me crazy after only 2 days. My mother won't stop talking and my father can't hear. And I am far too accustomed to spending most of my time alone with the cats.

silverbacks are scary like woah. apes in general I have no desire to be near. monkeys are a whole different vibe.

I just reread Dogs in Elk. Fucking hilarious. I sort of miss Table Talk.

It narrows down the targets for search. Since we already know that like can exist within our parameters, we look for places that match up with us, increasing our chances of finding life.

Actually I understand why we focus on Earth-like because that could lead to us-like. Though I think that if we can't communicate with a cuttlefish, actual aliens won't be any easier. But my main issh is that the science I read and watch seems to posit that life and evolution only could get going in Earth-like worlds. That could be a translation between actual science and Nova though. I mean there are ice worms and critters who live near black smokers and use no sunlight, I think it might be possible for other places to surprise us. If life exists beyond us, I think the possibilities are actually endless. Which is so cool.

Actually I understand why we focus on Earth-like because that could lead to us-like.

I think that's PR. The biologists I've read don't think that us-like is probable. We're very much a product of chance. It was one of the central points of TAM, since it was dealing with space. They were talking mostly about aquatic life, and how it evolved/lived when the earth was young and nightmarish (to us). It wasn't that they were saying things can only live in an environment that is familiar to us, it's just that since we know life can live in an environment familiar to us, let's focus on planets that are hospitable in a way we know.

It's kind of like they were saying, "it's not that it's impossible that you put your keys in the refrigerator last night, it's just not the first place you'd look for them in the morning...they're likely on the sidetable where you set the mail down when you walked in the door, so look for them there first before checking through the weirder places."