Friday, 9 July 2021

The Rarity Of Life

"...here was life. That it was primitive hardly mattered, in a universe where life of any kind was so rare as to seem well-nigh a miracle."
-Poul Anderson, Genesis (New York, 2001), PART ONE, VII, p. 85.
 
"Life must be rare in the universe, hardly ever burgeoning into sentience, and the chance of a high technology vanishingly small."
-Starfarers, 19, p. 154.
 
By contrast:
 
"...a universe that produces sophonts as casually as it produces snowflakes."
-Poul Anderson, "Outpost of Empire" IN Anderson, Captain Flandry: Defender Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-72 AT p. 7.
 
Anderson covers every option and I think that the Genesis/Starfarers perspective is more plausible than the Flandry one.
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3 comments:

  1. Sean M. Brooks9 July 2021 at 15:45

    Kaor, Paul!

    Until we ever find out otherwise, I lean more to the middle view found in STARFARERS, intelligent life is MODERATELY rare, but not vanishingly so. And, as you said, Anderson examined every possibility.

    Ad astra! Sean

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  2. paulshackley2017@gmail.com9 July 2021 at 16:33

    I have a cold so there might not be any more posts today.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sean M. Brooks9 July 2021 at 17:08

    Kaor, Paul!

    I am sorry about that. I hope you soon get over that cold. And a slow blogging day from you is still a lot faster than most blogs I've seen!

    Ad astra! Sean

    ReplyDelete