> But I think the chances of life being slim are more down to the difficulty in the bootstrapping stage rather than the environment being too inhospitable to host life.
I'm 100% in agreement on this.
My argument is that with no oceans, abiogenesis is basically impossible. There's not really a useful starting point if everything is rock and ice.
I have no doubt that in 200 years a prepared group of humans could be dropped there and thrive. (transportation issues not withstanding) But life couldn't start there from nothing.
I don't think silicon based life is plausible. It can't form double silicon silicon bonds. Overall its chemistry is utterly boring compared to carbon's, and carbon is far more common than silicon is. Again, same argument. If silicon based life were intelligently created, sure, it would probably thrive. But there's no way it would spontaneously create itself. And honestly, it would probably evolve to being carbon fairly quickly.
Regarding life, I don’t just think human life could thrive in such environments, I think even single cell organisms could...if implanted there that is. As I said earlier, we have life on Earth in seemingly less hospitable environments like naked rock faces, sulphur-rich volcanic lakes, etc. We even have microbial life on Earth that uses arsenic as one of the chemical elements for DNA. So while 99.99% of life here does fall into a narrow spectrum, even on Earth we are constantly surprised by the ability for life to thrive and adapt in environments it classically shouldn’t. Therefore I think we should be open minded to the possibility of surprises outside our own ecosystems. Albeit bootstrapping aside.
I'm 100% in agreement on this.
My argument is that with no oceans, abiogenesis is basically impossible. There's not really a useful starting point if everything is rock and ice.
I have no doubt that in 200 years a prepared group of humans could be dropped there and thrive. (transportation issues not withstanding) But life couldn't start there from nothing.
I don't think silicon based life is plausible. It can't form double silicon silicon bonds. Overall its chemistry is utterly boring compared to carbon's, and carbon is far more common than silicon is. Again, same argument. If silicon based life were intelligently created, sure, it would probably thrive. But there's no way it would spontaneously create itself. And honestly, it would probably evolve to being carbon fairly quickly.