Moon discussions

[PB666]

What if there were no moon?

Another factor as to why there may be fewer sentient species

[NFUN]

Not watching a video, but with no moon there'd be no tides, which would probably greatly slow sea-land life evolution.

[Rakaydos]

Species similar to Dolphins are probably quite common in the universe- highly inteligent, perfectly adapted to their enviroment, no tech base (but willing to work with people who do have tech bases) and no ability to expand to the stars.

Humanity's combination of highly delevoped manipulatory appendages (a leftover from our tree based evlutionary roots) and Persistance and problem solving ability (part and parcel of being a Persistance hunter), on the other hand, is probably quite rare. Netherlindals would have probably ended up like dolphins.

[GeneralVeers]

Don't jump to conclusions too quickly here. Whenever I see this question asked, people have a tendency to make the jump from "the Moon makes Earth's conditions what they are" to "humans couldn't survive without those conditions".

That ain't the case. If the Moon had never existed, conditions on Earth would certainly have been different. Which means life would have simply adapted to different conditions. And it's entirely possible (in fact, quite likely) that proto-humans would still have come up with spoken language, tools, combustion engines, television, and space flight.

[Xannari Ferrows]

Oh my god I watched this video earlier today. Kind of scary...

[Superfluous J]

The Moon is great, and actually leads me to think the Fermi Paradox solution is actually that we're first, at least in our galaxy. It kept the Earth warm longer, possibly keeping radioactive substances nearer the surface to aid in mutations and evolution; made it easier (and therefore possible) for nocturnal predators and prey possibly giving our species' up to 2x the amount of time to actively evolve; intercepted or misdirected who knows how many all-life-destroying asteroids from hitting us; spurned thinking in math, physics, and the arts; and finally gave us an early tangible and reachable goal in a space program.

Really, for a all-in-one spacefaring civilization starter package, you would be hard pressed to beat the good old Moon.

Edited August 28, 2015 by 5thHorseman

[Rakaydos]

The Moon is great, and actually leads me to think the Fermi Paradox solution is actually that we're first, at least in our galaxy. It kept the Earth warm longer, possibly keeping radioactive substances nearer the surface to aid in mutations and evolution; made it easier (and therefore possible) for nocturnal predators and prey possibly giving our species' up to 2x the amount of time to actively evolve; intercepted or misdirected who knows how many all-life-destroying asteroids from hitting us; spurned thinking in math, physics, and the arts; and finally gave us an early tangible and reachable goal in a space program.

Really, for a all-in-one spacefaring civilization starter package, you would be hard pressed to beat the good old Moon.

Not to mention leaving the earth smaller and with a thinner atmosphere than it would have otherwise been- both very good things for early spaceflight.

[Superfluous J]

Not to mention leaving the earth smaller and with a thinner atmosphere than it would have otherwise been- both very good things for early spaceflight.

Actually with all the tide-induced vulcanism, the atmosphere may be thicker than it otherwise would have been. Crazy thing, atmospheres. They don't like to follow a simple rule, all linear and tied to mass of the world.