this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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Alien life may not be carbon-based, new study suggests::Self-sustaining chemical reactions that could support biology radically different from life as we know it might exist on many different planets, a new study finds.

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[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 20 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Self-sustaining chemical reactions...

What a fun way to think of life (and thus myself).

[–] LrdThndr@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

Hydrogen is an element that, when left for long enough in sufficient quantities, begins to wonder where it came from.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You can go one step further: life is just an area of low entropy keeping itself like that by increasing the entropy of its environment.

We poop out randomness to keep ourselves not random.

[–] TheYear2525@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The purpose of life is to seek out and dissipate energy gradients.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Due to this fact, I strongly believe that the ultimate purpose of intelligent life must be to find a way to reverse entropy, before there are no more energy gradients to dissipate.

Very interesting take, I love it

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've never heard that theory described so succinctly.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The first or the second? Cause I've been working on the first for years, but the second came to me in 5 seconds, so I hope it's the first :D

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Haha, all good!

[–] Fuck_u_spez_@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

I mean that is literally what we're made of. You know those PCR COVID tests? The underlying process just makes DNA/RNA do what they would otherwise do inside the body, outside the body. Put some you-goo through that same process and it just starts replicating all by itself. Everything that makes you unique that's wasn't also a product of your environment is digitally encoded in that double helix, and all it wants or knows how to do is ffuuuuuuuuccckkkkkk

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

You’re just a rabbit hole that math fell down.