Re:NASA study finds life-sparking energy source and molecule...
by onion2k on Saturday December 16, 2023 @04:23PM
(#38667814)
I think it meant that even if life started itself accidentally by some unbelievably slim chance, this could happen somewhere else as well simply because the dice are rolled that often.
That might be true, but we have no basis the probability of how rare life is so we can't say it is. We may assume the probability is high enough that it happens often in trillions of chances, but if the probability is one in a quintillion then we're simply wrong.
Humans are incredibly bad at thinking about both probability and thinking about large numbers, so when we combine the two we're likely to be quite wrong.
That might be true, but we have no basis the probability of how rare life is so we can't say it is. We may assume the probability is high enough that it happens often in trillions of chances, but if the probability is one in a quintillion then we're simply wrong.
Humans are incredibly bad at thinking about both probability and thinking about large numbers, so when we combine the two we're likely to be quite wrong.