Re: Relevant - Plate Tectonics Might Only Occur on 0.003% of Planets. That Makes Earth Very Special Indeed.

On Thu, 4 Jul 2024 09:54:50 -0700, a425couple <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Big DEAL !!
>So many times greats like Heinlein and Silverberg have written
>about us going to exoplanets, and it being like Earth.
>Sorry,,,, NO!
>
>from
>https://www.universetoday.com/167659/plate-tectonics-might-only-occur-on-0-003-of-planets-that-makes-earth-very-special-indeed/
>
>Plate tectonics: Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center 
>Scientific Visualization Studio
>POSTED ONJULY 2, 2024 BY SCOTT ALAN JOHNSTON
>
>Plate Tectonics Might Only Occur on 0.003% of Planets. That Makes Earth 
>Very Special Indeed.
>Plate tectonics, oceans, and continents might just be the secret 
>ingredients for complex life on Earth. And if these geological features 
>are rare elsewhere in the universe, then perhaps that explains why we 
>haven’t yet discovered intelligent alien life. New research from 
>American and Swiss Earth scientists suggests that these ingredients 
>represent missing variables in the famous Drake equation, devised more 
>than half a century ago to estimate the chances of finding advanced 
>civilizations in our galaxy. Including these new variables could 
>completely rewrite the probability of detecting intelligent life in the 
>Milky Way.
>
>Go to the citation for the rest ----.

Note the sequence here:

1. Certain people believe -- firmly, passionately, and religiously
believe -- that We Are Not Alone. This /must/ be true, they say, it
just /must/ be true.
2. The problem is, no actual evidence of this has been found. 
3. Indeed, no actual evidence is likely to be found until we /go out
into the universe and see/.
4. Since the radio frequencies /we have decided/ are the ones that
would be used to communicate with us are silent, they are desperate
for excuses. They, of course, call them "explanations".
5. Lack of Plate Tectonics is simply the latest excuse.

What I /wouldn't/ find if I bothered to read the article:
a detailed discussion of, say, 500 planets (or even of 1 extrasolar
planet) which we have travelled to and investigated thoroughly and how
many of them had plate tectonics, a large natural satellite, an
absence of Dark Matter, archaeological evidence of past (and now gone)
Alien Civilizations, or any of the other excuses that have been
offered.

I wouldn't find that because the only planets we have visited are in
our own Solar System -- and, even so, we haven't actually explored
them enough to know for certain that a past civilization did not
exist. All we can say is that /by the criteria we decided on
ourselves, which may or may not be adequate/ there isn't any life on
any of them. At least, not any that we have found to date.
-- 
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"