by necovek on 6/21/2025, 6:05:20 PM
by tim333 on 6/21/2025, 5:01:54 PM
"slime on a spinning rock" is maybe a bit scientifically outdated. Quoting from an NYT article (The Mysterious, Deep-Dwelling Microbes That Sculpt Our Planet):
>even today, some scientists, especially in geology and related fields, continue to describe life as a relatively inconsequential layer of goo coating a vastly greater mass of inanimate rock.
>Such characterizations belie life’s true power. Life significantly expands the surface area of the planet capable of absorbing energy, exchanging gases and performing complex chemical reactions. The Earth-system scientist Tyler Volk has calculated that all the plant roots on Earth, finely furred with tiny absorptive hairs, make up a surface area 35 times greater than the entire surface of our planet. Microbes are collectively equivalent to 200 Earth areas... https://archive.ph/VgzKD
And life may have shaped the continents by infesting the crust so much that it breaks off and sinks in the magma. More than slime we may be dry rot too!
And soon to begat AI descendants to spread over the galaxy if you buy the singularity stuff. Which I have to say seems kinda inevitable to me though others may differ.
by Isamu on 6/21/2025, 1:59:57 PM
No mention of Rimuru Tempest? I don’t know why I expected it but I did.
by idiocache on 6/21/2025, 12:35:23 PM
It's a wonderful article but I can't accept the core argument.
Life is rare = life is precious is just a version of the naturalistic fallacy. You are entitled to believe that life is beautiful; you are equally entitled to believe it is a terrible cosmic mistake - acknowledging the rarity of life doesn't obligate you to change your belief.
by b0a04gl on 6/21/2025, 2:16:15 PM
> “it's time to retire the just slime’ metaphor”
hits hard. we’ve used that phrase to downplay life’s complexity, but statistically, life is the anomaly not the default. the blog nails it: we’ve only found life in one corner of one planet, under a very narrow set of conditions. framing it as mundane is a denial. we’re surrounded by sterile rock and radiation and somehow expect slime to be obvious
by bevr1337 on 6/21/2025, 3:18:42 PM
> So, is it right to say biology is “just” a planetary fungal infection?
Excellent closing statement. In my own life, I'm working to remove "just" from my vocabulary so it's fun seeing this called out in other context.
by megaloblasto on 6/21/2025, 1:20:30 PM
Life as a slime shouldn't be so rough
If anyone is to say "life is just slime on a planet", I'd mostly read into it as how insignificant life forms on Earth really are to the entirety of the Universe.
So, to me, the entire article is arguing a non-point: that's how I would read into the Hawking's statement. It's not about the beauty or complexity of life (or lack of it), but how even such complexity pales in comparison to the vastness of universe itself!
While life as we know it might not exist elsewhere in the universe due to a set of conditions required for it to evolve in such a complex way, there is likely other similarly awe-inspiring stuff (slime or not) throughout the universe — but, we are likely never going to experience any of it, with how restricted we are to existing within the boundaries of our little planet.