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[kuro_suna]

Even if silicon could produce more efficient neurons it won't make much of a difference since in the earths 4,500 million year history its only been in the last 50 million years that brains complex enough to take advantage of it have appeared. 

[Mandaril]

You know, when/if aliens do arrive to our planet, I sure hope they are more intelligent and compassionate than an avarage human being

I don't think we would want to meet a more advanced version of us. Who knows, maybe they would start a "human hunting" -hobby, or "human farming" (for our precious skins? ).

[ChairmanPoo]

its only been in the last 50 million years that brains complex enough to take advantage of it have appeared. 

Nervous systems are far older than that. IIRC flatworms are the most ancient beings to have those.

[kuro_suna]

its only been in the last 50 million years that brains complex enough to take advantage of it have appeared. 

Nervous systems are far older than that. IIRC flatworms are the most ancient beings to have those.

But most animals don't invest very much energy or body mass to their nervous systems and wouldn't benefit much from a small increase in efficiency, its only mammals that actually spend more than one or two percent of their energy on brains.

[Heron TSG]

And Mollusks. Never forget the Octopodes.

If you're proposing that the hypothetical silicon-based life was designed rather than evolved, then sure

That's not what I was proposing at all. That would be silly. I'm saying that with infinite time (which I assume there is) no probability is so small that it will never occur.

[Vester]

But, entropy!

[Heron TSG]

Well, there's that. Then again, when the heat is spread out, the matter will still be there. Eventually (once the universe stops expanding) everything will slowly gravitate together, and the heat could be drawn in with the matter (due to heat being a property of the matter). Once it's all crushed up together into a singularity, it eventually builds up enough pressure to explode, creating a new universe in which silicon life forms have yet another chance to evolve.

[Earthquake Damage]

Well, there's that. Then again, when the heat is spread out, the matter will still be there. Eventually (once the universe stops expanding) everything will slowly gravitate together, and the heat could be drawn in with the matter (due to heat being a property of the matter). Once it's all crushed up together into a singularity, it eventually builds up enough pressure to explode, creating a new universe in which silicon life forms have yet another chance to evolve.

Actually, doesn't thermodynamics pretty much render a Big Crunch impossible?

[kuro_suna]

Well, there's that. Then again, when the heat is spread out, the matter will still be there. Eventually (once the universe stops expanding) everything will slowly gravitate together, and the heat could be drawn in with the matter (due to heat being a property of the matter). Once it's all crushed up together into a singularity, it eventually builds up enough pressure to explode, creating a new universe in which silicon life forms have yet another chance to evolve.

Actually, doesn't thermodynamics pretty much render a Big Crunch impossible?

If we ignore friction a pendulum could swing forever, I think the big bang to big crunch works the same.

[Il Palazzo]

Well, there's that. Then again, when the heat is spread out, the matter will still be there. Eventually (once the universe stops expanding) everything will slowly gravitate together, and the heat could be drawn in with the matter (due to heat being a property of the matter). Once it's all crushed up together into a singularity, it eventually builds up enough pressure to explode, creating a new universe in which silicon life forms have yet another chance to evolve.

I think the current observations rule out the Big Crunch.

[Bauglir]

-snip-

[Heron TSG]

It would be like a brain spontaneously coalescing in a solution of amino acids.

Cosmically, that's exactly what happened. It didn't take all that much time for a bunch of Amino acids to form a thinking brain.

[Aqizzar]

It would be like a brain spontaneously coalescing in a solution of amino acids.

Cosmically, that's exactly what happened. It didn't take all that much time for a bunch of Amino acids to form a thinking brain.

Estimated at a billion years between the formation of surface water and the earliest functional microorganisms forming from lightning-generated proteins and protocells.  Even at a cosmic timescale, a billion years is not insignificant.  All the same, I don't know how all this theoretical physics got mixed into talking about life.

Returning to the original subject, that miniseries of interviews with Stephen Hawking starts airing tonight.  Anyone going to watch it?  I can't of course, because I happen to work during the good TV hours.  Balls.

[RedKing]

Not to necro this, but The Onion chimed in on this. I lol'ed.

[Beeskee]

I feel we should be looking for other intelligent life. Like it or not we've been sending out signals for quite a while now. Not just radio and TV signals, but also surface nukes. (wars, tests) That's a big "there's something interesting here" sign right there, to anyone looking.

As far as the crunch/rip thing goes, depending on curvature of space we may get infinite expansion or an eventual collapse. A more definite certainty is the heat death of the universe, as eventually new star formation will cease.

Oh, and the proton may be unstable.