What Silicon-Based Life Might Be Like

What's funny about attempts to visualize other types of life forms is, we tend to visualize those life forms in our own environmental terms. That is, we tend to assume some basic atmospheric conditions, pressure ranges, and temperature ranges. We "assume" certain basic conditions that resemble our own conditions.

Silicone? 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?

Of course, the question arises then, how and why are mankind interacting with such creatures under such conditions?

Of course, I was enamored with the idea of "living rock" as I child. Some story I read mentioned it, and I had the idea that some rock was really alive. Of course, it isn't - or IS IT?!?!? Nothing says that we are smart enough to recognize alien life when we see it. Geologic time and man's time are so different, that we might not even recognize that a rock actually breathes, or moves, or reproduces. Again, let's step outside our own familiar conditions. Assuming that time might be entirely different for some other life form in conditions that are inimical to us, why would we hang around long enough to collect the data necessary to determine that this or that rock really is alive?

I certainly don't have any answers about the existence of life outside our own experience. But, it amuses me to see the almost idiotic assumptions that people make when considering and debating the possibility. ?It?s life, but not as we know it? 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!

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/X58YLqBaN0c/what-silicon-based-life-might-be-like

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