http://www.universetoday.com/2008/02/14/book-review-life-in-the-universe/ Space and astronomy news Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:17:24 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.universetoday.com/2008/02/14/book-review-life-in-the-universe/comment-page-1/#comment-12547 Frank Sterne Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:20:51 +0000 http://www.universetoday.com/2008/02/14/book-review-life-in-the-universe/#comment-12547 I would think that most people feel that there is Life As We Know It (LAWKI) on millions of planets in our Universe. I think what many are hoping to find is carbon-based life that's more-or-less at the stage of evolution that we're at on present-day earth. I feel that the chances of this are extremely unlikely. Present day humans took 3 billion years to evolve and have only been on earth for only about 150,000 years and it took 149,000 of those for us to really get going (think of where we'll be in another 1000 years). I would think that 99.999% of the planets out there that are capable of supporting LAWKI either haven't developed enough to be where we are now or passed us long ago and are now extinct (but looking for LAWKI is exciting and fun anyway). I would think that most people feel that there is Life As We Know It (LAWKI) on millions of planets in our Universe. I think what many are hoping to find is carbon-based life that's more-or-less at the stage of evolution that we're at on present-day earth. I feel that the chances of this are extremely unlikely. Present day humans took 3 billion years to evolve and have only been on earth for only about 150,000 years and it took 149,000 of those for us to really get going (think of where we'll be in another 1000 years). I would think that 99.999% of the planets out there that are capable of supporting LAWKI either haven't developed enough to be where we are now or passed us long ago and are now extinct (but looking for LAWKI is exciting and fun anyway).

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