CHRISTINA C.

MALAYAO

A UNIQUE WORLD; HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR LIFE TO SURVIVE IN A PLANET

Rare Earth Hypothesis

In planetary astronomy and astrobiology, the Rare Earth hypothesis argues that the emergence of

complex multicellular life on Earth (and, subsequently, intelligence) required an improbable

combination of astrophysical and geological events and circumstances. The hypothesis argues

that complex extraterrestrial life is a very improbable phenomenon and likely to be extremely

rare. The term “Rare Earth” originates from Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the

Universe (2000), a book by Peter Ward, a geologist and paleontologist, and Donald E. Brownlee,

an astronomer and astrobiologist.

The Rare Earth Hypothesis argues that the development of complex life on Earth, not to mention

intelligence, was an incredibly improbable thing in terms of the geological and astronomical

variables involved, suggesting that the galaxy is not filled with other intelligent life forms

waiting to be found.

The Rare Earth Hypothesis goes against the idea that Earth is an average planet orbiting an

average star in an average spiral-armed galaxy, or that intelligent life is easily duplicable in other

parts of the galaxy. Contrary to the beliefs of Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, the Rare Earth

Hypothesis was put forward by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee in their book Rare Earth: Why

Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, published in the year 2000.

Gaian Bottleneck
Gaian bottleneck explanation: If life emerges on a planet, it only rarely evolves quickly enough

to regulate greenhouse gases and albedo, thereby maintaining surface temperatures compatible

with liquid water and habitability. Such a Gaian bottleneck suggests that

(i) extinction is the cosmic default for most life that has ever emerged on the surfaces of

wet rocky planets in the Universe and

(ii) rocky planets need to be inhabited to remain habitable. In the Gaian bottleneck

model, the maintenance of planetary habitability is a property more associated with

an unusually rapid evolution of biological regulation of surface volatiles than with the

luminosity and distance to the host star.

The Great Filter

The Great Filter, in the context of the Fermi paradox, is whatever prevents non-living matter

from undergoing abiogenesis, in time, to expanding lasting life as measured by the Kardashev

scale

The Fermi Paradox is the term used to describe the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial life in the

face of a universe that should be, by the numbers, bursting with it. But we see no signs of alien

technology, and our radio telescopes don’t pick up voices from other worlds.

Many hypotheses have been proposed to resolve the Fermi Paradox, but all of these remain

unproven. And in the 1990s, another possible explanation for our apparent aloneness in the

universe was formulated by Robin Hanson — a postulate that has become known as the Great

Filter.
Simply stated, the Great Filter says that intelligent interstellar lifeforms must first take many

critical steps, and at least one of these steps must be highly improbable. Indeed, the premise of

the Great Filter is that there’s at least one hurdle that is so high virtually no species can clear it

and move on to the next. But while the term the Great Filter suggests the conscious action of

some sort of exogenous entity, in reality, the hypothesis is more a way of thinking about the

relative likelihood of certain events happening — or not happening — in their own natural

course.

THE GREAT SILENCE

The Great Silence explores the multifaceted problem named after the great Italian physicist

Enrico Fermi and his legendary 1950 lunchtime question "Where is everybody?”. The Fermi

Paradox is sometimes known as the Great Silence. The universe ought to be a cacophony of

voices, but instead it is disconcertingly quiet.

Some humans theorize that intelligent species go extinct before they can expand into outer space.

If they’re correct, then the hush of the night sky is the silence of a graveyard.

“The Great Silence” is another name for the Fermi Paradox, and the Fermi Paradox is a

meditation on two contradictory truths:

1) the idea that we represent the only intelligence in the universe is preposterous and

2) despite the increasing range of our extraterrestrial search, we have found only silence.

“Early Birds” Hypothesis

Few months ago there was a theory proposed in the astronomy community that surmised that we

humans might be too late for alien life. The theory pretty much stated that alien life is already

extinct and we are all that was left of life in the universe. Just like every study about drinking a

glass of wine before bed or snorting raw eggs; a new theory proposes that we're not staggering

into the party late with warm beer, but we're super early, playing guitar in the stairwell to an

audience of zero.

The theory, authored by Abraham Loeb of Harvard and Rafael Batista and David Sloan of the

University of Oxford, states that the chance of life grows much higher in the distant future. Life
first became possible 30 million years after the Big Bang when there was enough carbon and
oxygen to make that sweet life juice. The theory considers the likelihood of life after the Big
Bang, but before the end of the universe after all the stars have faded -- in about 10 trillion years.
In my own insight, Creationism belief System is more objectively preferable when it comes to

explaining the nature of the world or the cosmos because creationism he belief that

the universe and the various forms of life were created by God out of nothing (ex nihilo). It is a

response primarily to modern evolutionary theory, which explains the diversity of life without

recourse to the doctrine of God or any other divine power. 

REFERENCES

https://electricliterature.com/the-great-silence-by-ted-chiang/

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2015.1387

https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/abscicon2017/pdf/3282.pdf

https://nautil.us/issue/75/story/the-great-silence

https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtissilver/2016/08/15/are-earth-humans-the-aliens-early-to-the-

universes-life-party/?sh=67eabaaf318d