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Do aliens dream of offworld sheep?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2018
Abstract
The Stanley Miller experiment suggests that amino acid-based life is ubiquitous in our universe, although its varieties will not have followed the particular, highly contingent and path-dependent, evolutionary trajectory found on Earth. Are many alien organisms likely to be individually conscious in ways we would recognize? Almost certainly. Will alien consciousness require a ‘sleep cycle’? A strong argument suggests it will. Can some species develop analogs to culture and high-order technology? Less likely, but still fairly probable. If so, will we be able to communicate with them? Only on a basic level, and only with profound difficulty. The reasoning is fairly direct and involves convolution of a learned heritage system with individual and collective consciousness.
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