We Might Understand How the Cosmos Works Before We Understand How Life Works
In his Critique of Judgment (1790), Immanuel Kant famously asserted that “there will never be a Newton of the blade of grass, because human science will never be able to explain how a living being can originate from inanimate matter”.
In a 21st century context, this philosophical insight means that while cosmologists understand the physical laws governing the movement of matter and radiation since the Big-Bang, it is far more challenging for astrobiologists to explain the origin of life from the same physical principles.
The emergence of life-as-we-know-it, and in particular intelligent life, remains one of the most intriguing puzzles about the history of Earth. The scientific folklore asserts that humans emerged as a result of fortunate circumstances out of a soup of chemicals on early earth when our last universal common ancestor (LUCA) formed 4.2 billion years ago. If so, it is common sense to assume that similar outcomes should result out of similar circumstances on exoplanets.
The census of planets around other stars suggests that there might be billions of Earth-Sun analogs. It is arrogant to believe that humans are unique or special or, in particular, that Elon Musk was the most accomplished space entrepreneur since the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago.
It is a matter of common sense to search for the siblings in our family of intelligent civilizations within the Milky-Way galaxy. Some of our siblings might be more accomplished than we are because they had the benefit of discovering the laws of quantum mechanics and gravity billions of years before us, since the Sun existed for the last third of cosmic history. By finding them, we can learn from their insights and rather than invest 2.4 trillion dollars per year in military budgets worldwide we might be inspired to invest similar funds in space exploration.
Given the billions of Earth-Sun systems, we are probably not at the top of the food chain of the Milky-Way galaxy. Lower lifeforms, like microbes, are probably far more abundant, just like mediocre dating partners. But we should aim high, not low, when seeking a partner. It is much better to seek a partner who is more intelligent than we are because their insights will inspire us to do better.
Without seeking evidence, we will remain ignorant about our most accomplished sibling civilizations. Finding them may inspire us to invest in space science that will promote our interstellar journeys.
Launching “Noah’s Spaceships” that carry humans to interstellar space would constitute monuments for humanity’s childhood home after the brightening Sun will evaporate all oceans on Earth in a billion years. These vehicles will carry our only documented memories billions of years from now.
Nobody would mourn the disappearance of the human species from the surface of Earth. Here’s hoping that we will be ultimately listed in the history books of the Milky Way as an interstellar species.
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In this essay, I featured four amazing watercolors from a series created by the celebrated artist, Greg Wyatt. These watercolors incorporate inspiring statements by Boethius. This is the sixth in a sequence of essays, where Greg and I collaborate on the interface between art and science. The first essay in this series, titled “Music of the Cosmic Spheres,” appeared here; the second essay, titled: “Cosmic Waterfalls in Spacetime Cliffs,” appeared here; the third titled “Missing Elements in the Cosmic Jigsaw Puzzle,” appeared here; the fourth essay, titled: “Why Do We Exist?”, appeared here, and the fifth titled “Inspiration from the Stars”, appeared here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
Professional website:
https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/
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