Life on Mars ?

[yaxomoxay]

Both.
I am a very big fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I have read A Princess of Mars a long time ago (I like [pulp] sci-fi and mystery books/stories). A true masterpiece. I also loved the movie, too bad it was completely destroyed by an awful ad campaign by Disney.

 

[Falhófnir]

It’s interesting that if there is life on Mars there’s a good chance it’s actually related to life on Earth due to the constant exchange of material between the two planets over billions of years. If a piece of Earth rock got blasted off carrying extremophile bacteria that was able to cling on and found a suitable climate on an earlier warmer, wetter Mars, it might well have been able to cling on, adapting as the climate became colder, drier and eventually radiation baked from the sun. The opposite could also be true if Mars started to cool off and form stable bodies of water on its surface first due to being smaller and further from the sun.

 

[Huntn]

Lol, philosophical disagreements are the best!!

From a sceintific standpoint you would have the burden of proof, that is, you have to prove that what you’re saying is 100% accurate. As of now, yours remains a theory; it’s based on some strong evidence (based on probability more than anything else), but it remains a theory nonetheless. Even the famous Wow! Signal (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal) could be used as evidence somehow... but it would’t be enough. We need certainty, which is something we don’t have at this moment. My understanding is that life, for what we know, is very very difficult to begin, and it’s even more difficult for it to evolve. A single degree in temperature might make the difference between a cell that will become the mightiest civilization of the universe and a dead, undeveloped form of life. Considering all the other factors (oxygene, CO2, methane, radiations, etc.) mixed with the time necessary for going from cell to sentient being, I am not overly optimistic or overly pessimistic. We’re at the beginning of our understanding of the outer universe.

Although I am religious myself (Catholic), I have absolutely no objection to the possibility of God creating other worlds; heck, I certainly don’t understand why the heck He would’ve created this messy world, so speculating on God’s desire to create (or not) other forms of sentient life would be proposterous on my side...

It's the Earth simulator, souls come here for the fun experience.

 

[rafark]

The things is, we only know three main manifestations of life: Animals, plants and fungus, We shouldn't expect to find the same kingdoms outside of earth. Life may have another meaning we don't know. What if out there there is no concept of death -as we know it-, for example? What if things aren't composed of particles the same way as they are on earth?

 

[Huntn]

The things is, we only know three main manifestations of life: Animals, plants and fungus, We shouldn't expect to find the same kingdoms outside of earth. Life may have another meaning we don't know. What if out there there is no concept of death -as we know it-, for example? What if things aren't composed of particles the same way as they are on earth?

No argument from me, but with our meager trip to the moon, and exploration of mars, collecting rocks there, we can assume the developmental rules are consistent at least in our solar system, at least until we discover some kind of boundary where ... things change. I believe our advancement in physics and observation, we've decided, that something unusual happens in a black hole, but that our observation of distance places, nothing indicates the basic rules of physics and reality change, although not saying they could not change.

 

[decafjava]

All I can say is never drink the water, not even a drop.

(Doctor Who reference to the "Waters of Mars" episode - sorry not sorry)

I myself am excited but .... why must life elsewhere need water to exist?

How do we define life in the first place?

How do we define intelligent life?

What about intelligence for that matter?

 

[yaxomoxay]

All I can say is never drink the water, not even a drop.

(Doctor Who reference to the "Waters of Mars" episode - sorry not sorry)

I myself am excited but .... why must life elsewhere need water to exist?

How do we define life in the first place?

How do we define intelligent life?

What about intelligence for that matter?

Fantastic reference! Great episode

 

[Lioness~]

All I can say is never drink the water, not even a drop.

(Doctor Who reference to the "Waters of Mars" episode - sorry not sorry)

I myself am excited but .... why must life elsewhere need water to exist?

How do we define life in the first place?

How do we define intelligent life?

What about intelligence for that matter?

Good questions to ask.
How much I really do love our planet, our definitions of life is all depending on our circumstances for life on earth.
And I'm certainly not sure all life on earth is intelligent or aware at all.

Can't recall I've seen that of episode of Doctor Who. Can't claim I've followed the serie. But seen some of it, then it faded, then I'd seen some more. Might have to check it up again when time allows

 

[Cave Man]

My understanding is that life, for what we know, is very very difficult to begin, and it’s even more difficult for it to evolve.

I'd say initiation of life would be much more challenging. Once a living organism is established, then evolution would ensue in earnest.
[doublepost=1533080842][/doublepost]

The things is, we only know three main manifestations of life: Animals, plants and fungus,

There are lots more organisms than just these three. On Earth, bacteria are more abundant than all of these three combined.

We shouldn't expect to find the same kingdoms outside of earth. Life may have another meaning we don't know. What if out there there is no concept of death -as we know it-, for example? What if things aren't composed of particles the same way as they are on earth?

If there's life elsewhere in the universe, it will almost certainly be based upon carbon and require water.

 

[Huntn]

Lol, philosophical disagreements are the best!!

From a sceintific standpoint you would have the burden of proof, that is, you have to prove that what you’re saying is 100% accurate. As of now, yours remains a theory; it’s based on some strong evidence (based on probability more than anything else), but it remains a theory nonetheless. Even the famous Wow! Signal (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal) could be used as evidence somehow... but it would’t be enough. We need certainty, which is something we don’t have at this moment. My understanding is that life, for what we know, is very very difficult to begin, and it’s even more difficult for it to evolve. A single degree in temperature might make the difference between a cell that will become the mightiest civilization of the universe and a dead, undeveloped form of life. Considering all the other factors (oxygene, CO2, methane, radiations, etc.) mixed with the time necessary for going from cell to sentient being, I am not overly optimistic or overly pessimistic. We’re at the beginning of our understanding of the outer universe.

Although I am religious myself (Catholic), I have absolutely no objection to the possibility of God creating other worlds; heck, I certainly don’t understand why the heck He would’ve created this messy world, so speculating on God’s desire to create (or not) other forms of sentient life would be proposterous on my side...

One thing I disagree with in your statement is the difficulty of evolution. Physical changes can and do happen rapidly based on environmental pressure and there appears nothing difficult about it. One example is elephants, based on human hunting pressure, there are more short tusked elephants in their genome. That’s how it works, nothing mysteriously or even debatable in a religious sense.