I started a thread a while back on how the world would react to conclusive proof of extraterritorial intelligence - an obviously world-view changing event for pretty much everyone. However, apropos of a program I watched narrated by Hawking (BritDopers, check it out on 4OD, ‘Stephen Hawking’s Universe’, interesting stuff for the cosmology incline), how would you feel about the discovery of life on Mars?
For realism’s sake, we’re not talking little green men, but instead primitive single-celled organisms found in the Martian soil by one of the rovers we send up there every now and again. The rover can’t bring anything back physically, but NASA is certain that it has discovered primitive life.
Personally I’m incline to agree with Hawking - despite its nature, it would be one of the scientific breakthroughs of the century, simply because it can tell us more about how life developed here, or develops at all. There are fewer questions greater in scope, although I’m not sure I’m going to be in the majority here. What say you?
I don’t really see the practical usefulness. What exactly does it tell us about how life develops that we don’t already know? We already know life can develop on earth, now we also know it can develop on Mars, ok so what? What would we do with this knowledge? It just seems like a very specialized little tidbit of information.
I think the idea is that we’ll have a greater ‘sample size’ for life; at the moment Earth is the only known planet to support life, for all we know the only planet in the Orion arm to support life, or even the galaxy - or universe! Very unlikely, but who knows. But with a case study on Mars, our knowledge about life and the processes behind it could be increased immeasurably.
Single cell organisms? I’d read the newspaper article, but I wouldn’t really care. We already have tons of single-celled organisms on Earth, and very few of them manage to capture my attention for long. Finding pretty much the same thing in a novel place isn’t all that exciting to me.
I think it would be the find of the century AND my reaction would be “pretty interesting.” In other words, I think it would be of great importance from a scientific standpoint, but I personally wouldn’t get all that excited or worked up about it. To be honest at this point I kind of expect such an announcement.
I think it would be the most important news event ever.
One of the most basic philosophical questions we have been asking ourselves forever is “are we alone in the universe?” This wouldn’t exactly answer that question, but it would be the first direct evidence that the answer might be something other than “no”.
It would also prove to anyone who believes life was created specifically to populate this planet and no other, that they are incorrect.
Find of the century. If there’s life on Mars that’s unrelated to ours, chances are it’s pretty much everywhere. Could also improve our understanding of abiogenesis.
Find of the Century. It would profoundly impact our understanding of how life works, develops, spreads, etc. Intellectually it would be tremendously exciting.
I wish there was something between “Pretty Interesting” (which might even be applied to, say, the latest Mel Gibson soundbite) and “Find of the Century.” If you list the top ten discoveries of the 20th century, they are all rather amazing and important. If the 21st is anything like that “Find of the Century” is phenomenal praise. So I went with just “pretty interesting”. (But reconsidering, if the interface allowed I’d change to “Century.”)
Will the life be based on protein and DNA? Or something else? Either way, scholarly interest will be enormous. It may take many decades for the new knowledge to actually … lead to lowered U.S. health insurance premiums, for example … but many people will found the knowledge wonderful and exhilirating just for itself.
(I’m reminded of an acquaintance who complained about money “wasted” on pure science. He had no answer when I asked him to compare it with money “wasted” on NFL. )
Sure it would go down as the discovery of the century. And just knowing it could happen will spur more expensive investigation. I don’t see any positive effect on my life.
I’m amazed that anyone could even think of voting for anything other than “find of the century”.
I mean, there aren’t many bigger questions than “Are we alone in the universe?” To get the answer to that would be probably the biggest discovery humankind has ever made.
It will cause the bible thumpers to revise their stance on God’s Unique Creation, the Earth. They will scramble to find passages that heretofore were ignored, but now will be re-interpreted as predicting it all along.
I think it would partly depend on how the life developed there.
If for instance it was from a meteorite that got transported from earth as has been hypothesised, that would prove that life is very hardy, but wouldnt definitively prove life can develop on a planet other than earth.
Yes, it will, and that will be amusing. (The Koran allows for life elsewhere, BTW.) But it also changes our model of life from "Goldilocks’ (only Earth is just right) to ‘Life will find a way.’
If there is life on Mars we can presume life exists elsewhere in the Cosmos and perhaps elsewhere in the Solar system.
… but many people will found the knowledge wonderful and exhilirating just for itself.