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A comment on Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life: study. Parent comment

Re:Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life... by bpodgursky on Saturday April 24, 2021 @06:10PM (#26928605)
I don't think this gives appropriate weight to exponential growth.

If humans are ever able to leave the earth and even theoretically establish permanent habitation, it's unthinkable that no other civilization has done so.

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Re:Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life... by throwawayboise on Saturday April 24, 2021 @06:20PM (#26928662)
Even so the galaxy (let alone the universe) is huge, and faster-than -light or extra-dimensional travel is probably impossible. Contact with another civilization is extremely unlikely even if life is abundant in the galaxy.
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Re:Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life... by hossbeast on Saturday April 24, 2021 @08:10PM (#26929280)
Check out von neumann automatons. The idea is that once you started colonizing, you'd cover the entire galaxy in ~a million years, aka very quickly on a galactic timescale.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft

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Re:Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life... by scrollaway on Saturday April 24, 2021 @08:35PM (#26929384)
A galaxy is very tiny on the scale of the universe.
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Re:Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life... by hossbeast on Saturday April 24, 2021 @11:32PM (#26930142)
Sure, but the gp said galaxy.
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Re:Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life... by foobiter on Saturday April 24, 2021 @08:30PM (#26929364)
the universe is huge and time is long, there could be millions of civilizations and we could happen to exist at a time that doesn’t coincide with a single one
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Re:Mars has right ingredients for present-day microbial life... by Ericson2314 on Saturday April 24, 2021 @10:56PM (#26930004)
The universe is extremely young. We might just be tied for first, if it takes 3rd generation stars for example.
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