Rare earth
why complex life is uncommon in the universe
by Peter Douglas Ward · first published 2000
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Surveys astronomical, geological, and biological evidence on the conditions complex life required, arguing such life may be rare in the universe while microbes could be widespread; for readers curious about alien life.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"While it is widely believed that complex life is common, even widespread, throughout the billions of stars and galaxies of our Universe, astrobiologists Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee argue that advanced life may, in fact, be very rare, perhaps even unique.". "Ward and Brownlee question underlying assumptions and take us on a search for life that reaches from the volcanic hot springs deep on our ocean floors to the frosty face of Europa, Jupiter's icy moon. In the process, we learn that, while microbial life may well be more prevalent throughout the Universe than previously believed, the
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Perhaps "Rare Earth" by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee. http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/d...
on “Scientists Estimate At Least 17 Billion Earth-Size Planets Inhabit Milky Way” ↗The book Rare Earth covers this topic throughly. The conclusion they come to is that complex, multicellular life is likely extremely rare in the universe. But simple, microbial life may be much more common than we think.…
on “Life on other planets would likely be brief and become extinct very quickly” ↗If you are really interested in this, read "Rare Earth", http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/d..., it goes through an incredible mass of astronomical, geological, and biological information. It concludes that, because so many things…
on “Why complex life probably evolved only once” ↗I'm reading Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, which talks about the Cambrian explosion as well, in the context of the search for extraterrestrial life. It's perhaps…
on “What sparked the Cambrian explosion?” ↗Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe by Ward and Brownlee is a fantastic read on the subject.
on “Scientists Say Canadian Bacteria Fossils May Be Earth’s Oldest” ↗A good book that explores some of these factors for our environment is Rare Earth by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee. While it's true that life "out there" may look vastly different, I feel like sometimes ET-optimists use that as a hand-wavy defense that overlooks two curious details:…
on “Observable Universe contains 10x more galaxies than previously thought (2016)” ↗Suggested reading: Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe by Peter D. Ward and Donald E. Brownlee. The basic premise is that complex life is incredibly rare, because only through a series of effectively chance events,…
on “I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s” ↗If you are interested in these issues a great book to read is called "Rare Earth:Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe" by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee. They make a convincing argument (to me anyway) that bacteria and simple life forms are probably common in the universe…
on “There Have Probably Been Aliens” ↗I once read a book called Rare Earth; http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/d... and the authors argued that the Earth has many unique circumstance necessary for the development of intelligent animal life that such…
on “Earth without the Moon? What could happen” ↗…it was at Earth that life developed at all. Maybe it was just a chain of many lucky coincidences that happen once in 10 billion years. How is distribution any relevant then? Incidentally this is the "Rare Earth" hypothesis. There's a rather depressing book on this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Univers...
on “Odds of communicating with 36 other possible intelligent civilizations are small” ↗…extremely unlikely events, and that, counterintuitively, we might be slightly more likely to find simple life on Mars." BTW, the first book that extensively wrote about the basic idea is 20 years old: "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe" 2000, by Peter Ward, a geologist and evolutionary biologist, and Donald E. Brownlee, a cosmologist and astrobiologist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_(book)…
on “The Timing of Evolutionary Transitions Suggests Intelligent Life Is Rare” ↗…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eM1aakTzMw To give the general gist of what's covered in the above video/interview with paleobiologist Peter Ward: 03:00 - We need a little bit of CO2, but it’s easy to have too much CO2 04:20 - Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (co-written with Dan Brownlee) 04:40 - Excessive heat and mortality 05:12 - Volcanic activity responsible for past CO2 spikes 05:40 - Previous mass extinctions…
on “The Earth is getting greener” ↗