Comments by "Itinerant Patriot" (@itinerantpatriot1196) on "Why we might be alone in the Universe" video.
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That was cool. There are so many channels dealing with the inevitability of a universe teaming with civilizations, it is refreshing to find one that simply admits the truth, we don't know. I grew up during the space race, a child of Apollo if you will. We had this stuff pounded into our heads as we watched Gemini and Apollo launches from our classrooms. Space was the final frontier and we were on our way to conquer it. I just took it for granted that by this time we would have a colony on Mars and flying cars and jetpacks would be the norm. I knew we were not alone. How could we be alone? With all those stars out there? I figured that was simply human arrogance and when I learned a bit about SETI and was introduced to the Drake Equation I thought, there ya go. ET will be phoning home soon, probably in my lifetime.
Then I started learning about just how precise the conditions have to be for intelligent life to develop. How our Moon is just the right size and distance away, how Jupiter is just big enough to act as our defender, how our magnetic field is strong enough to protect us from our host star. There is so much more but you get the point. The first time I was confronted with Fermi's Paradox I thought to myself, that's simple, we just aren't there yet, not quite ready to take that extraterrestrial collect call. But that answer didn't work. I had to face facts, we don't know.
I disagree with the concept of other universes existing without life. What would be their purpose? See, that's what we bring to the table, purpose. Someone once postulated that perhaps we are a byproduct of the universe trying to understand itself. I am a person of faith so I come at it from a different angle. But the point about how precious and special we are does remain. That was the one common theme all of the astronauts who went to the Moon shared. When they looked back and saw our tiny blue dot, floating along in a sea of empty space, they realized just how special a place it really is. We ride on a razors edge. Any number of calamities could befall us in the blink of an eye. That is all the more reason to appreciate and love one another because at the end of the day, we may be all we have.
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