Exotic Life

[Spaceception]

So what are all the types of exotic life possible? And how crazy can they get?

[Findthepin1]

Water and methane are the only ones that have been seriously looked into, AFAIK. We the KSPers, however, have also discussed at least ammonia and liquid iron for life. There are probably more but they have been lost to time (AKA I am too lazy to go and look for them).

[cubinator]

Silicon? It may not exist now, but as more stars die and new stars are born the amount of heavier elements will increase, so in several billion years it may be possible. Then there's always self-replicating nanobots, which are probably possible and they would likely evolve given enough time.

Completely off-topic:

Spoiler

58 minutes ago, Findthepin1 said:

Hey, that's Mars! 

 

Edited February 27, 2016 by cubinator

[Wjolcz]

I am no astrobiology expert but if I were to guess I would say that life on a moon like Europa or Enceladus would look like a fish, but without eyes. With round head with only mouth in it somewhere (most likely the bottom part aka catfish mouth). The front of the head would be either of smooth surface or full of wrinkles (or whatever it's called. Just imagine it looking like human brain cortex) to maximize the amount of receptors that would be on the surface. Think about shark's ability to detect eletric signals in a dog's nose.

[problemecium]

Probably scorpions. Whatever we find out there, made of whatever bizarre materials, one thing I have learned from natural history is that it will probably involve scorpions.

[NuclearNut]

Define life.  Do you mean something that can maintain homeostasis, is composed of various materials, has a metabolism, reproduce, and can respond to stimuli?

Do you define a self replicating robot as life, or is it something else?  At which point does something become living and something become non-living?

Edited February 28, 2016 by NuclearNut

[Majorjim!]

7 hours ago, Spaceception said:

So what are all the types of exotic life possible? And how crazy can they get?

We don't know. We have a sample size of 1.  We do not even have a clear explanation of what 'alive' means. In terms of speculation there seems to be no limit on what might be possible however.

Edited February 28, 2016 by Majorjim

[KSK]

10 hours ago, Findthepin1 said:

Water and methane are the only ones that have been seriously looked into, AFAIK. We the KSPers, however, have also discussed at least ammonia and liquid iron for life. There are probably more but they have been lost to time (AKA I am too lazy to go and look for them).

We, the KSPers, are very good at assuming that we were the first to discuss something. Take a look at this list of speculative biochemistries that have been proposed - ammonia appears right at the top of the list of non-water solvents that have been considered.

[Spaceception]

8 hours ago, NuclearNut said:

Define life.  Do you mean something that can maintain homeostasis, is composed of various materials, has a metabolism, reproduce, and can respond to stimuli?

Do you define a self replicating robot as life, or is it something else?  At which point does something become living and something become non-living?

Biological life, not artificial.

[cubinator]

Wait, the interactions of different lifeforms and processes on Earth resemble those between individual cells...What if Earth itself is alive? We humans could be it's spores, getting ready to travel to some other world and give it life?

[lajoswinkler]

12 hours ago, Majorjim said:

We don't know. We have a sample size of 1.  We do not even have a clear explanation of what 'alive' means. In terms of speculation there seems to be no limit on what might be possible however.

That would be true if we used a blackbox model. "Living thing". Thing is, we know how living things work and we know how the things that make them work, work. We know the laws involved, chemical properties that emerge from them, etc.

All these things dictate we can't have things like life based on helium or plasma, to mention really extreme ideas.

There are rules. It's not a blank slate and totally free choice.

[Aethon]

18 hours ago, cubinator said:

Silicon?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

We live on a giant silicate rock, yet life chose to be carbon based.

[sevenperforce]

Autonomous self-replicating robots of any kind should be classified as artificial life. Not artificially intelligent life, of course, but certainly artificial life.

I tend to assume that exotic-chemistry nonintelligent life is very common in the universe but intelligent life is fairly rare. 

[fredinno]

On February 27, 2016 at 1:56 PM, Findthepin1 said:

Water and methane are the only ones that have been seriously looked into, AFAIK. We the KSPers, however, have also discussed at least ammonia and liquid iron for life. There are probably more but they have been lost to time (AKA I am too lazy to go and look for them).

Actaully, the alternate biochemistries most looked into are silicon (carbon replacement), ammonia/methane (water replacement) and arsenic (phosporous replacement). Others, like suphuric and flouric acids may be possible though.

6 hours ago, Aethon said:

We live on a giant silicate rock, yet life chose to be carbon based.

Indeed, long Silicon compounds are considered too unstable for life.

[Draconiator]

Hell, there may be some energy based beings living in the Sun for all we know.

[fredinno]

3 minutes ago, Draconiator said:

Hell, there may be some energy based beings living in the Sun for all we know.

No, beause chemical componds break up at those temperatures- no scientist really takes that possibility seriously, because we still have a pretty good idea of what "life" entails and requires. The rest is speculation.

[Findthepin1]

1 hour ago, fredinno said:

No, beause chemical componds break up at those temperatures- no scientist really takes that possibility seriously, because we still have a pretty good idea of what "life" entails and requires. The rest is speculation.

The coolest stars are cool enough for chemical reactions to happen. Maybe around 1800-2000 Celsius. If there are chemical reactions, that might eventually lead to life. 

[fredinno]

2 hours ago, Findthepin1 said:

The coolest stars are cool enough for chemical reactions to happen. Maybe around 1800-2000 Celsius. If there are chemical reactions, that might eventually lead to life. 

Solar readiation might just kill it then,especially since such tiny stars are more prone to giant flares. It's not impossible, but unlikely. Let's concentrate on finding CH4 and NH3 life first.