Love it. Abiogenesis, the belief that life evolves from nonlife, is a lot like believing the advertising hype for Sea Monkeys, because it entails a form of magical thinking. Magical thinking is a fallacious type of reasoning that assumes causal relationships between grouped phenomena that aren’t necessarily so (in astrobiology “follow the water”). Appealing to the magical-thinking characteristic in children, the clever comic book ad featured a fantastic, subaquatic kingdom populated with humanoid mermen in front of their medieval-style castle. Invented in 1957 by Harold von Braunhut, the cleverly marketed product promised your very own colony of these alien beings by just adding an “instant-life” packet to a fish tank full of water. Whereas the “instant-life” concept is compatible with astrobiological assumptions, it was really only clever marketing. In truth, sea monkeys are brine shrimp, a kind of crustacean capable of cryptobiosis, a state somewhat like extreme hibernation in response to adverse conditions like dehydration, freezing temperature, or lack of oxygen. While the presence of water is a necessary condition for life, it is not a sufficient one. Thus, “follow the water” to find intelligent life seems a lot like believing in sea monkeys.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 16:49:26 +0000
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