It May Seem Bizarre, But In My

So How Can We Test The Idea That The Transition From Nonlife To Life Is Simple Enough To Happen Repeatedly? The Most Obvious And Straightforward Way Is To Search For A Second Form Of Life On Earth. No Planet Is More Earth-like Than Earth Itself, So If The Path To Life Is Easy, Then Life Should Have Started Up Many Times Over Right Here.

The Secret Of Our Success On Planet Earth Is Space. Lots Of It. Our Solar System Is A Tiny Island Of Activity In An Ocean Of Emptiness.

What We Want Is Another Sample Of Life, Which Is Not On Our Tree Of Life At All. All Life That We've Studied So Far On Earth Belongs To The Same Tree. We Share Genes With Mushrooms And Oak Trees And Fish And Bacteria That Live In Volcanic Vents And So On That It's All The Same Life Descended From A Common Origin. What We Want Is A Second Tree Of Life. We Want Alien Life, Alien Not Necessarily In The Sense Of Having Come From Space, But Alien In The Sense Of Belonging To A Different Tree Altogether. That Is What We're Looking For, "life 2.0."

No Planet Is More Earth-like Than Earth Itself, So If Life Really Does Pop Up Readily In Earth-like Conditions, Then Surely It Should Have Arisen Many Times Right Here On Our Home Planet? And How Do We Know It Didn't? The Truth Is, Nobody Has Looked.

Through Conscious Beings The Universe Has Generated Self-awareness. This Can Be No Trivial Detail, No Minor Byproduct Of Mindless, Purposeless Forces. We Are Truly Meant To Be Here.