AS OUR EYES GET BETTER adjusted to the eternal night sky (read: as we build bigger and more specific telescopes) we are beginning to discover that planets are more common than we thought — and now, life may be as well.
Yesterday’s Wired News carries the story about Gliese 581g, the first exoplanet found within a star’s habitable zone — meaning the orbital zone favorable to liquid water and, at least as we know it, life.
So I’m creating a Martian Pool. $1 says we find exoplanetary life, or compelling evidence favoring the discovery of same, within 10 years. Who’s in?
Of course, it’ll probably be some sort of Titanian, Europan or Ganymedan goo, but still — it’ll be enough. (I’m still holding out for Martian artifacts, though.)
I am DEFINITELY in. The chance of our being alone is laughably small. Whether we’ll recognize life, or be able to see it as sentient life, or be able to acknowledge it as life with a value equal to human life… well… we will make fools of ourselves, it’s what we do. Hope we get this sorted out before we invent interplanetary teleportation.
I’m totally in. Double my $1.