Norman Spinrad at Large: Life as We Don’t Know It?

Before I wrote the review CITIZENS OF THE GALAXY about to be published I had written  and  published  three stories about  what our culture would be like after we knew we were not alone in the galaxy but knew not much else.

But that was then and it is soon to be different and now it turns out the answer is yes and no.

Has the existence of life beyond our planet been proven to exist?  This is now a legitimate scientific question. The answer is now probably yes but not yet formally proven.

What chemical science knows is hat the atmospheres of several planets within so called “Goldilocks  Orbits” beyond our solar system include chemicals that could only be created by biospheres.  And So does current chemical  and astrophysics science does not disagree.

Very strong evidence both agree that there have  to be planets with biotic atmospheres and have or have had or will have lives below them . But not yet enough scientific evidences to prove this as a certainty and loudly announce the greatest news in human history.

The people of our planet will require sight and/or touch to accept as truth that we are citizens of the galaxy and not just the other ones either.

This may be sooner than we think. Soon dead life or even live life is going to be taken back from Mars.  Solar systems whose planets have been moved into artificial orbits could now be seen for thousands away from our planet, let alone Dyson Spheres nuclear  explosions.  The more advanced a technological civilization the easier to find them.  And indeed, we may be advanced enough for them to find us.

And only now do we know that so-called “Red Dwarf” stars are more common that our kind of stars, which in affect are “Giants.”  And only now do we fully understand that H20 is the most common chemical in the Galaxy and carbon is the most common atom in the universe.  And together they are  the backbones of all  of what we call bio molecules.

And now we have learned that H20 is everywhere, as liquid water, as ice, as clouds,  even  deep beneath ice caps of planets and moons still as liquids however cold.  The  Water of Life one way or another as we know it everywhere as we know it.

But Life as we don’t know it?  What about AIs? Electronic robots? Stars themselves? Can there be forms of life beyond biospheres? What do we mean by “life?”

So this  is just my invitation to read just my review of three speculative novels which will  take your imaginations  there.

But  there can never be a final answer to that in the cold equations but only forever questions in  speculative fiction  Which will  become the central literature of any culture in the galaxy as it is about to become now, for us, and for any sentient beings  in the universe, as soon as we all know that we are Citizens of the Galaxy.