> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Baker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2002 5:16 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Space Ships
>
>
> Jeroen said:
>
> > To throw in some science-currently-still-fiction eplanations:
> >
> > - Maybe they live in a completely different environment
> (FREX water).
> > - Maybe they are not even carbon-based but, FREX, silicon-based.
I suggested that if we were to find life on a similar planet, they would be
build of the same stuff we are - should use a similar, if not identical
model for DNA, fight up to the same base pairs, give or take a few. They
should also be levo or left-handed amino acids.
>
> Both of those examples require elements heavier than helium,
> which means
> they require the formation of galaxies and the life and death of a lot
> of stars to enrich the environment enough that such kinds of life can
> arise, and that means that those kinds of life can only arise in
> universes many billions of years old.
>
> In any case, I wasn't arguing (here) that we're alone. Instead I was
> arguing that the apparent size and age of the universe is not a
> powerful argument for us not being alone, because even if we were we
> would still expect to see a huge and old universe. The same argument
> could be made by the philosophers amongst your putative aquatic of
> silicon-based species, of course.
I think that if FTL travel is possible, that this becomes a greater
question, but assuming it is not possible, I would predict that this galaxy
has very similar life in it, to a high degree.
>
> Rich
>
>
