Lifeboat Foundation

New methods could uncover hidden megastructures in distant stellar systems.

Extraterrestrial and artificial life have long captivated the human mind. Knowing only the building blocks of our own biosphere, can we predict how life may exist on other planets? What factors will rein in the Frankensteinian life forms we hope to build in laboratories here on Earth?

An open-access paper published in Interface Focus and co-authored by several SFI researchers takes these questions out of the realm of science fiction and into scientific laws.

Reviewing case studies from thermodynamics, computation, genetics, cellular development, brain science, ecology, and evolution, the paper concludes that certain fundamental limits prevent some forms of life from ever existing.

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A year and a half after the end of its mission, NASA’s InSight Mars lander may have just helped scientists find enough water to fill an ocean.

Deep beneath NASA’s InSight lander (RIP InSight), an ocean’s worth of liquid water may be trapped in rocky fissures, suggests a recent study of data recorded during more than 1,300 Marsquakes. If University of California, San Diego, geologist Vashan Wright and his colleagues are right, then Mars may be hiding underground reservoirs of water larger than the planet’s ancient, now-vanished, oceans. That could change how we search for traces of life on Mars, as well as how future Mars missions could supply themselves with water, rocket fuel, and oxygen to breathe.

Continue reading “Mars Is Likely Hiding Oceans Worth Of Water Deep In Its Crust — This Could Upend Our Plans For the Planet” »

Wherever astronomers look, they see life’s raw materials—and hints at answers to one of the great mysteries of science.

Researchers believe dark rocks at the site of a future Mars rover landing mission may be left over from ancient volcanic eruptions, and may be protecting signs of life — if there ever was life on Mars.

It has been widely acknowledged that self-replicating space-probes (SRPs) could explore the galaxy very quickly relative to the age of the galaxy. An obvious implication is that SRPs produced by extraterrestrial civilizations should have arrived in our solar system millions of years ago, and furthermore, that new probes from an ever-arising supply of civilizations ought to be arriving on a constant basis. The lack of observations of such probes underlies a frequently cited variation of the Fermi Paradox. We believe that a predilection for ETI-optimistic theories has deterred consideration of incompatible theories. Notably, SRPs have virtually disappeared from the literature. In this paper, we consider the most common arguments against SRPs and find those arguments lacking. By extension, we find recent models of galactic exploration which explicitly exclude SRPs to be unfairly handicapped and unlikely to represent natural scenarios.
We also consider several other models that seek to explain the Fermi Paradox, most notably percolation theory and two societal-collapse theories. In the former case, we find that it imposes unnatural assumptions which likely render it unrealistic. In the latter case, we present a new theory of interstellar transportation bandwidth which calls into question the validity of societal-collapse theories.
Finally, we offer our thoughts on how to design future SETI programs which take the conclusions of this paper into account to maximize the chance of detection.
Fermi Paradox paper on Arxiv http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.

Von Neumann Self-Replicating Probes. Percolation Theory, Interstellar Societal Collapse, ETI May Still Exist in our Galaxy.

Continue reading “Keith Wiley — The Fermi Paradox, Self-Replicating Probes, Interstellar Transport Bandwidth” »

Up to now, the search for extraterrestrial life has focused on finding a planet like our own. But could alien biology create its own habitable havens?

Material from asteroid Ryugu riddled with earthly microbes provides a cautionary tale for scientists seeking signs of alien life.

By Sharmila Kuthunur edited by Lee Billings.

Is advanced alien life hiding from human eyes? Join us… and find out!

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Continue reading “Are We Living In The Dark Forest? | An Answer to the Fermi Paradox” »