The key argument I've heard against silicon-based life is that, while silicon can create some variety of polymer structures, it's a VERY limited list (that we know of), compared to Carbon being able to form hundreds of different polymers. That variety of carbon-based polymers is crucial to carbon being the basis of life on Earth. Silicon lacking that variety would mean life based on it would be severely limited, if at all possible. Also, the imagery of silicon-based life always having crystals on their bodies just because 'silicon makes crystals' always bugs me. Carbon makes crystals, too. You don't see that in carbon-based life, though.
The main reason why silicon life is impossible is because you can't rly have a silicone cycle when SiO2 is a solid with a high melting point and the temperature where you can have a silicone cycle will render other molecules instable. On the other hand compare it with carbon based life where the carbon cycle is mediated through CO2 which is a gas
@@viermidebutura Does that make silicon-based life *_impossible,_* or just harder? There's a difference. Remember that life seems to be run by the Seabees, who respond to the word "impossible" with a John Wayne snarl and an "Oh, yeah?"
I'm reminded of a fantasy I spun for a friend in which I described Neptunians trying to imagine the inhabitants of Sol-III, "fiery beings with molten ice in their veins...!"
@@harbl99honestly it is. If it weren't for photosynthesis molecular oxygen would be found in excess in the atmosphere at least not on earth. So they might not even contemplate it the same way we dont contemplate molecules of chlorine in the atmosphere Edit: im not discounting that silicon guy breathing chlorine gas through some alien chemistry 😛
@@512TheWolf512 i definitely think alien biochemistry ends up allowing for life in conditions we could not imagine. So they'd be as jealous of us as we are of them😅
@@uncleanunicorn4571I think the same. It's a bit of a stretch. It's not because it looks like a mini earth that it will ever have enough energy around to even sprout life. Enceladus with it's big brine-ocean might harbour some life that probably looks very much like earth's early life.
We have deep-sea life here on Earth that feeds upon geothermal energy and little else. So I could easily see a Jovian equivalent to tube worms living beneath frozen oceans.
I've been subscribed sine the great attractor episode so may years ago but had to make a new account recently. Guess I have to go back through and give every video a new like now.
I think it could be worth discussing botworlds such as Stanislav from Orion’s Arm, basically evolved but non-sentient machine life with self modification run amok and essentially coalescing into a machine ecosystem.
I always loved that idea, like Venus from Warframe! Old machines designed to work together in a self-sustaining ecosystem having gone amok and turned into a whole bionosphere.
9:30 google ai is saying that the tempatures to keep molten metal would be too destructive for any complex molecule. But some theoretical models suggest molten silicate.
I might not agree with everything you say. But when I come across people who possess a higher degree of knowledge and intelligence than myself. Then I would only be doing myself a disservice if I wasn't willing to both listen and learn. Especially as I love all the subjects you talk about. Merry Christmas. ❤ from🇸🇪
We have some silicone based life forms right here on earth. They usually also have a dash of Botox based body parts, as they are believed to extend the shelf-life of that life form.
I looked it up and it’s saying the bonds for molten metal in lava are too volatile and would constantly break apart, and are too hot to sustain those bomdst
For Silicon-based life to emerge anywhere you would need some extremely funky niche circumstances to be in place. I suspect it's extremely rare and very simple. Honestly if it does exist anywhere I'd imagine in 99/100 cases it would be purposefully designed rather than naturally emerging.
That seems to be right, "some extremely funky niche circumstances to be in place"... and for quite some long time. I mean Carbon chemistry is fast, and yet it took a lot of time, a lot of tries and discards, for the first true cell to appear. Anyway, I can envision this scenario only near a red dwarf because any faster burning star would make the lottery of tries and discard, even more funkier from a statistical perspective. Not impossible, but with a very low probability. Heck, Carbon-based lifeforms, with variations, would be millions of times more probable, even in conditions that we cannot encounter on Earth.
@@gaychinee Talking only about Carbon-based lifeforms and not about multicellular to intelligent Carbon-based lifeforms, it's not that funky niche. In our galaxy, there are almost 20% G and K type stars (yellow, like our Sun, and orange). Those are the most stable with a decent lifetime, decent radiation, and decent-sized Habitable Zone. If a planet in this zone happens to have a mass close to Earth's and a magnetic field, then the probability for the Carbon-based lifeforms to appear is close to 100% IMHO. Now, of course, single-cell lifeforms don't guarantee multicellular lifeforms, as intelligent lifeforms don't guarantee technological lifeforms. For more thoughts, check Drake equation. Anyway, Carbon is best suited as the building block for life because, at liquid water (which is the main solvent) temperatures, its chemistry has the best combination betwwen complexity and speed.
@@gaychinee Carbon-based life should be all over the universe. For Silicon-based you need very specific circumstances where for some reason it was silicon instead of carbon. Which is yes, funkier.
Interesting episode Isaac, thanks for researching and presenting/uploading. You introduced a number of concepts which I either didn't know or were on the cusp of my memory. I did read an article in New Scientist some time ago that seemed to conclude that silicon-based life was all but impossible. But that must've been at least 10-20 years ago now, so perhaps silicon-based life isn't as bleak a prospect in light of newer research. You did cover off some reasons why it was, perhaps, unlikely. I guess I would've liked to hear a bit more about that side of thing - specifically so I could hear what the reasonable counter-arguments were! After all, the prospect of silicon based life is such an interesting one.
No it is definitely not plausible. There is a great video by Angela Collier (who is a professional physicist) on this topic as well as space elevators. She is way more informed on the topic than isaac. The idea of molten metals as a solvent is absurd. Pure science fiction and speculation.
Life’s weird…. I was an average student who stumbled through school to eventually find a niche as a social worker. Never really liked science. Now I’m an Isaac Arthur fanboy who can barely wait for the next episode 😊
@@RandomGuy-lu1en if so, that's too bad. With the galaxy and universe being do big and having so many possibilities, shouldn't it be possible that a handful of life forms do not conform to Carbon or perhaps Silicon requirements as a base?
Great video. stuff like this is a great inspiration to my speculative evolution inspired story. I really appreciate the fact you uploaded this and the general content you make. Keep up the good work
Fascinating as usual, but the longer the discussion continues, the harder it is to believe that such exotic life would be all that common (or complex if it did manage to evolve...)
Was on Nebula to watch the Shoplifter episode. Me, I've already decided that I'd head out to the Oort cloud, if given the chance. Also saw the photo of your kids. Good job there, man. (and good luck)
A better word to use might've been "drifter", though. People are wary of drifters for the reasons Isaac mentioned the video will be about, in that they're a stranger that comes through and might just steal stuff then quickly disappear into the wind to a new town before there's any chance to catch them.
Looking at the topic again, I realize that silicon-based life isn't just improbable, but extremely close to if not completely being impossible. If silicon-based life were vaguely possible, someone would've found parts of it in a lab. Solvents that would technically allow it to happen, silicon-based molecules that would technically be able to support the idea, and molten chemistry that would technically point to the possibility of it happening. Most of this research has already been funded by mining companies, since dissolving minerals in acids or other molten materials is how alot of modern mining works. Discovering an entire branch of silicon-based organic chemistry that is the size of current textbooks of sulfur and phosphorus organic chemistry would be a trillion dollar discovery that would result in a Nobel Prize in economics, then a massive mined resource boon that would take humanity to the stars. And I guess there'd be a Nobel Prize in chemistry somewhere along the way, but I'm sure the winner of that chemistry award won't care.
Is the channel name "Arthur" a reference to a speech synthesizer by the same name? It was recently used on a video on Kitboga channel. The narration in this video sounds very similar.
I am guessing there would have to be an evolution of silicon life forms starting out with silicone based bacteria. Another way is for it to be artificially created to perform a mining function for an advanced civilization.
Who else caught The Fermi Paradox Pancosmorio list as January 4, 2023. But knowing Isaac he did it just to see if we are paying attention, good episode as always
In Destiny 2, there's a race of silicon-based lifeforms called the Vex, who are really just radiolarian colonies inhabiting robotic shells. They evolved on a world next to a blue supergiant star, and energy was so abundant that there was no predation or competition for resources.
Hermit Shoplifter, yes that is exactly what I will be when I have uploaded my brain into a computer. Silicon only let's me think about the Tholians, at least now I few new ideas are floating around in my brain. Thanks for the great episode.
Star Trek The Next Generation had an early episode where a Federation terraforming project was sabotaged by an unrecognized silicon-based lifeform that was based on photoelectric semiconductors, which existed in a very thin band of subsurface salt water, which they used as a communication medium. At first, neither the lifeforms nor the terraforming team paid much attention to each other, or even considered each other forms of life. Incidentally, they considered humans ugly bags of mostly water.
Imagine being visited by silicon-based intelligence......this giant, glowing red craft descends, vaporizing everything in its vicinity-from just its latent heat alone.
I remember reading this about Silicon-based Life: One is startled towards fantastic imaginings by such a suggestion: visions of silicon-aluminium organisms - why not silicon-aluminium men at once? - wandering through an atmosphere of gaseous sulphur, let us say, by the shores of a sea of liquid iron some thousand degrees or so above the temperature of a blast furnace. - H. G. Wells, “Another Basis for Life,” Saturday Review, p. 676 (December 22, 1894). So you're saying Silicon-based Life using molten iron as a solvent, like described here, is actually possible? What type of star could accomodate complex Silicon creatures with that solvent for hundreds of millions of years? An A-type star, maybe? Is an O-type star good enough, or is it too short-lived?
Another variation for environmental energy harvest is more energetic radiation in those high pressure/thermal planets, such that they need mid UV to activate a gate charge. Another part of the life molecule, is the energy transport chemicals. In life, these are hydrocarbons for long term storage, and phosphates like adp/atp cycles for immediate usage. Without a series to transport energy and store it in a distinct flux apart from the environment, because that higher energy makes an entropy baseline the lifeform has to sit within. Imagine the energy density required for a lifeform siting in molteen metal, it would have to be significantly more energetic in capacity. Not to mention, this also fight against current standards of technology, as part of a tool use is a degree of constant stability. Such a life would have to have tools made of tungsten carbide, and perhaps as bones as well.
I think a big hurdle in forming complex biomolecule analogues in silicon based life forms would be all the steric hindrance between the silicon atoms due to their large size.
Not overly familiar with the CNO cycle. Arthur talks about Nitrogen as part of the cycle but in the diagram (4:02) has Ne written. Was it supposed to be N?
As I'm drinking my coffee and snacking on peppermint bark, I'm wondering how volatile and weird it could be to a possible silicone based life form from another world... 🤔 Of course we know how not very healthy my snack choice is for us, it's still sooooo good! Thanks Issac, very fascinating stuff ❤
Isaac, is silicon good for hot sor is silicone life better for hot environments? I was under the impression that silicon life was suggested for Titan and silicone life was suggested for Venus.
Same thing....one of those-the silicone just has an oxygen atom attached to it I believe. Well not really same thing, but I'd consider those both silicon based personally
For today we're speaking of any molecules with silicon atoms in them rather than any specific molecule but yes silicone is favored for hotter conditions.
That's a family of concepts that I cannot start considering for stories build in settings with current tech. It pushes my mind to that technological level where we get space-vessels with billions of intelligent individuals, travelling between galaxies. Some or all characters biologically immortal. Under that premisse I can see a truly cosmopolitan society where people based indifferent chemical elements share more or less the same rights and obligations. They could be able to communicate online, and even learn each other languages perhaps. Even if they could not stand in the same room for a couple seconds. Would be interesting to see people realizing they have more in common with some silicon based octopus who swims in hot lava in some other part of the ship than with most other humans. And showing surprize. As if wasn't obviously that it should be expected. I am not sure why, but I have the inclination to associate that sort of story with band dessinées. French comic books.
It seems that the key is in having the spontaneous development of silicon structures that have the ability to self-replicate. This initial step seems very rare. Akin to putting a hundred parts in a box and shake it long enough to create a viable radio. Putting aside the AI angle, Silicon life makes more sense if you think of carbon based life (us) as the embryonic, transition step to a silicon based life. I can't see Stargate's 'Replicators' spontaneously evolving from basic elements.
What if there were a Kardashev-2 civilization of silicon-based life forms inside a planet's crust, regularly launching spacecraft via volcanoes which were mistaken by the carbon-based life forms living on the surface for ordinary eruptions...?
I bet there are a race of silicon based life forms that have human level intelligence somewhere in the universe debating the possibility of CARBON BASED LIFE.
One wonders....if silicon-based life is possible, could we make it and use it to explore the depths of our own planet, for which we are unsuitable. An interesting story hook if nothing else. Also food for conspiracies: the silicon-based civilization existing in our planets depths, who have actually made us to explore territory for which they are unsuitable. Eh...my imagination is running amok, don't mind me,
There are two main reasons why silicon is a weaker base for life, one of which you touched on, that being the atomic weight. The other is that carbon only has one electron shell which makes it higher energy whereas silicon has two electron shells and it's the outer shell that forms bonds and has relatively lower energy making for relatively weaker bonds. That doesn't make it impossible though, and I think there is silicon life out there somewhere, just not the way sci-fi usually depicts it lol.
The visual novel/anime Muv-Luv plays the silicon-based aliens very smartly IMO. SPOILERS BELOW!!!! Swarm-like aliens invade Earth, and over the course of 40 years, devastate Eurasia and drop the world population to 1 billion. Once contact is eventualy established with them for the first time, it's found that they are not sentient; instead, they are essentialy biological drones created by another, impossibly advanced silicone-based sentient race who "programmed" them to harvest carbon across the galaxy. In other words, their creators couldn't even imagine that sentient life could come out of anything other than silicone, and see everything carbon-based as mineral ressources. So in their eyes, their invasion of Earth and massacre of our species was just an automated mining operation on a lifeless rock, and all of our efforts to resist, including slaughtering millions of their drones, employing nukes, developing giant robots to fight them (yes it's anime) etc. were just chemical reactions or physical forces, like friction eroding mining tools.
What about life using hydrogen fluoride as a solvent instead of ammonia I feel like fluorine is massively unused by life on earth because its relatively rare but what if there was a plant where it was common enough to form oceans?
Wont exchange of gasses and metabolism in general be a pain in the behind for such organisms? Due to both nature of the solvents and the stability of the molecules?
Silicon based lifeforms can naturally evolved in any planet too hot or cold for carbon based life Silicon-based life that naturally evolced in earth's mantle can rationalizes Hollow earth theory How about you make video about Plasma-based lifeforms: they can be the most numerous life on the universe?
IT’S ARTHURS DAY!!🎉🎉
Happy day Isaac?
@@ogpeekhal Yes
Happy Arthur's day 🎉🎉 lol
I case it's not fake news, happy birthday 🎉
I see what you did there.😏
The key argument I've heard against silicon-based life is that, while silicon can create some variety of polymer structures, it's a VERY limited list (that we know of), compared to Carbon being able to form hundreds of different polymers. That variety of carbon-based polymers is crucial to carbon being the basis of life on Earth. Silicon lacking that variety would mean life based on it would be severely limited, if at all possible.
Also, the imagery of silicon-based life always having crystals on their bodies just because 'silicon makes crystals' always bugs me. Carbon makes crystals, too. You don't see that in carbon-based life, though.
Yes, and yes.
This comment validates my previous knowledge so I like it.
The main reason why silicon life is impossible is because you can't rly have a silicone cycle when SiO2 is a solid with a high melting point and the temperature where you can have a silicone cycle will render other molecules instable.
On the other hand compare it with carbon based life where the carbon cycle is mediated through CO2 which is a gas
@@viermidebutura Does that make silicon-based life *_impossible,_* or just harder? There's a difference.
Remember that life seems to be run by the Seabees, who respond to the word "impossible" with a John Wayne snarl and an "Oh, yeah?"
@@christopherbaby3842 Thank you for keeping a watch out for one of the most dangerous errors of reason.
I'm reminded of a fantasy I spun for a friend in which I described Neptunians trying to imagine the inhabitants of Sol-III, "fiery beings with molten ice in their veins...!"
Yay. Nothing beats an episode from Mr. Arthur! I'll get my drink and snack ready.
15:56 heard this as "very long dune-ass sandworm" at first and I was like hell yeah Isaac, cut loose
"Get a load of that huge-ass dune-ass sandworm" - Isaac Arthur
Now I wish I'd said that instead of Dune-esque :)
10:50 Cthonian planets? No thanks Isaac, one Horus Heresy was cringe enough for me.
Issac Arthur: There might be silicone-quartz life on Cthonian planet's.
IFRYRCE: Yes Inquisitor, this man right here.
This is perfect as I am working on a game where one of the species will be based on Silicon. THANKS FOR MAKING THIS!
Glad to help, good luck on the game!
What game you working on man
Id like to play that game
@@josecano326 I'll be posting updates soon. A playable demo is almost ready.
I may release either through steam or Kickstarter.
@@NoTimeLeft_ how can I keep up with updates?
Somewhere in Andromeda there is a silicon guy saying carbon life could be possible
"You think they'd use something as ridiculously volatile as oxygen as their respiration gas? Absurd!"
@@harbl99honestly it is. If it weren't for photosynthesis molecular oxygen would be found in excess in the atmosphere at least not on earth. So they might not even contemplate it the same way we dont contemplate molecules of chlorine in the atmosphere
Edit: im not discounting that silicon guy breathing chlorine gas through some alien chemistry 😛
More likely they'd be jealous of not being carbon based, just by how much more resilient and versatile that would make them
@@512TheWolf512 i definitely think alien biochemistry ends up allowing for life in conditions we could not imagine. So they'd be as jealous of us as we are of them😅
And he probably assumes that we'd be plated in diamonds the same way Isaac assumes they'd be plated in quartz.
This channel is so underrated
A Titanium-skinned Silicon alien species would be very cool.
I wonder what, if anything, we find on Titan. Imagine finding life of a totally different composition in our own solar system.
You need a totally new form of enzyme chemistry to get Bio chemistry, At such low temperatures.
@@uncleanunicorn4571 Not entirely impossible, what of the red stuff they thought was bio matter out there ?
@@uncleanunicorn4571I think the same. It's a bit of a stretch. It's not because it looks like a mini earth that it will ever have enough energy around to even sprout life. Enceladus with it's big brine-ocean might harbour some life that probably looks very much like earth's early life.
We have deep-sea life here on Earth that feeds upon geothermal energy and little else. So I could easily see a Jovian equivalent to tube worms living beneath frozen oceans.
@@KevinRoboticsEDUtrue. We don't know what's down there as well as what's out there. The void and the abyss are both mysterious if you will
I've been subscribed sine the great attractor episode so may years ago but had to make a new account recently. Guess I have to go back through and give every video a new like now.
Love it!! Glad you guys are cranking out episodes still
Brilliant work as per usual!
I think it could be worth discussing botworlds such as Stanislav from Orion’s Arm, basically evolved but non-sentient machine life with self modification run amok and essentially coalescing into a machine ecosystem.
I always loved that idea, like Venus from Warframe! Old machines designed to work together in a self-sustaining ecosystem having gone amok and turned into a whole bionosphere.
9:30 google ai is saying that the tempatures to keep molten metal would be too destructive for any complex molecule. But some theoretical models suggest molten silicate.
Somewhere, there's a silicon based lifeform giving a presentation on the possibility of lifeforms that are ugly sacks of mostly water...
5:14 The elemental composition of the human body is just mind blowing. Only a small amount of ingredients.
Yet another informative video to brighten my day.
Great work that broadens my horizons Isaac.
Happy Arthursday!
Perfect timing had today selected to start a silicon based lifeforms presentation
Don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been waiting for a silicon life based episode for the longest time!
I might not agree with everything you say. But when I come across people who possess a higher degree of knowledge and intelligence than myself. Then I would only be doing myself a disservice if I wasn't willing to both listen and learn. Especially as I love all the subjects you talk about. Merry Christmas. ❤ from🇸🇪
We have some silicone based life forms right here on earth. They usually also have a dash of Botox based body parts, as they are believed to extend the shelf-life of that life form.
Just what I needed right now. You're the best, Sir!
I looked it up and it’s saying the bonds for molten metal in lava are too volatile and would constantly break apart, and are too hot to sustain those bomdst
I had been waiting for this topic for awhile. Well done.
My favorite silicon based lifeform is the Horta.
My favorite are the Changelings from DS9
I keep thinking of Steven Universe myself 😅
For Silicon-based life to emerge anywhere you would need some extremely funky niche circumstances to be in place. I suspect it's extremely rare and very simple. Honestly if it does exist anywhere I'd imagine in 99/100 cases it would be purposefully designed rather than naturally emerging.
That seems to be right, "some extremely funky niche circumstances to be in place"... and for quite some long time. I mean Carbon chemistry is fast, and yet it took a lot of time, a lot of tries and discards, for the first true cell to appear. Anyway, I can envision this scenario only near a red dwarf because any faster burning star would make the lottery of tries and discard, even more funkier from a statistical perspective. Not impossible, but with a very low probability. Heck, Carbon-based lifeforms, with variations, would be millions of times more probable, even in conditions that we cannot encounter on Earth.
Doesnt carbon based life also need funky niche circumstances to emerge?
@@gaychineeNot nowhere as crazy as silicon
@@gaychinee Talking only about Carbon-based lifeforms and not about multicellular to intelligent Carbon-based lifeforms, it's not that funky niche. In our galaxy, there are almost 20% G and K type stars (yellow, like our Sun, and orange). Those are the most stable with a decent lifetime, decent radiation, and decent-sized Habitable Zone. If a planet in this zone happens to have a mass close to Earth's and a magnetic field, then the probability for the Carbon-based lifeforms to appear is close to 100% IMHO. Now, of course, single-cell lifeforms don't guarantee multicellular lifeforms, as intelligent lifeforms don't guarantee technological lifeforms. For more thoughts, check Drake equation. Anyway, Carbon is best suited as the building block for life because, at liquid water (which is the main solvent) temperatures, its chemistry has the best combination betwwen complexity and speed.
@@gaychinee Carbon-based life should be all over the universe. For Silicon-based you need very specific circumstances where for some reason it was silicon instead of carbon. Which is yes, funkier.
I bet this will be one of the most viewed videos on the channel!
Impressive show as always. Thank you very much.
I think sulfur is another possible alternative, since it is also very abundant. I've studied this quite a bit, and it is certainly plausible.
Every Thursday is a great day with Mr Arthur's upload schedule.
I have been binge watching Issac’s content. Need to stop and go to the gym and work off all these drinks and snacks!
Interesting episode Isaac, thanks for researching and presenting/uploading. You introduced a number of concepts which I either didn't know or were on the cusp of my memory. I did read an article in New Scientist some time ago that seemed to conclude that silicon-based life was all but impossible. But that must've been at least 10-20 years ago now, so perhaps silicon-based life isn't as bleak a prospect in light of newer research. You did cover off some reasons why it was, perhaps, unlikely. I guess I would've liked to hear a bit more about that side of thing - specifically so I could hear what the reasonable counter-arguments were! After all, the prospect of silicon based life is such an interesting one.
No it is definitely not plausible. There is a great video by Angela Collier (who is a professional physicist) on this topic as well as space elevators. She is way more informed on the topic than isaac. The idea of molten metals as a solvent is absurd. Pure science fiction and speculation.
Life’s weird…. I was an average student who stumbled through school to eventually find a niche as a social worker. Never really liked science. Now I’m an Isaac Arthur fanboy who can barely wait for the next episode 😊
Probably never had science presented in a way that would grab your interest.
I’m a huuuuge fanboy of Isaac lol 😂❤ this is one of if not the best channels on UA-cam. 🎉
Same imagine him being your high school science teacher. With AI soon we'll all be able to have him as one lol.
Right about now, I'm a holiday treats based life form :d Have a good holiday and happy new year everyone.
Ha ... You to
I love the idea of molten metal “blood” for silicon life. I also see issues should anyone get a brilliant new idea for sourcing solder.
How incredibly strange would a Lead based life form be...I can hardly imagine.
@@RandomGuy-lu1en if so, that's too bad. With the galaxy and universe being do big and having so many possibilities, shouldn't it be possible that a handful of life forms do not conform to Carbon or perhaps Silicon requirements as a base?
@@RandomGuy-lu1en Ok, I gotcha. Thanks
I'm picturing folks with nuclear-powered smartphones and earbuds :)
@@isaacarthurSFIAyes but what do they consider a drink and a snack to go along with this week 's episode? 😅
@@acadiano10 I'm guessing Titanium Tortilla chips, drenched in lava...no hot sauce necessary.
I really appreciate your videos and wide range of topics, thank you!
Great video. stuff like this is a great inspiration to my speculative evolution inspired story. I really appreciate the fact you uploaded this and the general content you make. Keep up the good work
Woo hoo best channel ever!
Fascinating as usual, but the longer the discussion continues, the harder it is to believe that such exotic life would be all that common (or complex if it did manage to evolve...)
Was on Nebula to watch the Shoplifter episode. Me, I've already decided that I'd head out to the Oort cloud, if given the chance. Also saw the photo of your kids. Good job there, man. (and good luck)
A better word to use might've been "drifter", though. People are wary of drifters for the reasons Isaac mentioned the video will be about, in that they're a stranger that comes through and might just steal stuff then quickly disappear into the wind to a new town before there's any chance to catch them.
Thus was an especially awesome episode!
Sweet another amazing video
Looking at the topic again, I realize that silicon-based life isn't just improbable, but extremely close to if not completely being impossible. If silicon-based life were vaguely possible, someone would've found parts of it in a lab. Solvents that would technically allow it to happen, silicon-based molecules that would technically be able to support the idea, and molten chemistry that would technically point to the possibility of it happening. Most of this research has already been funded by mining companies, since dissolving minerals in acids or other molten materials is how alot of modern mining works.
Discovering an entire branch of silicon-based organic chemistry that is the size of current textbooks of sulfur and phosphorus organic chemistry would be a trillion dollar discovery that would result in a Nobel Prize in economics, then a massive mined resource boon that would take humanity to the stars. And I guess there'd be a Nobel Prize in chemistry somewhere along the way, but I'm sure the winner of that chemistry award won't care.
Is the channel name "Arthur" a reference to a speech synthesizer by the same name? It was recently used on a video on Kitboga channel. The narration in this video sounds very similar.
I am guessing there would have to be an evolution of silicon life forms starting out with silicone based bacteria. Another way is for it to be artificially created to perform a mining function for an advanced civilization.
Who else caught The Fermi Paradox Pancosmorio list as January 4, 2023. But knowing Isaac he did it just to see if we are paying attention, good episode as always
In Destiny 2, there's a race of silicon-based lifeforms called the Vex, who are really just radiolarian colonies inhabiting robotic shells. They evolved on a world next to a blue supergiant star, and energy was so abundant that there was no predation or competition for resources.
The vex are such a pain to deal with and those weird noises they make are annoying lol
I feel like the topic of desert varnish would have been relevant to this and at least worth a mention
There's a whole crop of budding science fiction writers that owe you a lot!
Are silicon bonds more volatile and have toxic byproducts and also aren’t good with water or something.
Hermit Shoplifter, yes that is exactly what I will be when I have uploaded my brain into a computer.
Silicon only let's me think about the Tholians, at least now I few new ideas are floating around in my brain. Thanks for the great episode.
Yes! Now please do one on nitrogen-based life. You can used the movie Evolution for inspiration
I think that's what are ammonia-based life episode would probably be, albeit we really only focused on Ammonia and that as the solvent like water
@@isaacarthurSFIA cool, ill check it out. Thanks!
Star Trek The Next Generation had an early episode where a Federation terraforming project was sabotaged by an unrecognized silicon-based lifeform that was based on photoelectric semiconductors, which existed in a very thin band of subsurface salt water, which they used as a communication medium. At first, neither the lifeforms nor the terraforming team paid much attention to each other, or even considered each other forms of life.
Incidentally, they considered humans ugly bags of mostly water.
Our own mantle doesn't seem to have any silicon based life. Thanks for the great show.
I have the same w-lisp as issac, but his intelligence makes me less embarrassed by it.
Ah, somebody has played the Silicoids race in Master of Orion.
Imagine being visited by silicon-based intelligence......this giant, glowing red craft descends, vaporizing everything in its vicinity-from just its latent heat alone.
Excellent ❤
I remember reading this about Silicon-based Life:
One is startled towards fantastic imaginings by such a suggestion: visions of silicon-aluminium organisms - why not silicon-aluminium men at once? - wandering through an atmosphere of gaseous sulphur, let us say, by the shores of a sea of liquid iron some thousand degrees or so above the temperature of a blast furnace.
- H. G. Wells, “Another Basis for Life,” Saturday Review, p. 676 (December 22, 1894).
So you're saying Silicon-based Life using molten iron as a solvent, like described here, is actually possible? What type of star could accomodate complex Silicon creatures with that solvent for hundreds of millions of years? An A-type star, maybe? Is an O-type star good enough, or is it too short-lived?
Another variation for environmental energy harvest is more energetic radiation in those high pressure/thermal planets, such that they need mid UV to activate a gate charge. Another part of the life molecule, is the energy transport chemicals. In life, these are hydrocarbons for long term storage, and phosphates like adp/atp cycles for immediate usage. Without a series to transport energy and store it in a distinct flux apart from the environment, because that higher energy makes an entropy baseline the lifeform has to sit within. Imagine the energy density required for a lifeform siting in molteen metal, it would have to be significantly more energetic in capacity. Not to mention, this also fight against current standards of technology, as part of a tool use is a degree of constant stability. Such a life would have to have tools made of tungsten carbide, and perhaps as bones as well.
You want Transformers? Cos that's how you get Transformers!
Studying the rich ecosystems living off of deep sea vents, It's hard to fully dismiss life on europa using a similar energy source.
I think a big hurdle in forming complex biomolecule analogues in silicon based life forms would be all the steric hindrance between the silicon atoms due to their large size.
also the very weak bonds
Happy birthday!
5:19 I’ll have you know that my silicon ice trays are not stiff when I take them out of the freezer.
Not overly familiar with the CNO cycle. Arthur talks about Nitrogen as part of the cycle but in the diagram (4:02) has Ne written. Was it supposed to be N?
As I'm drinking my coffee and snacking on peppermint bark, I'm wondering how volatile and weird it could be to a possible silicone based life form from another world... 🤔 Of course we know how not very healthy my snack choice is for us, it's still sooooo good! Thanks Issac, very fascinating stuff ❤
Isaac, is silicon good for hot sor is silicone life better for hot environments? I was under the impression that silicon life was suggested for Titan and silicone life was suggested for Venus.
Same thing....one of those-the silicone just has an oxygen atom attached to it I believe.
Well not really same thing, but I'd consider those both silicon based personally
@@ChadDidNothingWrong Yes, both are silicon based but the two chemicals are vastly different.
For today we're speaking of any molecules with silicon atoms in them rather than any specific molecule but yes silicone is favored for hotter conditions.
@@isaacarthurSFIA Thank you.
Nice. I really like your videos
Nothing makes me sadder than knowledge of Nebula-exclusive episodes :(
Wow What wild alien life theories this guy has about on insane places like Io and Venus.
That's a family of concepts that I cannot start considering for stories build in settings with current tech. It pushes my mind to that technological level where we get space-vessels with billions of intelligent individuals, travelling between galaxies. Some or all characters biologically immortal. Under that premisse I can see a truly cosmopolitan society where people based indifferent chemical elements share more or less the same rights and obligations.
They could be able to communicate online, and even learn each other languages perhaps. Even if they could not stand in the same room for a couple seconds.
Would be interesting to see people realizing they have more in common with some silicon based octopus who swims in hot lava in some other part of the ship than with most other humans. And showing surprize. As if wasn't obviously that it should be expected.
I am not sure why, but I have the inclination to associate that sort of story with band dessinées. French comic books.
What silicon turn in to when combined with other elements for energy? Sand is quite hard to exhale.
I am supposed to be working, not watching this excellent video!
I am using it with headphones to counter the irritating office Christmas music.
Feliz Navidad for the 1000th time 🤣🤣
It seems that the key is in having the spontaneous development of silicon structures that have the ability to self-replicate. This initial step seems very rare. Akin to putting a hundred parts in a box and shake it long enough to create a viable radio. Putting aside the AI angle, Silicon life makes more sense if you think of carbon based life (us) as the embryonic, transition step to a silicon based life. I can't see Stargate's 'Replicators' spontaneously evolving from basic elements.
What if there were a Kardashev-2 civilization of silicon-based life forms inside a planet's crust, regularly launching spacecraft via volcanoes which were mistaken by the carbon-based life forms living on the surface for ordinary eruptions...?
Congratulations on your newly adopted carbon based lifeforms.
That episode of star trek was just on "regular " tv last night!!
I bet there are a race of silicon based life forms that have human level intelligence somewhere in the universe debating the possibility of CARBON BASED LIFE.
One wonders....if silicon-based life is possible, could we make it and use it to explore the depths of our own planet, for which we are unsuitable. An interesting story hook if nothing else. Also food for conspiracies: the silicon-based civilization existing in our planets depths, who have actually made us to explore territory for which they are unsuitable. Eh...my imagination is running amok, don't mind me,
Life always finds a way. 💯
Personally, i really like starrrrrrs 😂
I liked Uller Uprising H Beam piper the alien's in the book were silicon based partially, they had opal teeth.
Interesting topic.
There are two main reasons why silicon is a weaker base for life, one of which you touched on, that being the atomic weight. The other is that carbon only has one electron shell which makes it higher energy whereas silicon has two electron shells and it's the outer shell that forms bonds and has relatively lower energy making for relatively weaker bonds. That doesn't make it impossible though, and I think there is silicon life out there somewhere, just not the way sci-fi usually depicts it lol.
Not to be confused with the Silicone based lifeforms in Miami and LA.
Lava whales living within the Earth in the magma surrounding the core sounds awesome.
Is this a reupload?
No, I have never done a re-upload
@@isaacarthurSFIA Did you accidentally release early on Sunday on your podcast feed? I'm pretty sure I listened to it.
@@username65585maybe you've gotten some strange dream memories mixed up with your normal memories
The visual novel/anime Muv-Luv plays the silicon-based aliens very smartly IMO. SPOILERS BELOW!!!!
Swarm-like aliens invade Earth, and over the course of 40 years, devastate Eurasia and drop the world population to 1 billion. Once contact is eventualy established with them for the first time, it's found that they are not sentient; instead, they are essentialy biological drones created by another, impossibly advanced silicone-based sentient race who "programmed" them to harvest carbon across the galaxy. In other words, their creators couldn't even imagine that sentient life could come out of anything other than silicone, and see everything carbon-based as mineral ressources. So in their eyes, their invasion of Earth and massacre of our species was just an automated mining operation on a lifeless rock, and all of our efforts to resist, including slaughtering millions of their drones, employing nukes, developing giant robots to fight them (yes it's anime) etc. were just chemical reactions or physical forces, like friction eroding mining tools.
Interesting
@All - What do you know about matrioshka technologies? What do you know about matrioshka rings and alien life?
A lot of women have a lot of silicon. So you can kind of say we already have a hybrid of silicon life
What about life using hydrogen fluoride as a solvent instead of ammonia I feel like fluorine is massively unused by life on earth because its relatively rare but what if there was a plant where it was common enough to form oceans?
Wont exchange of gasses and metabolism in general be a pain in the behind for such organisms? Due to both nature of the solvents and the stability of the molecules?
What makes you think silicon based life would need those things?
@@gaychinee by definition all life needs them.
My gravity well cannon doesnt care if youre made of silicon or potatoes.
You can't possibly know it's feelings.
@@MuppetsSh0w Don't worry their feelings will probably remain intact within the singularity as data....somewhere.
@@SlimeUwU You do not know if xir is feeling nonbinary.
"Truth is stranger than fiction"
Mercury! I’d like to think Mercury would be a solvent for Silicon based life.
Silicon based lifeforms can naturally evolved in any planet too hot or cold for carbon based life
Silicon-based life that naturally evolced in earth's mantle can rationalizes Hollow earth theory
How about you make video about Plasma-based lifeforms: they can be the most numerous life on the universe?