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Re:NASA study finds life-sparking energy source and molecule... by superposeur on Saturday December 16, 2023 @04:21PM (#38667797)
Not in general, just on this particular point. Because, in my opinion, we as a scientific community are currently flush with the (very cool) unexpected discovery of so many exoplanets and it is somewhat distorting our collective thinking about life and its origins.
Re:NASA study finds life-sparking energy source and molecule... by creer on Saturday December 16, 2023 @04:31PM (#38667898)
We SHOULD (be flush and distorted). We can be realistic AND enthusiastic about it. Some technically challenging work was done and achieved results FAR FAR beyond expectations. That is a result worthy of changing outlook. Before, the outlook was on statistical grounds (the universe is so vast that there has to be). Now this outlook has been justified a billion billion times over. It's certainly time to be far more ambitious and inverse the presumptions that we had before.

I.e. before, "there had to be - some, somewhere" and now, "there is most likely all over the place".

Re:NASA study finds life-sparking energy source and molecule... by idlewords on Saturday December 16, 2023 @04:43PM (#38668007)
You can make the less charged argument that expanding the search for life has in every case so far led to extremely interesting scientific discoveries. So as a pragmatic strategy, it has legs regardless of where you stand on the question of life origins.