#like. 'advanced civilizations' are conceptually fun and a necessary thought exercise

[lesbianalanwake]

in particular, thinking about little guys a lot (bacteriums and such) because reading about the search for “alien” life irritates me at times, in that there’s a lot of surface emphasis on “advanced civilizations” when there are vast possibilities in single-celled organisms, extremophiles, and RNA World scenarios. which many, many researchers study in-depth, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I’m looking for astrobiology stuff -- because the jump from inorganic matter to self-replicating organic life is insane when you think about it and is one of the great mysteries of existence -- and I’ve got to wade through less grounded stuff to get to it.

that being said, the Wow! Signal does kind of make me feel a little nuts and more amicable towards looking past Occam’s Razor explanations, because Tau Sagittarii and neighboring friends are potentially good candidate stars for hosting a habitable or superhabitable planet.

but at the end of the day, Webb detecting carbon compounds elsewhere in the universe genuinely makes me feel deranged. RNA World or viral evolution or whatever the fuck let’s GO