A Thought for Today

[gwand]

A beautiful essay

What if we're alone? The philosophical paradox of a lifeless cosmos

If humanity really is alone in the Universe, it presents us with a philosophical problem — and opportunity.

bigthink.com

 

[GaryE]

Hmmm. Humanity is never alone. We are surrounded by other species and other lives that we pay little attention to. I remember our thread on octopus intelligence, where we jumped to their lack of technology as if that were all that showed brains. We're looking around for intelligence that's like ours. I don't honestly know if we can spot intelligence on this planet, let alone recognize it if it visits from other worlds.

The evidence for bacterial type life on other planets is growing. That's good enough for me not to feel alone. I've always liked this science fiction short story:

They're Made out of Meat

 

[MaloK]

We are not alone.

 

[gwand]

Can a bacterium feel joy or sorrow, the agony and ecstasy? If not they are but self replicating bio machines filling an important niche in our vast ecosystem. We are self reflecting bio machines abusing our niche in this vast ecosystem.

 

[MaloK]

Pretty sure you need at least some neurological network and more than one senses connected to it to be evolved enough to feel any emotions.

 

[GaryE]

Does it matter if we are intelligent by our own definition of intelligence? Isn't life enough when we look at the universe?

If there is life out there, even 'just' bacteria, then there is the potential for all kinds of things, if survival leads that way. We might be incapable of communicating with it, and might not even see it as intelligent any more than it would see us as intelligent. It doesn't mean it would be 'smarter' than us, or vice versa. Our senses are evolved to figure out basic survival, with a lot of trade offs. My nose is far inferior to my dog's, and imagine a smell based intelligence out there? It'd go right by us unless it built structures we recognized.

Instead of feeling so good about how smart our species is, we might find ourselves taking a harder look at our context. It's not long since we had some very self centred beliefs about our place in the universe, and we still haven't gotten beyond that. We never completely will, but we're still taking nervous baby steps. It's early days for proving our own species' overall intelligence. We aren't looking too good in our cause and effect thinking.

The essay asks if humanity is alone. Of course not. Are we alone with the type of intelligence we value (our own)? Maybe. On this planet, we are. We really like ourselves as a species, making up myths and giving ourselves dominion over other animals. I guess we can feel existential despair over being alone, but if we get off our pedestal, we might feel less special and more connected. It would scare most of us more than an extraterrestrial would.

 

[gwand]

We modern humans have disrupted a perfect homeostasis, a world in delicate equilibrium. The fact that many people recognize how far we strayed gives me hope. gwand, the optimist.