[extropy-chat] ET is a Bacterium

[Damien Sullivan]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2005 at 02:38:04AM -0700, The Avantguardian wrote:

> happened. So what you are suggesting is that had he electrocuted the broth
> while shining UV light on it at 52 atm of pressure in a methane atmosphere
> for a million years, some primordial cell would have oozed out of it?  

It's possible.  And there are more options: tides, day-night cycles, clay
substrates (not for replication of the clays, though there's that idea as
well, but because the chemistry is different; see a couple of books by John
Maynard Smith and a colleague, one being _Major Transitions in Evolution_)

> > This has no relevance to spontaneous generation in a planet-wide ocean
> > subject to UV, lightning, and tides, over 100 million years.
> 
> Is the ocean somehow more nutritious than the broth?

It might be.  It is definitely bigger, allowing more room for things to happen
in.  And it had more energy.

> entropic than it is now. Who knows. Maybe the whole
> universe started out alive and then over time, most of
> it died until now only small bits of it are alive.

And maybe there are invisible pink unicorns around Alpha Centauri.

-xx- Damien X-)