Beneath Deep Space

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

Upon hearing this question, the scientists present began to whisper among themselves.

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

But people seem to be more inclined to use their own senses to define whether something is life. Will it move? Will you take the initiative to take in energy? Will it still reproduce?

A car can absorb energy and move, but people think it is a dead object and does not have 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 average person's point of view.

"An organic, low-entropy body that is born from nature, can actively absorb energy, and can reproduce itself, let's call it life. Maybe... in a narrow sense." This is Yu Yifeng's conclusion, and it is also general A scientist's perspective.

Well, this definition doesn’t matter much. Let’s not consider how the condition of “naturally born” should be defined for the time being. According to this definition, these Martian viruses should be considered life, right?

"Yes, the Martian virus should be considered a naturally born life." However, this kind of extraterrestrial life has brought a huge impact to scientists...

During the continuous discussion among the scientists, Yu Yifeng finally understood what they were talking about. The main reason was because of the Fermi Paradox.

Theoretically speaking, humans can fly to various planets in the Milky Way in 1 million, 10 million or even hundreds of millions of years. So, as long as aliens evolved tens of millions or billions of years earlier than humans, they should arrive now To the solar system and observed by humans.

Millions of years, tens of millions of years, this type of time unit is really too long for human beings. But on a cosmic scale, it is only a moment. The age of the universe is over 13.8 billion years!

Therefore, it is entirely possible for aliens to exist tens of millions or billions of years earlier than humans.

However, so far, except for the inexplicable Noah, humans have found almost no traces of aliens.

In other words, the "Fermi Paradox" states this paradox:

1. Aliens do exist - Scientific inference can prove that aliens evolved much earlier than humans. Their traces should appear in the starry sky, but people have not found them.

2. Aliens do not exist, or in other words, human beings are already the top civilization in the universe.

Nowadays, most people tend to favor the first view because of the emergence of Noah. It must be the crystallization of a super civilization, and it is the kind with a high level of technology and no boundaries. It’s impossible, the Noah is an innate thing that was born with it...

Then the question arises, since higher-level alien civilizations do exist. Why have humans never discovered traces of extraterrestrial civilizations? Why is the universe so empty and cold?

There must be a reason!

Now, scientists want to find out why.

"One explanation is that advanced alien civilizations do exist, but their numbers are very small and we have not discovered them."

Host Heigl said that she is a white-skinned middle-aged woman who wears a pair of black-rimmed glasses and looks very solemn and dignified.

"Of course we also have other explanations, such as: alien civilization deliberately avoids us for some reasons and prevents us from discovering it. 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 the vastness and silence of the universe."

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

Therefore, some people began to study whether there are planets similar to the Earth in the Milky Way and whether there is an environment more suitable for the survival of life.

There are about 200 billion stars in the vast Milky Way, 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 Town in the 1960s. It can be used to predict "the number of alien civilizations that may come into contact with us in the Milky Way."

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!

The famous American science writer Asimov once proposed a formula similar to the Drake equation based on his own opinions and estimated that there are approximately 530,000 civilized planets in the Milky Way. That is, for every one million stars in the Milky Way, there may be an average of 18 high-tech civilized worlds.

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

Roman, Thomson and others sitting aside all nodded. Apparently, they had discussed this issue with each other many times.

"We used to think that life was rare. We thought that the conditions for the birth of life were very harsh, requiring water, enough atmosphere, suitable temperature, etc."

"But I didn't expect that there is life on Mars, even though it is just the simplest virus! But it 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, with a probability of 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 how can a planet like Mars, which is so remote and featureless, 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 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..."