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LIFE BEYOND THE EARTH. THE (IN)CORRECT PARADIGM…?

by Mirosław Wójcik

Recently questions about life beyond the Earth are becoming more common and, what is more, one can notice that the basic paradigm relating this topic, albeit slowly, is changing as well. I mean the essential, but simultaneously universal, „recipe for life”. Since decades visioners and authors of science-fiction novels, stories have been creating different forms of life using, for that purpose, more or less strict scientific background or, sometimes, relying mostly on their own imagination.

For a long time – one can even say that for much too long – there was only one „golden recipe” how life beyond the Earth should look like, and thus constituting an unchangeable paradigm, which can be described by two variables in the equation given below:

Lbep = bbl_i + rp_p

where:
Lbe_p – Life beyond the Earth; p - paradigm;
bbl_i – basic building blocks of life; i - ingredients of life (organic, inorganic); dominant conception: carbon-water-based life;
rp_p – reference point; p - the name / number of model inhabited planet(s) where sophisticated (intelligent) life has evolved; dominant conception: the Earth as the only one, right, planet capable to host life.

The idea of the equation itself, as a helpful way of answering bothering questions, is not something new, and it also fits well to the life beyond the Earth issue. Frank Drake knew it when, in the twentieth century, he „generated” 200 billions of inhabited worlds by making merely „pessimistic” assumptions. It is still quite impressive. Isn’t it…? However, topicality of the famous Drake’s equation is sometimes questioned by his successors. Nevertheless, one thing seems to be quite clear; numbers always give numbers, especially these big ones. Of course, under condition that multiplication by „zero” does not constitute a main framework of any calculations. A problem lies elsewhere… Thus, one could call us then ignorants but – to paraphrase Will Rogers¹ – in what matter…? Maybe in that context it is worth mentioning that nearly three decades ago, at the beginning of the nineties, the search for extraterrestrial planets was not perceived, by the scientific community, ‍as a „‍serious”, far-reaching field of astronomy, but luckily only till time.

After all this years contemporary, ambitious and promising astronomical projects such as: ALMA, E-ELT, SKA, James Webb Space Telescope or Euclid and many others yet to come, mark a new, significant chapter in the exploration of the Universe, being simultaneously, nevertheless not the first time, a distinct proof of our determination and curiosity in the search of our place and role in infinite and still mysterious space.

Crucial and promising discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system² – located approximately forty light years from the Earth and consisting of seven planets, among which three³ are placed in so called the „habitable / goldilocks zone” – made the idea of multi-worlds more realistic than ever before. Thereby, it is another important argument that, in fact, our Solar System is not so unique as it was thought in the past. 

Our knowledge about the cosmos has been still broadening and what is, or actually is not, surprising, it makes us sometimes to do a step backwards, so that another ones could be done forward. 

So maybe time has come to thoroughly verify and, as a result, to change our above mentioned „golden rules” and admit that, if not in all, then at least in some or most cases, the paradigm about the life beyond the Earth is indeed (in)correct and we were / still are wrong. 

Unfortunately, even in the light of the TRAPPIST-1 discovery this does not have to, and probably will not, be an easy task, proverbial „a piece of cake”, the more that history has shown several times that mental barriers are much more difficult to overcome than technological ones, e.g.: crossing the speed of sound; an effort previously compared to entering „ the gates of hell”. Until then – by adding four new variables – we can draw new form of the life beyond the Earth equation, wondering whether we solve it or somebody will do this instead of us earlier. So let’s have a look at it again:

Lbe_p = bbl_i + rp_p + hf_mb + tf_atl + dp_p + rm

where:
hf_mb   – human factor; mb – mental barriers of human’s perception;
tf_atl     – technological factor; atl – available technology level; 
dp_p     – life discovery priority paradigm; a variable understood as a „direction” of how  life can  (should) be discovered, i.e. by mankind or by the ETC⁴; it is commonly known that usally the first option is favoured;
rm     – all available research methods that are currently used (or will be in the future) in the quest of extraterrestrial life.

It may be that setting out in a new stage of an exciting journey into unknown, we will repeatedly enter a cul-de-sac. Therefore, we should keep a good handy map to decide and choose which of many paths will lead us to our destination point or the place where it all begun. This can become, to a certain extent, another „equation”, i.e.: space exploration paradox, in the context of local and far-reaching threats for mankind. It is, however, a topic for another dispute, nonetheless inseparably connected with a presence of life somewhere beyond the Earth. Or maybe it is just a matter which we should start from…?

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¹ Will Penn Adair Rogers (1879 – 1935) - American journalist, humorist, film and stage actor.
² Made in February 2017 by the ESO’s 60-centimetre robotic optical telescope called TRAPPIST, which is a shortened name of TRAnsiting Planets and Planeteslmals Small Telescope. 
³ Named by letters: e, f, g.
⁴ Extraterrestrial Civilization. Such civilizations are also diversified according to the Kardashev scale.