Why Is Humanity Special?
In the forward to his book The Scientists, science writer John Gribbin states that one of the greatest achievements in science is showing us that humanity isn't special. Scientists have shown us that we live on a rather ordinary planet orbiting a rather ordinary star in a rather ordinary galaxy in a universe that, if we are to believe certain interpretations of quantum physics, might itself be only an ordinary example of one universe within a multiverse. Scientists have also shown us that the processes that lead to life aren't some kind of magic; rather, they are a kind of specialized chemistry that can be studied and understood.
The idea that we aren't special is elegant when compared with the more mystical views of the Middle Ages that had the earth at the center of the universe and the human species cast as some sort of fallen angels. It is an idea that is common in the modern scientific community. The problem is that it simply isn't true. In fact, science has shown us that we are quite special. We are special because of the human consciousness, which is, as far as anyone can prove at this point, the only such example of such a consciousness existing anywhere in the universe.
If this finding continues to hold up, we are presented with a problem that's even larger and more confounding than the Fermi Paradox. Namely, why? Taking into consideration that our planet is ordinary and orbits a star that is ordinary in a galaxy that is ordinary and that life on Earth has evolved by means of chemical processes that ought to be commonplace using chemical building blocks that we know are commonplace, why is it that something as extraordinary as the evolution of intelligent life happened here and only here, in such an ordinary place?
By glibly saying that humanity is not special, many scientists are dismissing the most fascinating scientific mystery ever. Every observation that we have made in the history of science shows us that we are special, we are unique. We're left with two logical possibilities. The first is that we aren't special at all and that in spite of everything we've learned in human history, we have missed something big. The second is that we haven't missed anything, that we really are special, and we are then left to explain how and why that could possibly be true.
Carl Sagan once famously said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Perhaps the reason that the the question of whether or not there is life elsewhere in the universe is so endlessly fascinating is that no matter which answer you believe, you are making an extraordinary claim. And yet, there is no evidence to support either answer.
The idea that we aren't special is elegant when compared with the more mystical views of the Middle Ages that had the earth at the center of the universe and the human species cast as some sort of fallen angels. It is an idea that is common in the modern scientific community. The problem is that it simply isn't true. In fact, science has shown us that we are quite special. We are special because of the human consciousness, which is, as far as anyone can prove at this point, the only such example of such a consciousness existing anywhere in the universe.
If this finding continues to hold up, we are presented with a problem that's even larger and more confounding than the Fermi Paradox. Namely, why? Taking into consideration that our planet is ordinary and orbits a star that is ordinary in a galaxy that is ordinary and that life on Earth has evolved by means of chemical processes that ought to be commonplace using chemical building blocks that we know are commonplace, why is it that something as extraordinary as the evolution of intelligent life happened here and only here, in such an ordinary place?
By glibly saying that humanity is not special, many scientists are dismissing the most fascinating scientific mystery ever. Every observation that we have made in the history of science shows us that we are special, we are unique. We're left with two logical possibilities. The first is that we aren't special at all and that in spite of everything we've learned in human history, we have missed something big. The second is that we haven't missed anything, that we really are special, and we are then left to explain how and why that could possibly be true.
Carl Sagan once famously said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Perhaps the reason that the the question of whether or not there is life elsewhere in the universe is so endlessly fascinating is that no matter which answer you believe, you are making an extraordinary claim. And yet, there is no evidence to support either answer.