Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 2115369" data-attributes="member: 177">Unless you're expecting that what life we find there is life we brought there ourselves, then this is highly unlikely.&nbsp; The chances of alien life being particularly similar to our own is comparable to the chances that a monkey with a typewriter would bang out a copy of &quot;Heroes of High Favor: Halflings&quot;.Well, the elemental components will be the same, sure.&nbsp; But the chemical ones?&nbsp; Not likely.&nbsp; Heck, life on Earth didn't always use DNA for information coding.&nbsp; Life on Earth didn't even always have data coding at all.&nbsp; Why should alien life also use the same mechanisms?Even if alien life did use some of the same chemical units, how they'd use them would be different.&nbsp; We're talking different metabolic methods, different organelles performing cellular functions in different ways (that's assuming there's an analog to cellular structure).&nbsp;&nbsp; Whole new ways to do the all the things that we do.&nbsp; Of course there'd be lots to learn.&nbsp; ANd learning how someone else does a thing is often the best way to understand your own methods.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 2115369, member: 177"] Unless you're expecting that what life we find there is life we brought there ourselves, then this is highly unlikely. The chances of alien life being particularly similar to our own is comparable to the chances that a monkey with a typewriter would bang out a copy of "Heroes of High Favor: Halflings". Well, the elemental components will be the same, sure. But the chemical ones? Not likely. Heck, life on Earth didn't always use DNA for information coding. Life on Earth didn't even always have data coding at all. Why should alien life also use the same mechanisms? Even if alien life did use some of the same chemical units, how they'd use them would be different. We're talking different metabolic methods, different organelles performing cellular functions in different ways (that's assuming there's an analog to cellular structure). Whole new ways to do the all the things that we do. Of course there'd be lots to learn. ANd learning how someone else does a thing is often the best way to understand your own methods. [/QUOTE]

Verification