From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Mar 26 2002 - 08:54:56 MST
Emlyn O'regan wrote:
>
> > Might this be a
> > reason to suspect we
> > will not find vary many samples of life on other planets? Unless
> > technologically adept intelligent species evolved to
> > circumvent the 'natural
> > process' then those processes may lead non-technology life to
> > cause its own
> > extinction.
> >
> > Michael
>
> I wouldn't be so quick to discount natural selection's ability to get around
> such problems. You are talking about extinctions over a looong period of
> time; long enough for evolution to try some countermeasures.
Well, yes. Just as aerobic life forms were a countermeasure,
evolutionarily, to the early conversion by anaerobic life forms of most
of the early CO2 dominated atmosphere into rock. However, there is a
significant difference between going from breathing CO2 to breathing O2
versus going from breathing 02 to breathing vacuum. There IS a threshold
of habitability as evidenced by Mars.
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