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Comment by lwneal | Hacker News Reader

Spilling a few tardigrades on the Moon isn't a big deal, because there is almost certainly no life there.

But imagine if, in the year 2120, we discover thriving colonies of live bacteria 40 meters below the surface of Mars. Life on another world! It would change everything! But suppose upon further inspection the bacteria turn out to be a species from Earth, stowed away stuck to the treads of the Perseverance rover [1].

Was there life on Mars before we put it there? Was there a unique kind of Martian life, with DNA completely different from ours, that has been forever eaten away by our accidental contamination? We would never know.

For this reason, NASA and the Soviets agreed in 1967 to pursue a policy of Planetary Protection [2] ensuring that no probe or lander contaminates another planet.

[1] https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/mars_2020/launch/mi...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection

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We see no other life, we have spaceships, and it’s not guaranteed that we will have spaceships indefinitely.

Our priority, our responsibility to the non-space-faring life forms of Earth is to spread them, as much as possible, to as many places as possible. Drop them into Venus, Mars, Europa, onto every passing comet, and as soon as it becomes feasible, into a one way trip to the nearest exoplanets.

It’s bad enough that the universe appears to have no other life in it, we are the only known agents with any chance of changing that, it’s way more important for the next 14 billion years that we try, than that we protect our ability to identify some hypothetical Martian protein chains or amoebae.

To the contrary: the surest path to sustaining human life on an alien planet is to throw earthly life at it, and then study what survives.

> It would change everything!

Really? How? What is one aspect of life that would change for anyone not in the space exploration industry?

Finding life on another planet, even just single celled organisms, would help with the study of biogenesis, which is one of the greatest mysteries of biology.

Some exotic life form, which did not originate on earth would most likely have interesting features we have never seen before. Scientists could study them and gain insights about alternatives to the biology of earth creatures. Who knows this research may lead to new drugs or procedures we can use to better our lives?

Finding proof of the existence of God would not change anyone's lives materially, but you know why it would be important.

How would proof of god be found on Mars or through studying biogenesis? It would just raise more questions.

Philosophically, I think this is impossible. Even if there were discovered an omniscient, omnipotent being, there would still be question of whether it were supernatural or merely preternatural; the question of its divinity would still be subject to personal belief

I'd probably think about it occasionally and smile.

It would change our science fiction.

Children would learn about it in school from a very young age, or at home in books even younger. They'd grow up knowing Earth life isn't the only life.

Religions would slowly adapt to be more palatable to children who grew up this way, or lose favor among the next generation.

It would have significant implications for our long term future (or lack thereof).

Depends if it's life that has common ancestors with us or not.

If life originated independently twice in our Solar System it means whole galaxy should be teeming with it.

It doesn't look like it does - so the Great Filter moves from "rise of life" to "rise of complex life", "intelligence", and "technical civilization".

That's very bad news for u,, it dramatically increases the odds that technical civilizations usually destroy themselves soon after they develop.

> Or

They die from a high velocity impact with an asteroid. Planet is wiped clean and nothing suggesting life remains.

Among others mentioned in this thread is: who knows? It's an unknown unknown

Maybe nothing. Maybe nanotechnology. Maybe information storage. Maybe photosynthesis. Maybe physics, math. It would almost certainly radically transform biology. One thing is certain: it wouldn't likely have zero effect on human understanding

And why would the natives be 'eaten away'? Confused.

Because in this hypothetical scenario the bacteria we brought into the planet outcompeted them. It happened often enough on earth with invasive species, so it isn't unthinkable (even if improbable)

I dunno. "Life, uh, finds a way."

Planetary protection is one of the worst ideas ever drempt up and likely to significantly harm progress in the future. God forbid we actually find life on Mars, it would likely cause a century long (or more) delay on any colonization efforts of Mars as scientists-in-name-only try to prevent contamination of Mars by humans landing there.

> try to prevent contamination of Mars by humans landing there.

Considering the fantastically great job we did running our own planet, methinks that's probably a good idea.

Humans are an STD: Spaceship Transmitted Disease.

This comment meme is a cancer, in the Dawkinsian sense.

Lumps of rock are not “more healthy” than “lumps of rock with life on”, nor are they “more happy”. And if you want to claim they are capable of experience and that you understand what they are thinking, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Correct. It was a low-effort shitpost and I'm surprised people upvoted it - I was planning on deleting it in the morning.

Unfortunately because you replied, now I can’t delete it.

The idea that Humans are a disease is a much discredited one (notably popularized in The Matrix where the villain used it to describe humanity). First off planets are not alive, they are bodies of rock and metal and liquids. They cannot be infected and our presence has little impact on Earth itself. Our presence has only affected other life. And as the Moon and Mars are lifeless, there's nothing to damage.

And we're not "running" our planet.

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