Could be microbes, could be living gods, could be nothing.
Any civilization that's near immortal with a population cap doesn't need to wreck its atmosphere and could repair any damage they did in their journey to get to that stage, if they didn't simply already evolve that way naturally or otherwise bypass that atmospheric alteration stage.
...So the only thing you might be able to have an indication of, is either a run-away species building megastructures, or a civilization much like ours that is still somewhere in that pollutant spewing phase. Even then, there's so many natural phenomenon that could give you similar results, you wouldn't be able to know for sure, it'd just be a possibility.
So until the observational tech and deployment improves quite a bit, there's no way to know. I suppose we could probably get some clues without actually visiting the place, but not right now nor anytime real soon.
Blake Wright
That's very hard to say, given the only known life is here on earth.
John Thomas
older women are ok since they're probably undergoing or have undergone menopause and are asexual anyway
who gives a shit
Dylan Ortiz
I'll quote the only excerpt from that I found sound:
>Could be microbes, [..] could be nothing.
Very unlikely to have multicelular organism there, especially with the amount of radiation those exoplanets are exposed to. Unless it's a totally new muticelular life form resistant to radiation (we can dream).
We need more data to work with, right now it's only speculation (and hope).
On a side note: >Then maybe you should've actually discussed the news instead of who was presenting it with loaded language.
Read the thread again and see where I address the reasoning for me to start it that way. If it makes you feel better, I could have avoided the word "shitstorm".
Easton Cooper
Meh, water and rock break up radiation pretty well, so slightly less likely, at best. Though I suppose if it's exclusively underwater, that does more or less preclude discovering fire, so it may limit the potential range of sophistication.
But meh, hard to say anything about another potential instance of a phenomenon as complex as a functioning biosphere and its contents, especially when your sampling size is a whopping 1.
Austin Wright
>discovery of fire >limit the potential of sophistication have you ever heard of an octopus? they're really fascinating and intelligent creatures! i would suggest youtubing it. then imagine them evolving for billions of years and get back to me.
why do people always assume we're going to discover some kind of humanoid life form, the different environments would clearly facilitate different evolution. plenty of life forms already exist on earth without any fire to cook food. plenty of life forms already exist on earth without sunlight or oxygen. why is it so hard to fathom life could evolve in the absence of these things .-. what kind of science board is this anyway you guys are all autists
Juan Torres
I agree with the point you're heading towards, but octopi at least have the potential to move to land (and several are half-way there or better). If the surface is so radioactive you have to stay in the water...
Same with methane breathers... We always these damn space faring methane breathers in sci-fi. I mean, unless some other species came and gave them their technology, ya'd think the first time one them figured out fire would be the last.
James Rogers
>why is it so hard to fathom life could evolve in the absence of these things
We did consider it, maybe you're not reading the thread.
Given it's *more likely* that those planets offer extreme conditions, then it's hard to think any form of life, *as we know it*, exists there. Maybe some extremophile, most likely unicelular.
>plenty of life forms already exist on earth without sunlight or oxygen
Again, read the replies again instead of just trying to create opportunities to call others "autist". No one in this thread said life is not possible without those and it's not "hard to fathom life could evolve in the absence of these things" unless one is a brainlet like you.
Landon Bennett
Still say if you have an ocean you don't need extremophiles. I mean we could lose the van allen radiation belts, and there'd still be fairly good sized fish down there, even if less of them. Solar radiation just doesn't go through water very well.
At the same time, yeah, even if they get smart, they're going to have a hard time developing any advanced tech.
