(September 20, 2017 at 6:55 pm)Fireball Wrote: - As the physical laws are constant throughout the Universe, only carbon-based lifeforms are possible.
Not sure that I agree. It may be true, but life could form with silicon instead of carbon. The life forms might require a lot higher temperature and other things, but I think it could happen.
As far as a "great filter" is concerned, I consider the earth's oceans and tidal pools as like a great array processor, in which many processes can take place. In some places, just the right number of the right type of atoms slosh together enough times, and molecules get built up. And it happens all over the planet. Something's got to come from all that. Something did- life as we know it.
Yep, very hard to rule out other possibilities. While the physical laws of the universe may be constant, local conditions do vary. But it wouldn't shock me if turned out that only carbon based life does in fact arise any where. A lot of speculation without hope of verification.
