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This comment seems wrong to me. What if Einstein had said, "sorry, General Relativity is a mathematical fact; observation is unnecessary for confirmation" instead of proposing tests!

Edit: Also, I think it would be just plain cool to observe natural selection in life that arose completely independently of our own. I don't think any reasonable person seriously doubts that natural selection is necessary for life.

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Funny thing is, Einstein did in fact pretty much said it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity#Def...

"When asked by his assistant what his reaction would have been if general relativity had not been confirmed by Eddington and Dyson in 1919, Einstein famously made the quip: "Then I would feel sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct anyway.""

Not only that but it would be interesting to see natural selection processes evolving using something other than what's familiar to us (DNA). If something like this were truly separate from us, wouldn't it have evolved its own genetic system (or equivalent) as well?

Some bacteria and viri use RNA. But I guess that doesn't really count as being different enough from DNA.

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