IDK. If we take the argument of contingency or scaffolding (or frozen accidents or whatever) seriously, it's reasonable to argue that life *could not have* originated on earth. It must have originated under some earth-counterfactual.
I'm not saying that's in any way reasonable, just that such an argument wouldn't be "punting" so much as an attempt to build a concrete constraint. On 10/24/25 10:03 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
Actually, any continuity theory is ok by me, except perhaps life being imported from elsewhere, which is just punting.
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