[Mountain_Skies]

While I have no objection to panspermia being possible, if it were true, it would be a significant hurtle added to the search for the origins of life. We would know how life on Earth started, but until we expand out into the galaxy, understanding the origins of the life that seeded Earth would be essentially unknowable.

[K0SM0S]

At the same time, it's pretty clear we need to get out there (ultimately much beyond the galaxy itself) if we are to solve certain questions.

And there's a general idea that a purpose of life may be to "spread" through the universe — like, why die here on this planet instead of settling the universe... given the actual choice, there's no solution but to leave eventually, when your star dies (if only locally to "fix" it by adding more fuel in it, e.g. hydrogen).

So this, if true, is really just one more reason on top of an already high pile as I see it.

[lovemenot]

Assuming panspermia is correct, we could just continue to improve sampling of stuff coming here. Also sampling earth-originated organic materials from some distance away. This could give us some pretty good data on variety, density, duration.

Under this assumption I'd most like to estimate the number of discrete seeders in our vicinity and their interconnectedness.