Enceladus is the most habitable place after Earth

[JamesG]

Generally concepts of alien life in science fiction are very unrealistic, compared to serious speculative works.

Then again, there is the concept of convergence, where similar life stratagies are used by totally unrelated organisms. So even though an organism may be totally... well, alien, it could very likely posess traits in common with Terran life.

But still highly unlikely there are hot chicks out there with blue or green skin.

Most likely what you'll get is teeth, eyes, claws, and fur. But the configuration of them differ.

 

[Andy44]

Mutations that are unnoticeable on the outside, maybe.. but society still rejects 'freaks' (sad but true) so when they pro-create it will most likely be with 'one of their kind', as society likes to put it, and the offspring will be condemned to a life of social isolation. Since mankind has been killing each other, this has been the fate of any person that falls out of social context, because 'society' has been the dominant god, since we lost our link with God.

You're assigning moral values to natural processes, and thus muddying the waters. If you want to think clearly you have to put all that handwringing stuff aside.

 

[T.Neo]

But still highly unlikely there are hot chicks out there with blue or green skin.

Most likely what you'll get is teeth, eyes, claws, and fur. But the configuration of them differ.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was saying.

 

[Ghostrider]

Most likely what you'll get is teeth, eyes, claws, and fur.

Sounds like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan on a Saturday night after one drink too many.

 

[RisingFury]

Sounds like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan on a Saturday night after one drink too many.

I will take green skin and antennas over any of those two!

 

[cjp]

I think there are three kinds of alien species that could be dangerous to us:

1. The big and strong (type "polar bear")
2. The technologically advanced (type "homo sapiens")
3. The microbiological

Type 1 is easy to deal with: just carry sufficient weapons. Type 2 is probably very rare, and probably doesn't exist in the solar system, except for our own species. That leaves type 3.

I think viruses can't be a problem, because, by definition, viruses use the reproductive capacities of their host cells for their own purposes. Earth's biochemistry is probably too different from Europan life to allow for cross-planet viruses.

Other micro-organisms are a different story, because they don't necessarily need to depend on a specific microbiology. For instance, there might be Europan bacteria that are capable of eating nearly every kind of fat and proteine molecule. To them, we may taste a bit strange, but if they're hungry, they'll eat us anyway.


I don't think the lack of radiation is a problem for Europan life. Earth life has a lot of mechanisms to reduce mutations. If having more mutations is desirible, Europan life may simply have less of such mechanisms. And they might use molecules that are more sensitive to mutating forces.

Besides that, radiation isn't the only factor that causes mutation. High-energetic chemicals (especially free radicals) are another factor. In fact, I've heard that this is why trees can become so much older than us (their metabolism is much slower, so their cells contain less oxygen and free radicals).