Why extraterrestrial life may not seem alien
There&#x27;s an entire genre of these kinds of books that extrapolate generalities (life throughout the Universe) from a single data point (life on Earth), but the truth is, that&#x27;s not even an educated guess.<p>We do not know if our evolutionary pressures are universal. We do not know if the evolutionary solutions developed here are appropriate even on other Earth-like planets, much less everywhere. Sensitive dependence on initial conditions could lead to radically different planetary environments, necessitating radically different <i>mechanical</i> solutions to survival, some (many, most?) of which we will never have even imagined.<p>What creatures would form under an intense magnetic field? In methane? In close orbit around a dim star? In a hot cloud nebula? Could we even recognize them as alive, much less intelligent? Definitely not if we&#x27;re looking for bats and monkeys and octopuses<p>No, I think the whole genre of &quot;life is much the same everywhere&quot; suffers from a profound lack of imagination