Complex Life Found Under 600 Feet of Antarctic Ice
Lincoln Cannon
19 March 2010 (updated 29 October 2016)
“In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists found a shrimplike creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath an Antarctic ice sheet.” (Boston Globe)
This news is particularly interesting to those who are familiar with the Great Filter Argument: EITHER prehumans are improbable OR humans probably will go extinct before becoming posthumans OR posthumans are probable.
On Earth, we continue to discover prehumans in abundance and in unexpected locations, leading many to suppose prehumans to be probable elsewhere in space, despite hostile environments. If such supposition attains empirically in the future (say, we discover prehumans on Europa), we’re left with the other disjuncts of the argument: EITHER humans probably will go extinct before becoming posthumans OR posthumans are probable.
The New God Argument contends for the pragmatic value, even the moral obligation, of rejecting the position that humans probably will go extinct before becoming posthumans. If we do that, we’re left with the conclusion that posthumans are probable. Where are they?
If you like these thoughts, you might also like “Trust in Posthumanity and the New God Argument.”
