Take the high school biology definition of life and throw it out, it’s shit. Broaden your thinking to include any sort of self replicating chemical system. The possibility space is so vast that you could have life we are completely unable to recognize as such. If the moon was a living thing with a billion year reproductive cycle we would NEVER figure it out.
We have no idea what we are even looking for. It’s easy to imagine we are the only things “like us” in the universe. But there could be heaps of intelligent life that is nothing like us at all. So unlike us that we couldn’t recognize each other if we were in the same room let alone galaxy.
Take the high school biology definition of life and throw it out, it’s shit. Broaden your thinking to include any sort of self replicating chemical system. The possibility space is so vast that you could have life we are completely unable to recognize as such. If the moon was a living thing with a billion year reproductive cycle we would NEVER figure it out.
We have no idea what we are even looking for. It’s easy to imagine we are the only things “like us” in the universe. But there could be heaps of intelligent life that is nothing like us at all. So unlike us that we couldn’t recognize each other if we were in the same room let alone galaxy.