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I doubt it. Lots of life forms from Earth that naturally embed themselves in space-bound equipment that can survive in space, there's life in nuclear reactors, and anaerobic thermal ocean vents. It's not hard to imagine that there's life on lots of planets, and becoming multicellular is just a matter of having a special subset of the conditions that allow life to arise. This is already observed in nature, and it's called "nestedness". The probability of finding a planet with single-celled life is likely, multicellular life less likely, and intelligent, multicellular life rare. The conditional probabilities of each are higher, so if you have one, you're more likely to find the other.

Maybe our perception of our planet is too egocentric. Perhaps Earth is actually just run-of-the-mill in terms of the universe, and there are even rarer planets than ours, that are even better at supporting life. After all, this one has a species which is causing a mass extinction and a planetary shift in climate and ocean pH. Surely we are not the best nature can do.
Je Nique vos Merdiers
Maybe our perception of our planet is too egocentric. Perhaps Earth is actually just run-of-the-mill in terms of the universe, and there are even rarer planets than ours, that are even better at supporting life. After all, this one has a species which is causing a mass extinction and a planetary shift in climate and ocean pH. Surely we are not the best nature can do.


Yeah, it's like, humans are the perfect example of confirmation bias. "We're alive! We think! Thinking beings must be like us! For us to live the environment has to be like this! For the environment to be like this the planet must be like this! Let's go and find planets like this and say those are planets that support life."

I'm not saying scientists do this, though I do think it's probably difficult to imagine how else life may look if it's not like what life is like on Earth, but I do think a great many people who want to talk about how special earth is forget this. Like, imagine earth were farther away, and life, different life, developed there. The new version of humans would be like, gosh, any closer and life couldn't exist! But, actually this type of life would exist, which is different than what this "cold earth" is familiar with.
Relatively, Yes. The Earth is a very rare and special case. Or, rather.. Earth-like conditions are a very rare and special case. No sane person who's done the research will dispute this. Compared to almost everything else we seen, the Earth-like state is extraordinarily uncommon.

Does this mean there are no or almost no other planets suitable for us and other forms of life? Absolutely not. It simply means that those planets, like ours, are the exception and not the rule.

Someone mentioned the Drake Equation. Indeed that would be something to look into. Personally I find it too limiting and linear in scope, and I think it's the wrong way to approach the problem. Still, it's one of the best things we've got right now.

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