Sunday's 'Comment of the Day'--"Dead Zones of the Universe" --Do They Support the 'Rare Earth' Theory?

 

         


The big question, of course, is: among these planets, how common is human-level intelligence? Some think that it's nigh-inevitable. While I tend to agree that it's inevitable given enough time, I think it's an unlikely result in any given ecosystem. Then again, Dr. Michio Kaku (among others) has pointed out some obstacles that a sapient species must overcome to fully mature as a species. One is ecologic change: will the species pollute its environment to the point that it becomes no longer livable? A second is war, with the development of weapons of mass destruction: will cultural hate, combined with the ability to destroy huge parcels, likewise destroy the species' habitat? A third obstacle is the galactic environment -- events that are beyond the species' control.

What's to say that a sapient species won't be wiped out by anything from a meteor strike to a gamma-ray burst? These things can happen with little to no warning, and can destroy a civilization if it happens before said civilization reaches the stars. This is why I think we're probably the only sapient species in the Milky Way. There are probably others in other galaxies -- and I think Triangulum is as good a place to look as Andromeda -- but I'd be surprised (though only mildly so) if we were to find another in this one.

But I also think we'll find plenty of planets where we can set down colonies once we've mastered interstellar travel. (And, hopefully, we'll have worked out how to do sustainable, low-impact colonization by then, having learned the lessons of the past.)

Bob Greenwade

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[Image above and below is spiral galaxy M33, a mid-sized member of our Local Group of galaxies. M33 is also called the Triangulum Galaxy for the constellation in which it resides. About four times smaller (in radius) than our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31)].

 

         

 

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Comments

[Olga Altstatt]

Did we use all possibilities to discover something we would like to? Do we know everything about the COSMOS or even the MILKY WAY?The right things will come in right time.(unless nuclear war will wipe us all!)

[Matthew]

The Earth has been visited by Aliens for thousands of years. The governments of the world have kept it secret for many reasons. Mostly because they wish to retain there structures of power over their respective populations. The US governments main goal is to gain as much technology and information possible before being forced to go public. Roswell happened and its a known fact that it was a real event. It was no damn weather balloon. The government has lied about it for over 60 years now. They have briefed every sitting president since 1947, with the exception of Carter because the control group felt he could not be trusted to keep it a secret. These are known facts and there is more than enough credible documentation to back up every single bit of it. Whistle blowers who have worked for the various intelligence agencies have come forward in their dying years to break their security oaths and tell the truth of what happened. People are just so brainwashed at this point that they cannot even see the truth when its staring them in the face.

[Ez]

eyes wide open, mind sceptical and self aware.
self belief and a personal view of freedom...always!

[Paul]

There are probably life friendly zones in our own galaxy and we are definatley in it,it's similar to the goldielocks zone around a star I would think. Too near to the central black hole where there is a lot more stars packed into a small area or out too far where there are not enough heavy elements to form planets. That does not mean earthlike worlds so are rare though. We just need to concentrate our search to stars around 25 thousand lightyears from the center of the milkyway. Would still be billions of planets.