Earlier this month, the journal Astrophysics and Space Science published one of 2016’s most bizarre, yet compelling, research papers. The tract, by German theoretical physicist Claudius Gros, argues that the probability of other planets hosting life is so small that it’s incumbent on humans — as caretakers of the universe — to actively distribute life through the cosmos. The paper, “Developing Ecospheres on Transiently Habitable Planets: The Genesis Project,” has raised eyebrows, hackles, and some concerns, but it was and is of a piece with the school of planetary science that favors the notion that life has a narrow window of opportunity to emerge and start evolving before a world becomes permanently sterile. It just takes that idea and runs in a different direction.
Inspired by the work of others, Gros has posited that mankind should consider altering the fundamental probabilities of the universe in order to create events like the Cambrian explosion, which was responsible for creating much of the biodiversity of Earth, takes place elsewhere. The idea is that mankind can serve as an absentee God and “fast forward evolution by 3-4 billion years.” The number that puts that in perspective is the current age of our planet, roughly 4.5 billion years.
Nonsense. The man is ignoring the evidence to the otherwise directly in front of his face. To read more, click here.