Last week I finished up a short online course through the University of Edinburgh on astrobiology, the science concerned with the possibility of the existence of life on other planets. It was fascinating, if a bit short at only five weeks with a handful of lectures each week. While it is probably easy for the ignorant to misunderstand and mock this discipline, the question of whether or not life exists on other worlds is a legitimate and interesting field, and it encompasses so many smaller areas of study. Astrobiology seeks to understand how life arose here on Earth in the first place, wondering how it started, what early earth was like--and as far as that goes, what the first life looked like. It also studies life in great extremes, whether extremes of heat or of pressure, to try to grasp the limits to life in order to understand where life might possibly exist (as an aside, were you aware that microbial life survived in space for over a year, in one experiment?). Along with that, it looks at stars and planets to find locations where the conditions amenable to life might possibly exist, and the scientists in this field wonder what form life might take, whether or not it would be intelligent, and how we might contact it (or it us, for that matter).
These questions are, of course, ones that are hotly disputed. The very basic question, is there life out there, is greatly contested. Some think it very likely, that life is even bound to be abundant in the vastness of the universe. Others, like Peter Ward in his book Rare Earth, assert that life is rare in the universe, if it exists at all outside of Earth. If it does exist, then the natural next question to address is what this life will look like. The question of what shape it will take is a fascinating one, though it seems unlikely that alien life will be the stereotypical little green men. Sadly enough, it seems just as unlikely that intelligent extraterrestrials will come in the form of Doctor Who. If we find life that is advanced beyond bacteria, even life that is advanced and intelligent, what would it look like? Could it be a hive mind, like the "buggers" of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game? Would it be hostile, as the aliens of our sci-fi horror fantasies are? No less a person than Stephen Hawking suggested that it might not be wise to try and contact alien life lest they turn out to be hostile. Even if we knew this to be true, the natural curiosity of humanity will push us to try, forever not satisfied by not knowing--one of the healthiest instincts we have!
It is too early to tell which side is correct, but I am optimistic that, given the great vastness of our own galaxy, to say nothing of the universe, it is inevitable that life exists in some form somewhere. Where that is, and what shape it takes, I do not know, though it will probably be bacterial and, as Richard Dawkins asserts, shaped by the same forces of evolution that shape life here on earth. I myself am not an astronomer, but I sometimes curse all the artificial lights of civilization that pollute the sky and keep me from more regularly seeing the full range of stars that are visible to the naked eye, as our ancestors once saw on every clear night. When you can see that, when you look up into the endless sky and see all the stars, and know that for every star you can see there are millions upon millions of stars beyond those that you can't, many of which have planets circling around them, even then you get only a glimpse of the true vastness that is out there. When I see that I cannot believe that in all that space there is only life here. It would seem a terrible waste otherwise.
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