Alternate start of life on Earth

Xarog

Xarog

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Reference : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=76641

That thread got me thinking. Let's assume that aliens DID start life on this planet. What would they have sent to the planet, and why? Did they arrange a few random proteins and watch what happened, or did they plant a whole single-celled organism? What do you think? :)

Discuss.
 
I'll say that they started with simple organic molecules that were protected from oxidation on the most basic level, without DNA/RNA or any clear reproductive cycle so as to give the birth of life the greatest amount of random potential.

While a complete cell would give more predictable results, a really basic organic compound would be so much more fun. :D
 
Xarog said:
Reference : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=76641

That thread got me thinking. Let's assume that aliens DID start life on this planet. What would they have sent to the planet, and why? Did they arrange a few random proteins and watch what happened, or did they plant a whole single-celled organism? What do you think? :)

Discuss.
Click to expand...
Nah if you sign up to alien infestation then that applies to all history, IOW fossil records, etc, are planted (and false.)
 
kilo39 said:
Nah if you sign up to alien infestation then that applies to all history, IOW fossil records, etc, are planted (and false.)
Click to expand...

not if the aliens only influenced things right at the beginning, and then let nature take care of the rest
 
xcleric42 said:
not if the aliens only influenced things right at the beginning, and then let nature take care of the rest
Click to expand...
Yeah but as Xarog said on the other thread, even aliens need to have started somewhere.

Ah "fossil record is false" is actually the God Theory, created everything including the false fossil record.
 
Maybe they tailored simple proteins that would thrive in the environment. Of course if we're going to have super-evolved aliens, they may have just as well started with a tailor made single-celled organism.

What interests me is: what would be their motivation for seeding life on other planets be? Could it be that we are the result of an experiment? Or could it be that the aliens just think that life is a cool thing to spread around?
 
While panspermia is a valid theory, and while it does still leave the question of the original "HOW" unanswered, I like it.

I vote panspermia!

:D

And if aliens did start it all then why?
Well, either: They wanted to terraform a planet for themselves - and then died off before they could come back OR they did it for fun.
Either way I would suspect they would have used very basic self-replicating molecules - so as to ensure the best chance of survival.
 
kilo39 said:
Yeah but as Xarog said on the other thread, even aliens need to have started somewhere.

Ah "fossil record is false" is actually the God Theory, created everything including the false fossil record.
Click to expand...
Being aliens, they would have started somewhere else. That is, earth could have been nothing but a big rock of... rock. :p

This would still allow for scientists to have their fossils and their accurate historical evolutionary record, it would just make one or two slight changes to the way it all started.

At this point, knowing how life on this planet started is pretty much impossible. In future we may be able to determine, for instance, that there HAD to be a helping hand somewhere along the line... but that's not in the scope of this thread. There is the very real theory (and it's considered in all seriousness by at least a few credible scientists) that life started on another planet and planet Earth got hit by a meteorite carrying some organisms that started growing elsewhere. This theory does not preclude the existence of fossils or evolution.
 
Nick333 said:
Maybe they tailored simple proteins that would thrive in the environment. Of course if we're going to have super-evolved aliens, they may have just as well started with a tailor made single-celled organism.

What interests me is: what would be their motivation for seeding life on other planets be? Could it be that we are the result of an experiment? Or could it be that the aliens just think that life is a cool thing to spread around?
Click to expand...
Curiosity? If they're really long lived aliens, they might well still be around today to see the results of their experiment. It's possible they could want to see just how much potential randomness has when there's a selective process going on.

For that matter, why do we put some proteins in an enclosed enviroment to see how they develop? :)
 
kilo39 said:
Yeah but as Xarog said on the other thread, even aliens need to have started somewhere.
Click to expand...

The aliens could have formed elsewhere, in more favourable conditions than earth, then pitched up here 2 billion years ago, meddled a bit, and left. All based on us not having any fossils older than 2 billion years?

Which is wrong... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/305816.stm
 
Moederloos said:
I vote panspermia!
Click to expand...

pan·sper·mi·a
–noun Biology
the theory that life exists and is distributed throughout the universe in the form of germs or spores that develop in the right environment.
 
Proof that aleins exist is:
1) they have not contacted us yet!
2) Riaan Kruywagens hair.
 
Nick333 said:
What interests me is: what would be their motivation for seeding life on other planets be? Could it be that we are the result of an experiment? Or could it be that the aliens just think that life is a cool thing to spread around?
Click to expand...

Xarog said:
Curiosity? If they're really long lived aliens, they might well still be around today to see the results of their experiment. It's possible they could want to see just how much potential randomness has when there's a selective process going on.

For that matter, why do we put some proteins in an enclosed enviroment to see how they develop? :)
Click to expand...

The only rational motivation I can think of is some sort of scientific curiosity, maybe to them the earth is/was one big lab? Of course assuming they interfered initially then we have to wonder, did they leave it at that and then just observe or did they interfere later on? Did they ever stop interfering?

It also makes you wonder how advanced a civilisation would have to be to achieve this, humanity is arguably only a few decades away from being in a position to do the same, assuming a hospitable environment exists somewhere accessible.

Then agan, if they did do it, why earth? Was their home planet relatively similar? Or very different which would then make the experiment more interesting. Going way O/T I know. :)
 
Earth is just to far away from everything, even the nearest star Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away over 40 million million kilometers
 
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