HN Books @HNBooksMonth

The best books of Hacker News.

Hacker News Comments on
Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe

Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee · 5 HN comments
HN Books has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe" by Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee.
View on Amazon [↗]
HN Books may receive an affiliate commission when you make purchases on sites after clicking through links on this page.
Amazon Summary
What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.
HN Books Rankings

Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.
> We have no clue how likely it was at Earth that life developed at all. Maybe it was just a chain of many lucky coincidences that happen once in 10 billion years. How is distribution any relevant then?

Incidentally this is the "Rare Earth" hypothesis. There's a rather depressing book on this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Univers...

The book Rare Earth covers this topic throughly. The conclusion they come to is that complex, multicellular life is likely extremely rare in the universe. But simple, microbial life may be much more common than we think.

http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/d...

yongjik
I didn't find the book very persuasive. The authors basically take everything that is (or might be) uncommon about the Solar System, and somehow turns them into an argument on why we are so lucky to have them.

E.g., we have big Jupiter. We don't know exactly what it does, but it might have helped the Earth survive its early days. Therefore, it might be the case that the rise of complex life needed Jupiter. Yadda yadda, multiply a dozen of these things, and suddenly life on Earth looks like an incredible stroke of luck.

The problem is, we don't know enough to make that verdict. What if the existence of Jupiter actually postponed the rise of life by sending big comets along our way?

I enjoyed "Life Everywhere" by Darling much more, though it is probably too dated to recommend in 2016. (Astrobiology is a rapidly changing field, I suppose.)

nickbauman
That's interesting remember the book explaining Jupiter had a specific influence on earth's ability to develop complex life in that its size and position made it essentially prevent a lot of comets and dangerous asteroids from hitting earth by simply getting in their way.
yongjik
I think I wrote my argument rather poorly. Let me try again:

I could buy that Jupiter in our particular Solar System had the effect of clearing asteroids in the Earth's orbit. However, that doesn't automatically mean that Jupiter was essential. What if, say, Jupiter's presence in the early days of the solar system prevented these asteroids from coalescing further, resulting in the presence of the asteroids in the first place? Or what if it didn't matter in the long run anyway?

Okay I just pulled that out of thin air, but what I'm saying is that there's too many unknowns to declare we needed Jupiter for life. The authors cherry-picks arguments that support their cause. Also bear in mind that this book was written in 2003, when we knew less than a dozen extrasolar planets and, IIRC, basically none looked like our Solar System (because the instruments weren't good enough to detect such systems). Even now, I don't think we know enough about planetary systems to confidently say whether Earth-like systems are common or rare.

I once read a book called Rare Earth; http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/d...

and the authors argued that the Earth has many unique circumstance necessary for the development of intelligent animal life that such life is probably exceedingly rare in the universe. The Earth/Moon and its stabilizing effect on the orbit, Jupiter the gas giant that protects the inner planets from asteroids and the development of an oxygen atmosphere, etc. and much more.

danieltillett
Rare earth is a great book. It really is the best explanation for the fermi paradox.
Perhaps "Rare Earth" by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee.

http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/d...

protomyth
nice book, but it was much, much older - mentioned in a column in the 80's
If you are really interested in this, read "Rare Earth", http://www.amazon.com/Rare-Earth-Complex-Uncommon-Universe/d..., it goes through an incredible mass of astronomical, geological, and biological information. It concludes that, because so many things had to go just right, and so many others were completely random, primitive life (bacterial-level) is likely to be more common than previously thought, while advanced life (multicellular) is likely to be much less common. Because of the sheer size of the galaxy, it is probable that other intelligences evolved elsewhere, but they are probably going to be too far away for any sort of contact, even receipt of potentially meaningful radio. It is a well-written book, despite the amount of information it is very readable.
HN Books is an independent project and is not operated by Y Combinator or Amazon.com.
~ yaj@
;laksdfhjdhksalkfj more things
yahnd.com ~ Privacy Policy ~
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.