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Comment by 867-5309 | Hacker News Reader

kinda makes you wonder about the panspermia theories when space is mostly cold, dry, oxygen deprived and full of radiation. perhaps some more advanced humans elsewhere worked out how to bind DNA to these creatures and shot them at their nearest habitable exoplanet

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Shot them? Asteroid impacts which eject rocks into space are common enough on geological timespans that the question really is "can it happen? did it happen? how much of it happened?"

We should encode a message in their DNA that can't be evolved out. Think chirality. Something fundamental.

Maybe one day they'll evolve and get the message.

This is the plot of a Star Trek episode

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chase_(Star_Trek:_The_Next...

That's neat! Ideas are seldom unique, and this one goes way back.

(SPOILERS)

The closest analog I was thinking of was Carl Sagan's Contact, but instead of DNA, the message was put in an even more fundamental place (seriously, if you haven't read the book, don't spoil it for yourself - it's a fantastic read and go read it).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(novel)

What would that accomplish? Marking other planets like a dog does with its pee? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGjekRgtxSA

I guess to see if something “grows” on that planet and then know if it’s worth to settle over… (Face Screaming in Fear Emoji)

Life is the most wonderful gift.

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