This is a essay that I wrote for school. It is pretty long & wordy some of the stuff I do not totally agree with, and it assumes things through a secular world view. Its main purpose being here is to see what a large amount of text will look like on this website.
An Argument for Extraterrestrial’s Existence
Throughout generations of humanity, the desire to find out if our life-rich planet is alone has been strong. With the advent of modern scientific inventions, our species has been able to scan the stars to hopefully get confirmation that we are not alone. With recent advancements in technology, we now know that there are hundreds of confirmed planets that show promise of carrying life, with theoretically billions of others with similar conditions. These planets do not always mirror Earth’s environment exactly, but certain organisms on Earth prove that extraterrestrials can exist in very extreme places. Basic life definitely exists in the universe (in the form of basic unicellular or multicellular organisms), but complex, intelligent life is exceedingly rare and far away. There are planets that are capable of supporting life, and they are in abundance. Life can exist in eclectic forms, which expands the possibility of where life is. However, the likelihood of intelligent evolving from otherwise nonliving material is uncommon, leading to intelligent life being rare yet existing.
For life to rise from nonliving material, an environment must be present that is able to sustain the organisms. Lucky for any prospective lifeforms, the universe is a massive pool that is full of planets with compositions of wildly varied characteristics. For life as we know it to exist (alien life could very well have different needs, as discussed later on), substances like water, nitrogen, sulfur are needed. Different parameters must also be met, such as temperature, size, and location. Space organizations like NASA have discovered “exoplanets” (planets that are outside of our solar system) that are hopefully capable of fostering life. One of these planets is called Kepler-452b. In an article from NASA, the author states, “The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone – the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet – of a G2-type star, like our sun. (…) ‘It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth. That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet.’”
These types of planets aren’t exactly common in terms of what humans are able to reach (for now), but in terms of the whole universe, there are possibly billions of these planets. In a study conducted with the Hubble Space Telescope that “Nature” reported on, the estimated number of galaxies in the universe is estimated to be incredibly large. “The researchers were able to plot the number of galaxies of a given mass that corresponded to various distances away from Earth. They then extrapolated their estimates to account for galaxies too small and faint for telescopes to pick up, and calculated that the observable Universe should contain 2 trillion galaxies.”
With the number of galaxies in the universe and those galaxies containing billions of planets, the number of planets in the universe is uncountable. Even if the percentage of life-supporting planets is small, the actual number of planets is incredibly large. With billions and billions of planets with life supporting capabilities, it is hard to believe that Earth is the only planet with life on it. Life is out there, wherever it may be.
The number of candidates for planets with life can be expanded if we are to assume that alien life may be different from us. Their natural environment may be toxic to anything on Earth, but could be perfect for their planet’s species. There are organisms on Earth that are called “extremophiles”, or organisms that thrive in atypical environments that have extreme conditions. This could be extreme cold, extreme heat, radiation, or high pressure. An example of something that is a part of this unique section of biology is the bacteria called “Pyrococcus furiosus”. In an article by Michelle Kropf for Missouri University of Science and Technology, he says the bacteria is, “a hyperthermophilic Archaea that grows at an astonishing 100°C, with a range between 70°C and 103°C.” The Pyrococcus furiosus also is unique in the way it has enzymes that contain an element not usually seen in biological organisms: Tungsten. “A very interesting fact about the bacterium is it has enzymes that contain tungsten, a very rare phenomena for biological organisms. Tungsten is believed to fuel the growth of the bacterium.”
If life like the Pyrococcus Furiosus and others can adapt to their surroundings, it is quite possible that aliens aren’t like animals on Earth, in the way that we are highly sensitive. Our understanding of life only extends to Earth, which leaves much speculation of what alien life is capable of being and existing. The number of possible habitable planets increase with the acceptance that life may be different from what we are used to. If aliens do not act the same way life on Earth does (grow, die, evolve, eat, live, etc.), our understanding of where and how life exists is grossly wrong.
Unfortunately, even though planets exist with life harboring capabilities, it does not mean that intelligent life actually exists on every single one of them. Intelligent life, in this case, is any biological organism that can learn and understand things. Organisms on Earth needed many different parameters to be met and time for random chance to push species forward. Such requirements for life evolving include right location in a solar system, orbital distance in a habitable zone, stable planet orbit, and more. With every evolutionary step, the chances of intelligent life coming to be gets exponentially more rare. Unicellular organisms had to form, multicellular living things had to come from that, etc. Even if we hypothetically assume that life doesn’t exactly need the same type of planet like Earth and could exist on planets with alien environments, the role of random chance plays a huge factor in life’s creation. The chances of life evolving in the way it did on Earth to bring us to modern man is calculated to be a very improbable feat, as done by John G. Cramer from the University of Washington, as he discussed in a column in Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine. He creates an equation to try and figure out just how rare intelligent life is.
N = N* × fp × fpm × ne × ng × fi × fc × fl × fm × fj × fme
This equation takes into account the fraction of stars with planets, average number of planets in the star’s habitable zone, and more. With all the variables being involved, and the possibility of many other variables that can be added, the final probably could very well be in the billions of billions. This makes basic life (like simple bacterias) more of a possibility than mysterious figures flying around in saucers.
Taking the idea of intelligent life being rare one step further leads to the “First Born Hypothesis”, an argument against aliens existing at all. The Firstborn Hypothesis is an answer to Enrico Fermi’s “Fermi Paradox”, which is a discrepancy between seeming lack of intelligent life and the plausible likelihood of intelligent species existing. The Firstborn Hypothesis explains that there is no sign of intelligent life in the universe because we are the first and only life that exists. The universe is in a cosmological age where environments on planets have been mild enough to give life the chance to evolve. Our Earth is fortunate enough to be one of the first (or maybe only) bastions of intelligent life, explaining why no other intelligent life seems to be around. A similar idea is the “Hart–Tipler conjecture”, where there is no intelligent life outside our solar system.
There are not many instances of people arguing this viewpoint, but one early example is from a 1982 study conducted by Lawrence Bracewell from Stanford university. He states, “errestrial history demonstrates that the advent of one tool-capable and traveling population results in that species’ expansion to all viable territories. The spread of the population occurs in much shorter time than does the evolution of the species, indicating that, perhaps, humans are the first intelligent species in the Galaxy, and may be the future population of the Galaxy.” According to Bracewell, if an intelligent species exists with capable technology, they will spread to all viable places. Without any sign of such expansion, it is plausible to assume that they don’t exist.
Even though the chances of complex life evolving is small, there are too many possible planets to “reroll” the chance of complex life for Earth to be the only one. There have also been many stars that are older than Earth’s star that have planets around them. A planet that was discussed earlier, Kepler 452b, has spent more time around its star in the habitable zone than Earth, which is plenty of time for life to arise. A given person winning the lottery is a rare thing, but it has happened multiple times where people have won multi million dollar payouts. Every animal or plant on Earth has won the prize of life. It’s unfair to assume that we are the only lottery winners out there.
I also believe Lawrence Bracewell’s assumption that alien races with adequate technology would expand so much as to reach us is not plausible. For one, the technology that enables intergalactic travel may not even be scientifically possible for us or foreign aliens. Aliens may also be fine with not expanding to all possible areas like life on Earth tends to do. Aliens could also be so far away that they do not even know about our existence. There are many scenarios that could be possible where aliens exist but have not been in contact with us, and to assume that all intelligent life would get to the point of vast space travel and expand to all areas of the universe is unrealistic.
There exists life out there in the universe, whether that’s three planets or 100 million planets. However, the chances of complex life being out there and close enough to interact with the human race is a very unlikely occurrence. There are planets that are capable of supporting life, and they are in abundance. Life can exist in eclectic forms, which expands the possibility of where life is. However, the likelihood of intelligent (more importantly, basic life) evolving from otherwise unliving material is practically a miracle, leading to intelligent species being a rare occurrence. Maybe until science advances enough to the point of trans-universe travel or detailed planet searching, we are blind to what is beyond our small home.