[rendall]

> the most inhospitable places we can imagine

That "we can imagine" is doing a lot of the work, there. We humans are pretty limited in experience, operating parameters and yes, imagination. On but one dimension, consider the range of all possible temperatures and how narrow the band in which the lifeforms of which we have knowledge can survive. Consider the same along all other dimensions like radiation, gravity, pressure, particulate density, magnetic field intensity, perhaps others we have not even discovered yet.

Carbon life that we know about is "robust" only considering the relatively narrow ranges on our own planet.

[keithwhor]

The range of all possible temperatures is theoretically infinite. Life as we know it — without protection — can survive at everything from 0K to 386K (113C). As humans we have harnessed temperatures in the 100s of millions of degrees (fusion) safely and can build machines that reliably extend our operating parameters far beyond their normal bounds.

It’s easy to be dismissive, but the reality is that life as we know it is pretty freaking incredible.