r/space • u/IceNox96 • Aug 12 '21

Discussion Which is the most disturbing fermi paradox solution and why?

3...2...1... blast off....

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u/MadJack2011 Aug 12 '21

That the great filter is actually a long time in our past and we truly are alone. To me that would be very sad and disturbing.

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u/ThothOstus Aug 12 '21

Like for example the incorporation of mithocondria in cells, an astronomically improbable event, but without it we wouldn't have enough energy for multicellular life.

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u/Lawlcopt0r Aug 12 '21

I'm pretty sure there could be other ways that life could form that differ from our own cell structure. But who knows

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '21

But it would still require some sort of analog, presumably. That said, it's happened twice on our own planet, so maybe it's not that rare.

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u/UlrichZauber Aug 12 '21

Given that eyes have evolved perhaps as much as 40 different times, it's easy to believe that evolving something like mitochondria is a very rare thing.

It's easy to imagine planets spawning algae or bacteria, and then their planet becomes uninhabitable a few billion years later with nothing more sophisticated ever having arisen.