It isn’t. Check out this talk by Dr. Kipping. If you role 1000 x D6, you might say it is statistically impossible to role that number. And you’d be close to right; it was very unlikely. But you did role it.
Also, we just have literally no idea what it actually takes for life to come together. We have a sample size of one. Trying to come up with stats based on that is ridiculous, and until we actually come up with more evidence, saying either “oh there are definitely aliens” or “no there definitely aren’t” just proves to me a person’s willingness to make concrete statements on things they know nothing about.
We do have an idea actually! We’ve run experiments where we put all the ingredients in a box and zap it, and we’ve found that it’s possible for them to start forming the compounds that form the base of life on earth.
We are in a common planet, made with the most common elements in the universe, floating around a star of the most common type. I don’t think life is that special.
i didn’t say earth was special. do you know what it takes for those elements to come together in a way that even begins to approach life? do we ever get brand new single celled organisms that have no relation to anything that currently exists? why does every organism we’ve studied seem to descend from a single ancestor if it’s so easy for life to arise from a barren soup?
we don’t even know if we arose from that soup. maybe we’re actually the aliens, delivered as a single frozen cell from some asteroid that crashed into earth. maybe! who knows! if people wanna write fanfic about the universe that’s their business, but it’s wildly frustrating how so many people pretend that fic has any scientific basis
why does every organism we’ve studied seem to descend from a single ancestor if it’s so easy for life to arise from a barren soup?
That one was successful. A million others could easily have arisen before it but been unsuccessful. A million others could have arisen afterwards but failed to compete with that single ancestor. And it’s nearly impossible for them to leave any evidence of their existence.
It isn’t. Check out this talk by Dr. Kipping. If you role 1000 x D6, you might say it is statistically impossible to role that number. And you’d be close to right; it was very unlikely. But you did role it.
Also, we just have literally no idea what it actually takes for life to come together. We have a sample size of one. Trying to come up with stats based on that is ridiculous, and until we actually come up with more evidence, saying either “oh there are definitely aliens” or “no there definitely aren’t” just proves to me a person’s willingness to make concrete statements on things they know nothing about.
We do have an idea actually! We’ve run experiments where we put all the ingredients in a box and zap it, and we’ve found that it’s possible for them to start forming the compounds that form the base of life on earth.
We are in a common planet, made with the most common elements in the universe, floating around a star of the most common type. I don’t think life is that special.
i didn’t say earth was special. do you know what it takes for those elements to come together in a way that even begins to approach life? do we ever get brand new single celled organisms that have no relation to anything that currently exists? why does every organism we’ve studied seem to descend from a single ancestor if it’s so easy for life to arise from a barren soup?
we don’t even know if we arose from that soup. maybe we’re actually the aliens, delivered as a single frozen cell from some asteroid that crashed into earth. maybe! who knows! if people wanna write fanfic about the universe that’s their business, but it’s wildly frustrating how so many people pretend that fic has any scientific basis
That one was successful. A million others could easily have arisen before it but been unsuccessful. A million others could have arisen afterwards but failed to compete with that single ancestor. And it’s nearly impossible for them to leave any evidence of their existence.