http://www.physorg.com/news101134415.html
"When we think of extrasolar Earth-like planets, the first tendency is to imagine weird creatures like Jar Jar Binks, Chewbacca, and, if those are not bizarre enough, maybe even the pointy-eared Vulcan, Spock, of Star Trek fame."
What"s up with that? I mean sure it makes a lot less sense that something extra solar would look almost exactly like us but I don"t think that is what the writer had in mind.
You have to think out of the box when it comes to alien life.
Consider an organism the size of a forest that lives for millions of years.
In our life span the organism is static and shows no sign of intellegence. However if you could observe the alien organism over thousands of years then you would see it communicate with others of its kind using chemical signals and have high intellegence over a time span of thousands of years.
In fact choral reefs and forrests might actually do this but we cannot observe it due to our limited life span.
To think of alien life forms as spok or wookies is very quaint but I think that we need to throw away our base lines. i.e. forget humanoid form, forget our life span based time frame, forget terrestrial biochemistry.
That said I am sure there are little green men somewhere in the vastness of space. The other issue is how would we hold a conversation with even our closest neighbours of 20 light years without getting board and hanging up the phone.
Consider an organism the size of a forest that lives for millions of years.
In our life span the organism is static and shows no sign of intellegence. However if you could observe the alien organism over thousands of years then you would see it communicate with others of its kind using chemical signals and have high intellegence over a time span of thousands of years.
In fact choral reefs and forrests might actually do this but we cannot observe it due to our limited life span.
To think of alien life forms as spok or wookies is very quaint but I think that we need to throw away our base lines. i.e. forget humanoid form, forget our life span based time frame, forget terrestrial biochemistry.
That said I am sure there are little green men somewhere in the vastness of space. The other issue is how would we hold a conversation with even our closest neighbours of 20 light years without getting board and hanging up the phone.
I suppose that first we will have to agree on a definition for intelligence that accepts 'choral reefs' and 'forrests' as supportive evidence. I'm bored with this virtual communication, 'over and out.'
The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.
The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.
Actually, life evolving in alien environments would probably be surprisingly similar to earth based life. Most of the amino acids found in earth life are the most thermodynamically stable configurations and contain the easiest to create molecules that perform differential catalysis. In other words, those forms thermodynamically favored would probably win out over less favored forms no matter where the evolution occurred. In fact bi-lateral symmetry, sexual dimorphism (exactly 2 sexes) etc. would probably arise no matter where it evolved.
Many many details would certainly differ, but really wild speculations of possibilities are probably not really possible.
My guess is that almost all life in the galaxy is basically single celled, and that this form is probably ubiquitous, even inside our own solar system.
Many many details would certainly differ, but really wild speculations of possibilities are probably not really possible.
My guess is that almost all life in the galaxy is basically single celled, and that this form is probably ubiquitous, even inside our own solar system.
On the biochemical level, I expect life on other planets to be similar to Earth life. I see no reason to think that it would necessarily reflect life on Earth in forms of body. First, if Earth life is anything to judge by, then unicellular life is the norm, with multicellular life being very rare. Single cells are and have always been the dominant mode of life on Earth. Life on Earth remained unicellular for billions of years before evolution drifted into experiments with multicellularity. Multicellular life is still less than one billion years old, not even really enough time to tell whether or not this little venture will pan out.
It will always arise wherever it evolves. 
However, there is no reason to suspect that those things would necessarily evolve. Radial symmetry is just as likely to dominate. Also, there is no reason to believe that there would be the kind of distinct sexual dimorphism that you mentioned. We don't even have exactly two sexes here on Earth. Most sexually reproducing organisms are in fact hermaphrodites, if you consider more than just vertebrates. Even many vertebrates have one, two, and hermaphroditic sexes. Many creatures change sex throughout their lives. Humans are not even divided into two distinct sexes. There are males and females and everything in-between including full blown hermaphrodites. It is true, that most people fall fairly well into one category or the other, but the sexes exist as a continuum, rather than being two distinct categories.
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In fact bi-lateral symmetry, sexual dimorphism (exactly 2 sexes) etc. would probably arise no matter where it evolved
It will always arise wherever it evolves. However, there is no reason to suspect that those things would necessarily evolve. Radial symmetry is just as likely to dominate. Also, there is no reason to believe that there would be the kind of distinct sexual dimorphism that you mentioned. We don't even have exactly two sexes here on Earth. Most sexually reproducing organisms are in fact hermaphrodites, if you consider more than just vertebrates. Even many vertebrates have one, two, and hermaphroditic sexes. Many creatures change sex throughout their lives. Humans are not even divided into two distinct sexes. There are males and females and everything in-between including full blown hermaphrodites. It is true, that most people fall fairly well into one category or the other, but the sexes exist as a continuum, rather than being two distinct categories.
QUOTE
Actually, life evolving in alien environments would probably be surprisingly similar to earth based life. Many many details would certainly differ, but really wild speculations of possibilities are probably not really possible.
I don't know. Anal appendages waving at the end of trunks and reproductive organs flailing out of nostrils are within DNA possibility, yet that alone would be fairly spectacular to us. I think the sky isn't even the limit. Imagine a world where the entire sky contains a single organism? Which helps deflect radiation, and the planet is it's food source sublimating into it, it's waste utilized by the planet's biota? Why not? Some of the fossilized creatures found in the Burgess Shale look unlike anything we have ever seen, and very much unlike each other. They prove, in spades, that when it comes to physical variation just carbon based, let alone whatever else, from Order to Species, the variation in this whole Universe must ultimately be a very very big number.
2 Sexes will not always arrive. I know for a fact that on earth some species evolved with more or less in the case of asexual organisms. I think there are some fungal species with 3 and there is some type of insect with 4. Also a Lizard I think... I'd have to look it up. But the point I was trying to make with this is that the author is stupid and needs to rethink the title. 