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What Silicon-Based Life Might Be Like
Nancy_A writes "While the world as we know it runs on carbon, science fiction's long flirtation with silicon-based life has spawned a familiar catchphrase: 'It's life, but not as we know it.' Although non-carbon based life is a very long shot, this Q&A with one of the U.S.'s top astrochemists — Max Bernstein, the Research Lead of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington,D.C. — discusses what silicon life might be like."
A large clump of silicon that lays eggs and produces and extremely corrosive acid to chew through rock.
More than meets the eye?
.. on there talking about pre-conditions.
As RNA may have been a pre-condition to DNA, carbon-based life could very well be the pre-condition for silicon-based life.
Life doesn't need to come about naturally, there is no universal definition, if it happens it happens.
Silicon life forms may actually need to be designed by intelligence because of how hard it is to get a stable start up in environments. It could be some sort of really rare form of life due to the energies required.
Likewise that case of arsenic life, the chances of that evolving in a carbon soup could be very low because how dangerous arsenic is to things, but given enough time it came about.
Given our knowledge of biology and biochemistry synthesis, perhaps someone at some point in the near future could have a shot at it.
I love it how Dorminey IS CONSTANTLY YELLING HIS QUESTIONS AT BERNSTEIN. Oh good God I can't even get this post past Slashdots caps filters!
If the Gadmeer and Sekkari are any indication, non-carbon-based life seems to have really bad luck. At least they were smart enough to send out seed ships. http://stargate-sg1-solutions.com/wiki/Gadmeer http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Gadmeer http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Sekkari
by Cyphase ( 907627 )
Why not evolve Si life here?
Dorminey — WHERE ARE THE LARGEST CONCENTRATIONS OF SILICON HERE?
IN SAND?
Bernstein — In sand or rock. There are literally megatons of silicate minerals on Earth.
Talk to a geologist like my ex roommate. I knew there was something fishy about that so I checked the actual numbers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth's_crust
Silicon 277200 ppm second only to oxygen
Carbon 300 ppm second to pretty much everything but vanadium and stuff like that. By weight the earth has about as much Rb as C.
For all intents and purposes the earth is not the idea place for a carbon based life form. Its the equivalent of a unit train full of high fructose corn syrup tank cars for a silicon lifeform. If they can't form here and absolutely gorge themselves on what to them would be the equivalent of a giant pizza, there is not a more ideal place out there to form...
The reason why we're made out of relatively rare C instead of tremendously available Si is C chemistry is incredibly better than Si chemistry for bio, or heck, chemistry in general. The fine article didn't give it enough justice or maybe the editors edited out the chemistry rants. Lets just say that Xe biochem is not all that more unlikely or difficult than Si biochem would be (in other words, nearly totally freaking almost incomprehendibly impossible vs just merely incredibly extremely impossibly unlikely)
It all has an air of speculative fantasy fiction, like trying to intellectually debate if its easier to make vampires, werewolves, or zombies...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
They better be mammals, otherwise all those nice silicon-based polymers are udderly wasted.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
You're on the crack.
And crack is a gateway to slang.
Sort of like a white spiky coral that kills everyone unless they hide in a cave with an android.
It can be killed with music.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Just wondering.
Everything in this universe is an expression of life, a life that begun as the universe was created and permeated with love.
will believe the universe only exists since 1.1.1970.
There should have been a question like "is there an environment that might make it more plausible for Silicon life"? What about planets that are molten or have oceans, lakes, and rivers of acid. Why would an intelligent rock walk around in place where they will become immobile? Sounds like something only dumb rocks would do.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
huh?
"Honey? When did your boobs start talking?"
Interesting. Though I am curious why Silicon life hasn't already evolved on the Earth.
Think about it. There isn't necessarily a reason why Silicon / Carbon / other-based lifeforms can't all evolve in the same environment. There's no law, save those of Physics / Chemistry / etc., that says that if you have one, you cannot have the other.
So, why is earth filled with only Carbon-based lifeforms (to our knowledge)? Perhaps there is something poisonous about our planet, with regards to Silicon lifeforms, such that they might evolve on other, more hospitable planets.
I am John Hurt.
I would imagine it was hard to respond to questions calmly and intelligently when THEY WERE ALL SHOUTED AT HIM by Dorminey.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Real life is NOT based on your computer and its silicon chips. Real life is in the outside world, away from your computer!
Disadvantages of exhaling silica dust: many. Advantages of exhaling silica dust: possible abrasive for lapping processor die, as well as immunity to the dreaded pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
How about we break the cycle by trying to visualize silicone under hundreds of thousands of tons of pressure, and thousands of degrees, with and atmosphere of ammonia? Or, alternatively, in a vacuum at tens of thousands of degrees? Partial pressure atmospheres at near 0 degrees kelvin?
Max Bernstein mentions something very similar to that in TFA.
Dorminey â" DO YOU THINK THAT SILICON-BASED LIFE MIGHT EXIST SOMEWHERE OUT THERE?
Bernstein â" Maybe deep below the surface of a planet in some very hot hydrogen-rich, Oxygen-poor environment, you would have this complex silane chemistry. There, maybe silanes would form reversible silicon bonds with selenium or tellurium.
How about the possibility that a face to face meeting with another life form might be fatal to one or both of the participants in the meeting? His environment is a poisonous atmosphere (to me) and my own body radiating heat might be fatal to him!
A biochemist's vision of such an encounter, for your listening pleasure.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Max Bernstein, the Research Lead of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington,D.C. — discusses what silicon life might be like
Washington-based usually means you're more bureaucrat than scientist.
But I love bureaucrats talking science as much as the next guy.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraggle_Rock
A bullet may have your name on it, but artillery is addressed to " Whom It May concern"
If you think about it, the people claiming that advanced civilizations would create self-replicating Von Neumann machines that would spread throughout the galaxy, are really claiming that carbon-based life would create (and maybe be supplanted by) silicon-based life. In the same way that RNA-life may have been necessary to get to DNA-based life, carbon-based life may be a necessary pre-condition for silicon based life. (We might think of those Von Neumann machines as robotic spacecraft, but those that can evolve would likely supplant those that cannot, and in a few billion years take on forms that we cannot predict.)
...welcome our lava-monster resembling and geologically-paced slow moving overlords.
Hopefully they don't mind the comparably very cold yet oxygen-rich environment here that would cause them to suddenly burst into flame and then become all hard and crusty.
They would have Carbone breast implants.
Keep Doing Good.
Although non-carbon based life is a very long shot...
Isn't this a really big assumption? Sure, we haven't seen any non carbon-based life, but we also haven't found carbon-based life on more than one little planet.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Shamefully adapted From "Alien/Nation" in the April 1991 issue of Omni Magazine.
"They're made out of silicon."
"silicon?"
"silicon. They're made out of silicon."
"silicon?"
"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely silicon."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars."
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. silicon made the machines."
"That's ridiculous. How can silicon make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient silicon."
"I'm not asking you, I 'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of silicon."
"Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a silicon stage."
"Nope. They're born silicon and they die silicon. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of silicon?"
"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part silicon. You know, like the Weddilei. A silicon head with an electron plasma brain inside."
"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have silicon heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're silicon all the way through."
"No brain?"
"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of silicon!"
"So... what does the thinking?"
"You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The silicon."
"Thinking silicon! You're asking me to believe in thinking silicon!"
"Yes, thinking silicon! Conscious silicon! Loving silicon. Dreaming silicon. The silicon is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?"
"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of silicon."
"Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out silicon. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."
"So what does the silicon have in mind."
"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual."
"We're supposed to talk to silicon?"
"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing."
"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
"Oh, yes. Except they do it with silicon."
"I thought you just told me they used radio."
"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? silicon sounds. You know how when you slap or flap silicon it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their silicon at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their silicon."
"Omigod. Singing silicon. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"
"Officially or unofficially?"
"Both."
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
"I was hoping you would say that."
"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with silicon?"
"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say?" `Hello, silicon. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"
"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special silicon containers, but they can't live on them. And being silicon, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and make
How do you qualify that?
Sulfur is another candidate often cited for its bonding capabilities.
Table-ized A.I.
The real question, will it superconduct and at what temperatures? (Think Trolls form Terry Pratchett's Discworld)
... just in case silicon based life would get pissed at this extreme disrespect.
We're all staring that the beginnings of silicon-based life right now.
We already know what Silicon life forms look like. Just go to Hollywood and check out all the Silicon-Carbon hybrids such as Pamela Anderson.