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0 pointsjoshmarlow6y ago0 comments

If the life evolved independently of life on earth (ie, no panspermia or anything like that), then it would have philosophical/existential implications because of the Great Filter Hypothesis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter.

Edit for a TL;DR - The basic idea is that, if we don't see evidence of intelligent life in the universe, it must be because star traveling species must be rare. If we find life evolving twice in one solar system, then the early parts of life evolving must be relatively easy - which suggests the later parts of life becoming technologically advanced are the hard parts. In other words, life on Mars may mean that there may be more problems ahead of us than behind us.

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AndrewKemendo6y ago

If it were organic, we would not know if that life evolved independently from life on earth though. So, again finding non-intelligent organic life elsewhere doesn't answer the question of where did we come from.

Simply verifying distance between two similar things isn't a sufficient variable to answer questions about distinctiveness of origin.

CardenB6y ago

Not necessarily. It just suggests the bottleneck for life lies at whatever point is after mars. Nothing would suggest that complex life gets progressively more difficult to evolve.

ALittleLight6y ago

Right now there are a few places for the great filter. To my knowledge:

1. Life

2. Multicellular life

3. Intelligent life

4. Interstellar colonization tech

If you make it through all levels you should be colonizing the galaxy and detectable by us therefore.

Finding life with a separate origin than ours removes one of the possible spots for the great filter and makes it significantly more likely that the great filter is ahead of us rather than behind.

This is a question that will help with the survival of humanity.

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