Hundreds of years ago, mankind embarked on the road of industrial development. The emergence of science and the arrival of industry were the result of mankind’s step-by-step development efforts. Although it has only been more than 200 years since mankind entered the age of technology, for the arrival of more than 200 years, mankind has spent millions of years.
In the age of science and technology, human civilization has also ushered in a period of rapid development. The power of science and technology makes us feel incredible. It not only gives us a new understanding of the earth, but also allows us to walk out of the earth with the help of science and technology. The vast universe.
When human beings walked out of the earth, they finally saw the vast and mysterious space of the universe. The earth is so small in front of the universe. Are human beings small? Some people may say that human beings are small existences in front of the earth, and that nature is small existences in front of the universe, but I think that humans are not small, but rather great existences in the universe.
I believe my friends all know that after leaving the earth, human beings have been actively exploring the existence of extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial civilization. In the eyes of many people, the vast universe is too large for us to imagine. Even in the range of 92 billion light-years currently observable by humans, there are at least 2 trillion “galaxies”, and every galaxy has at least 100 billion stars. Department exists.
From the scale of the universe, it is difficult for us to believe that alien life does not exist, and the universe has existed for 13.8 billion years. From the time scale, the planet of life should not only be the earth. So most people believe that extraterrestrial civilization exists. Since there is a high probability of extraterrestrial civilization, why have we not discovered it until now? Where are they?
Regarding this question, the famous astronomer Fermi once also raised doubts, so the Fermi paradox was born. In Fermi’s view, the universe was born 13.8 billion years ago. If the alien civilization was born very early, then There will inevitably be enough time to develop to the stage of interstellar civilization. For a strong interstellar civilization, it is not difficult to cross the interstellar and shuttle through the various galaxies in the universe. But why have we not found any traces of interstellar civilization in the universe?
Regarding human beings unable to find alien civilizations, Science Love has put forward many conjectures. For example, the laboratory theory believes that the earth or the solar system is a laboratory for alien civilizations, and humans are the “guinea pigs” in this laboratory. The virtual universe theory believes that the universe in which humans live is a virtual world set up by advanced civilizations, and we are just a computer program.
In addition, there are scientists who believe that there is a civilization filtering mechanism in the universe, which hinders the development of intelligent life to the stage of interstellar civilization. No matter how these conjectures change, they have one thing in common, that is, they all believe that alien civilizations exist.
But is there such a possibility: extraterrestrial intelligent life does not exist, and human beings are the only intelligent advanced life in the universe? Some people might say, isn’t your perception like a frog at the bottom of the well? How could the vast universe only have a smart civilization of mankind? Is it really impossible? In fact, as long as we analyze it from the perspective of evolution, you will find that this possibility still exists.
For Darwin’s theory of evolution, I believe that my friends are not unfamiliar. It is the core basis for us to explore the origin and mystery of life. A large number of archaeological research findings have proved that the theory of evolution is correct. It reveals the original origin of life on earth, and reveals the process of how life evolved from scratch step by step, from primitive life to complex life.
We all know that the earth was born 4.6 billion years ago. The early earth had no life at all, it was just a hot lava world. Until later, the earth gradually cooled and the atmosphere gradually formed. Later, a large amount of water resources appeared, which gradually evolved into a beautiful ecological planet.
So how did the most primitive simple life on earth appear? Scientists believe that 3.8 billion years ago, the inorganic matter of the earth gradually evolved into organic matter, and the organic matter formed primitive life under the action of various conditions. In this process of evolving from organic matter to life, lightning may have played a role. Important role.
In the entire evolutionary history of life on earth, many key steps are unique and small-probability events. All life has a common ancestor, this ancestor evolved mitochondria, so that life can transform energy; evolved gender, so that life can multiply; evolved photosynthesis, so that life can obtain energy and produce oxygen faster ; The spine evolved, which made life move from the ocean to the land and so on.
The entire evolution process must follow a certain time sequence, not too early or too late, otherwise life cannot evolve. Photosynthesis appeared 1.5 billion years after the birth of the earth, complex cells appeared 2.7 billion years later, higher animals appeared 4 billion years later, and humans did not appear until 4.5 billion years later. It can be seen that every leapfrog evolution process takes a long time and is not so easy to send out.
And in these evolutionary processes, the more complex and advanced the evolutionary process is, the less likely it is to be repeated. We can judge the formation of wisdom by seven factors. It is the superposition probability of seven factors that creates the emergence of intelligent life. These seven factors It is: the origin of life, photosynthesis, complex cells, gender, higher animals, spine evolution and the formation of intelligence.
If the evolution probability of each factor is 1%, then the seven factors combined will eventually form a probability of wisdom becoming one in a trillion. I believe everyone knows this probability, it is pitifully low, and the probability of winning the first prize in the lottery is only more than one in 10 million. The emergence of intelligent life is far less than the probability of winning a lottery.
According to the research of scientists, life may exist in only one out of every 100 trillion terrestrial planets in the universe. Even so, there should be very many living planets in the universe. But becoming a planet of life is only the first step. To eventually evolve into intelligent life, the superposition of seven factors is needed. The probability is terrifyingly low.
Moreover, the 1% probability of each of the above factors may still be a relatively high estimate, and the actual situation may be much lower than this. Therefore, in the vast universe, there may be countless planets of life, but they have not finally evolved into intelligent life, only the earth is very lucky to come to the fore, and the intelligent life human beings were born.