Chapter 78 Universal Laws of Life

"Everyone, please tell me what life is? What is the definition of life?" the female host asked first. Her name is Hegel, and she is an astronomer.

Hearing this question, the scientists present began to whisper to each other.

Life is a very magical thing. This concept sounds simple, but there is no particularly good definition in the scientific community. In some textbooks, life is defined as an object that can reproduce and actively absorb energy.

But people seem to be more inclined to define whether a thing is life through their senses. Can it move? Can it actively absorb energy? Or can it reproduce?

A car can absorb energy and move, but people think it is a dead object and has no life characteristics.

An advanced robot can automatically absorb energy according to the program, and can even replicate itself. Of course, it is not considered life. This is the general view.

"An organic, low-entropy body born from nature, which can actively absorb energy and reproduce itself, can be called life. Maybe... in a narrow sense." This is Yu Yifeng's conclusion, and it is also the view of general scientists.

Well, this definition doesn't matter much, and we won't consider how to characterize the condition of "natural birth" for the time being. According to this definition, these Martian viruses should be considered life, right?

"Yes, Martian viruses should be considered naturally born life." However, this extraterrestrial life has brought a huge shock to scientists...

In the constant discussion of scientists, Yu Yifeng finally understood what they were talking about, and the main reason was because of the Fermi paradox.

Theoretically, humans can fly to various planets in the Milky Way in 1 million years, 10 million years, or even hundreds of millions of years. Then, as long as aliens evolve tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years earlier than humans, they should have come to the solar system and been observed by humans.

Millions of years, tens of millions of years, this kind of time unit is too long for humans. But it is just a moment on the scale of the universe. The age of the universe is more than 13.8 billion years!

Therefore, aliens who evolved tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years earlier than humans are completely possible.

However, so far, except for the inexplicable Noah, humans have hardly found any traces of aliens.

In other words, the "Fermi Paradox" shows the following paradox:

1. Aliens do exist - scientific inferences can prove that there are aliens who evolved much earlier than humans, and their traces should appear in the starry sky, but people have not found them.

2. Aliens do not exist, or in other words, humans are already the most advanced civilization in the universe.

Now most people tend to the first view, because - the appearance of Noah. It must be the crystallization of a super civilization, and it is the kind with a very high level of technology. It is impossible that Noah is a natural thing...

Then the question is, since a higher level of alien civilization does exist. Why have humans never found traces of alien civilization activities? Why is the universe so empty and cold?

There must be a reason for this!

Now, scientists want to find this reason.

"There is an explanation that advanced alien civilizations do exist, but there are very few of them, and we have not found them."

The host Heigl said. She is a white-skinned middle-aged woman wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses, looking very solemn and dignified.

"Of course we have other explanations, such as: alien civilizations deliberately avoid us for some reason and don't let us find them. Or, the universe is a completely dark forest, and war will break out when two civilizations meet, etc."

"But these reasons are not sufficient... and cannot fully explain why the universe is so empty and cold."

With current astronomical knowledge, no one thinks that the earth is a special planet. The sun and the earth are just ordinary parts of the vast universe, without any special features.

Therefore, some people began to study whether there are planets similar to the earth in the Milky Way, and whether there are environments more suitable for life.

The vast Milky Way has about 200 billion stars and countless planets. Planets similar to the earth must exist, and there are many of them.

The more famous one is the Drake equation, which was proposed by American astronomer Frank Drake in Green Bank in the 1960s. It can be used to speculate "the number of alien civilizations in the Milky Way that may contact us."

Someone once calculated the number of extraterrestrial civilizations based on the Drake equation. According to calculations, there are at least 40 planets with advanced technological civilizations in the Milky Way, and up to 50 million!

Asimov, a famous American science writer, proposed a formula similar to the Drake equation based on his own insights, estimating that there are about 530,000 civilized planets in the Milky Way. That is, for every 1 million stars in the Milky Way, there may be an average of 18 high-tech civilizations.

"But I think these estimated data may be too small. Because we miscalculated the conditions for the birth of life..." Heiger said seriously.

Roman, Thomson and others sitting next to him nodded. Obviously, they have discussed this issue many times with each other.

"We used to think that life is rare. We think that the conditions for the birth of life are very harsh, requiring water, sufficient atmosphere, suitable temperature, etc."

"But I didn't expect that there is life on Mars, although it is just the simplest virus! But this is also life!"

"Assuming that life is rare, then how can the solar system have two living planets? And we don't know whether Enceladus and Europa have life. Maybe they do?"

"If life is rare and the chance is one in billions, why does the solar system have multiple planets with life?"

All scientists began to think about Heigl's question. These words also made Yu Yifeng fall into deep thought. Assuming that life in the universe is rare, it is like buying a lottery ticket. Winning once is very rare. Then why does the solar system win the lottery one after another?

Could it be that he is extremely lucky? Or some other reason?

After a while, Heigl continued to speak.

"The simplest explanation is that our major premise is wrong. Life is not rare... but universal!"

"Life is prevalent on all planets. In other words, there is far more than we imagined!"

These words immediately caused a huge sensation, and were even somewhat subversive. Many scientists immediately jumped up in disbelief. Humans have been searching for extraterrestrial life. As a result, extraterrestrial life turns out to be common. This conclusion is really hard to accept.

However, Hegel's method of proof by contradiction is brilliant and logical.

Suppose that in the universe, life is rare. So why does Mars, a remote planet with no features at all, have life? There are not many planets in the universe that are as featureless as Mars!

Is it possible that human beings are so lucky that they can find rare life on any planet?

Therefore, the assumption that "life is rare" is most likely wrong. Therefore, if the hypothesis does not hold true, life is probably universal.

Although he felt a little puzzled, Yu Yifeng could not think of a better explanation or anything to refute. To say that "the solar system is very special" or "human beings are very lucky" and so on is to lie to themselves.

Are humans really so lucky that they can encounter small-probability events on any planet?

So, life is universal in the universe, maybe... it's true! Think about it, if life is universal, then it is not surprising that the solar system has multiple planets with life.

"Yes, Professor Heigl, your reasoning is very good, and it is very likely to be correct. However, having life does not necessarily mean having intelligence."

The one who stood up and spoke was the genius of the Tesla Research Institute - Dr. Rimbaud, the young man who discovered the "superspeed plan" of the Noah. He is young and energetic, and does not hold back any ideas he has. "It is also possible that most life forms on the planet are low-level single-celled organisms and do not possess intelligence."

"Yes, you are right." Heigl nodded and said in agreement: "So our next discussion is whether wisdom also has universality..."