[cooper_ganglia]

I understand the view that life likely exists elsewhere in the universe, and I agree that, given the vast number of planets and galaxies, it's certainly a plausible idea. The sheer scale of the universe, coupled with our growing knowledge of exoplanets and extremophiles—organisms that thrive in conditions once thought inhospitable to life—makes it reasonable to think life could exist beyond Earth.

That being said, I have no logical reason to know life exists anywhere else except on this planet. I think it's important to differentiate between the likelihood of something and claiming certainty about it. While the possibility of extraterrestrial life is exciting and worth exploring, until we have direct evidence, we can't confidently say it’s out there.

In fact, we can't even answer the philosophical question, "Do other people aside from me even actually exist?" with 100% certainty. This brings us to the ironic part: sometimes, claiming we know life exists elsewhere can be a reflection of the same kind of ego that leads others to believe humanity is uniquely special in the universe. Both positions can, in a way, stem from an overestimation of our ability to know the unknowable.

I think it's great to remain curious and open to discovery, but also humble about the limits of our current knowledge. :)

[m3kw9]

in math they use a lot of approximations to do calculations like limits -> infinity. It's a good enough approximation that is almost unrefutable. Also, who has more ego, we are the winner of 1 in 10e30, or there is way more winners.

[generic92034]

The mass in the observable universe is considered to be 10^53 kg. So nothing is going to infinity when it comes to life made from matter (or energy).

I am not sure how to talk about things outside the observable universe. If light speed provides the ultimate limit for causality, this outside might as well not exist, from our perspective.