posted on Jul, 12 2008 @ 06:46 PM
Well, I don't see how you could say that life in space would be much different than life on Earth. While it's true that life can possibly form from
silicon, arsenic, nitrogen, or phosporous biochemistries rather than carbon - I believe carbon is the one with the least difficulties in starting, so
it's probably the most prolific. If that's the case, chemistry is chemistry, and while our physiologies may be radically different - we could also
share quite a lot of similarities with extraterrestrial life.
The problem is, we haven't encountered any extraterrestrial life that we know of just yet - so you can't really say that life on Earth is unique or
special. Similar planets and similar biochemistry may likely yield fairly similar evolutionary results because remember, natural selection is a
non-random process. What would work to fit into an environmental niche on Earth could also be favored on another planet which is similar to Earth.
We'll have to actually start exploring the heavens and cataloging extraterrestrial biologies before making any kind of statements on the matter of
how unique we are.
btw, yes, Pink Floyd kicks ass.