6 ms·
There is a bit of luck in even having any viable materials that work at the required temperature to choose from. For example, humanity hasn't been able to find
by somebodynew 4y ago
There is a bit of luck in even having any viable materials that work at the required temperature to choose from.
For example, humanity hasn't been able to find a single appropriate material for a superconductor at room temperature/atmospheric pressure despite significant research, but a civilization living below 100 K has a myriad of options to choose from. Superconductors are high technology to us, but if your planet is cold enough then superconducting niobium wire would be a boring household item like copper wire is for us.
- dodobirdlord 4y agoNiobium superconducts at 9.3K, so that would be a pretty cold household!
- marcosdumay 4y agoHum... We inhabit that temperature exactly because it allows for a wide range of chemical reactions in a controlled fashion. The Anthropic Principle is not luck. We are lucky that those interesting things are possible. We are also unlucky that many interesting things are not possible. But given that they are possible, it was almost inevitable that most of them would be possible around us.
- int_19h 4y agoIt's also not an absolute. We don't actually know how common life is in environments significantly different from ours, so the part about "wide range of chemical reactions" is just our conjecture.