[Space] Panspermia and the Campgaign

[scc]

OK, in a campaign setting I'm working on for a Space game involving a single multi-star system I'm planning on using Panspermia as an explanation for why there are so many habitable plants.

This neatly solves two problems: Why are all these planets inhabitable and why can they interact with them (In other words why can we eat the plants and animals that evolved there)

But from the look of things there might be a few problems with that. While Bacteria, fungi and other single celled lifeforms. But what about slightly bigger lifeforms, could plant seeds have made interplanetary or borderline interstellar trips clinging to the side of a meteorite?

And the big one: If I assume the planet that humanity evolved on is the one where life first arose on, the planet closest to that, at a mere 1.28 AU, has a high chance of have sentient or near-sentient life. What do people think are the chances of that happening? And what are the odds that people realize it before things are too late? And is any sort of communication possible?

[Flyndaran]

Magic 8 ball: Answer hazy, ask again later.

We have one world known to have life. And only one intelligent species on that world in the past 4.54 billion years. We can't know much other than it seems that human level sapience is damn unlikely.

[Flyndaran]

Panspermia seems a bit silly. Unless you expand it to include simple amino acid seeding by meteorites.
But for a setting, you can just hand wave it with the law of really big numbers. After enough material exchanges eventually one will contain viable life.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Magic 8 ball: Answer hazy, ask again later.

We have one world known to have life. And only one intelligent species on that world in the past 4.54 billion years. We can't know much other than it seems that human level sapience is damn unlikely.

Well, only one intelligent species, by certain standards, and of which we know.

:)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Well, only one intelligent species, by certain standards, and of which we know.

:)

True in that if some hypothetical civilization existed say 100 million years ago, there would be little sign of it now. And our entire lineage went from funny looking tree dwellers to us in a scant 5-8 million years.
But I would hazard to state that the possibility of such a species hiding in the fossil gaps is horrifically unlikely.
More than enough plausibility for even hard science fiction gaming purposes though.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

True in that if some hypothetical civilization existed say 100 million years ago, there would be little sign of it now. And our entire lineage went from funny looking tree dwellers to us in a scant 5-8 million years.
But I would hazard to state that the possibility of such a species hiding in the fossil gaps is horrifically unlikely.
More than enough plausibility for even hard science fiction gaming purposes though.

One species aboveground, and another hiding deep under the crust since ~65mya. See Doctor Who for this one ;)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

One species aboveground, and another hiding deep under the crust since ~65mya. See Doctor Who for this one ;)

That look and act like humans in funny suits. They really should have reimagined them for the DW reboot.

As much as I adore the three from Victorian England and would watch the hell out of a spin off.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

We have one world known to have life. And only one intelligent species on that world in the past 4.54 billion years. We can't know much other than it seems that human level sapience is damn unlikely.

What standard of "unlikely" are you applying? I think you could just as well say we know of one life-bearing world, and that world has human-level sapience, which is a 100% probability. You have to define your sample space, and the sample space of planets about which we have substantial information is quite small.

Bill Stoddard

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by whswhs

What standard of "unlikely" are you applying? I think you could just as well say we know of one life-bearing world, and that world has human-level sapience, which is a 100% probability. You have to define your sample space, and the sample space of planets about which we have substantial information is quite small.

Bill Stoddard

We only have one regardless of defined area. The defined area is highly arguable, but the one is not.
Sapience on par with parrots, great apes, and dolphins isn't what I mean when I write about human type intelligence.

I certainly hope to live long enough to definitively find life on some other planet. Even simple single celled life.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I certainly hope to live long enough to definitively find life on some other planet. Even simple single celled life.

My money is still on either Europa or Encelodus. Have you seen The Europa Report via Discovery or Netflix?