Everyone and their mother has commented on the water found on Enceladus. There is speculation about life. If life doesn't exist on Enceladus, and to a good second approximation we should know in a few decades, I suggest seeding the moon with Terran organisms that might be able to survive and flourish. In a few decades genetic engineering might also progress to a point where exotic prokaryote metabolisms could be synthesized with the physiology of more complex aquatic organisms.
Nuts? Yeah, probably, but so what. I don't believe that God exists, but I suspect It might in the future. Someone should start practicing.
Comments
Can you imagine the sort of fish that'd grow in a low-gravity environment like that if you seeded it? We'd definitely need a net...
Posted by: Corkscrew | March 10, 2006 2:06 PM
well...i was thinking of cephalopods more....
Posted by: razib | March 10, 2006 2:24 PM
heh.
closet believer. ;)
Posted by: matoko kusanagi | March 10, 2006 2:46 PM
Might be better to start on Europa though. We already think it has a worldwide ocean beneath its icy crust. Also Jupiter is closer than Saturn.
Finally of course, there was that message in the movie
ALL THESE WORLDS2010: The Year We Make Contact
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
Who could resist? I vote Europa.
Posted by: Dan Dare | March 10, 2006 6:17 PM
I don't believe that God exists, but I suspect It might in the future. Someone should start practicing.
I love these two sentences.
Posted by: Khalil A. Cassimally | March 11, 2006 6:10 AM
I don't believe that God exists, but I suspect It might in the future.
Razib, have you been reading Husserl?
Posted by: Steve C | March 15, 2006 9:13 PM
no. should i?
Posted by: razib | March 16, 2006 2:36 AM
it's just that your quote is basically what Husserl said. When I have time, I'll try to dig it up.
And, no, you shouldn't waste your time...
Posted by: Steve C | March 16, 2006 11:22 AM
It's even better (or at least cooler) to seed Earth life there if there is in fact native evolved life. What cool happenings might result from such an interaction ? Maybe a cell from one world by chance could envelope a cell from the other world.....
Come on, all you geeks know you are with me :)
Posted by: Scottynx | March 17, 2006 5:23 PM