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Discord Invitation
A Counter-Example to the Strong Biocentric Thesis
In The Biocentric Thesis I formulated the weak biocentric thesis such at all civilizations during the Stelliferous Era begin as biocentric civilizations originating on planetary surfaces, and the strong biocentric thesis such that all civilizations in our universe begin as biocentric civilizations originating on planetary surfaces.
An additional corollary of the strong biocentric thesis that I now realize I failed to formulate is that all
post-Stelliferous Era civilizations are derived (by way of descent with
modification) from Stelliferous Era civilizations of planetary endemism.
If a civilization can emerge de novo during the Degenerate Era, such a civilization would falsify the strong biocentric thesis (though not the weak biocentric thesis). Now, it seems to me that this in indeed possible, i.e., that a civilization can emerge de novo in the Degenerate Era.
Adams and Laughlin (authors of the book The Five Ages of the Universe, which I frequently cite) write in their paper “A DYING UNIVERSE: The Long Term Fate and Evolution of Astrophysical Objects“ that:
“…occasional collisions between substellar objects – brown dwarfs – provide a channel for continued star formation at a very slow rate. Collisions and mergers involving two white dwarfs will lead to an occasional type I supernova, whereas rare impacts involving neutron stars will engender even more exotic bursts of energy. Such events are impressive today. They will be truly spectacular within the cold and impoverished environment of an evolved galaxy.”
Thus there will be the occasional rare star lighting up some dark corner of the Degenerate Era for a few billion years – tens of billions of years if the newly formed star is a red dwarf. I assume that the newly formed Degenerate Era star will be a red dwarf, as the masses of two larger brown dwarf stars equal a smallish red dwarf mass (for example, two brown dwarves of about 50 Jupiter masses each together would add up to about 100 Jupiter masses, or 0.09543 solar masses; the lower end of brown dwarf mass is about 0.075 solar masses).
In just the past few years an enormous amount of work has gone into studying the possibility of habitable exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars (i.e., M dwarf stars), partly because these seem to be the most plentiful stars in the universe, and partly because they are stable and long-lived. Red dwarf stars and their planets present what might be called the “M dwarf opportunity” analogously to the “globular cluster opportunity” – that is to say, a sweet spot for life, and possibly also for further emergent complexities supervenient upon life.
A red dwarf that comes into existence during the Degenerate Era as a result of the collision of two brown dwarf stars could, during its relatively long life, incubate life and then civilization within its planetary system – if that planetary system could survive the collision of two brown dwarves, or be formed in such a collision.
While this counter-example suggests the possibility of de novo civilization during the Degenerate Era, it is an uninteresting counter-example because it represents nothing new in comparison to biocentric civilizations of the Stelliferous Era: it would be a civilization of planetary endemism, probably biocentric, with energy flows driven by stellar flux. Much more interesting would be a civilization of the Degenerate Era supervening upon astrophysical processes unique to the Degenerate Era.
For example, the high metallicity of the post-Stelliferous Era universe suggests the possibility of planets with plentiful metal ore deposits. An exotic counter-example to energy flows driven by stellar flux could be a planet plentiful in naturally-occurring nuclear fission reactors (as happened two billion years ago in what is now Oklo, Gabon, and which was predicted in 1953 by George W. Wetherill – cf.
“Spontaneous Fission Yields from Uranium and Thorium”
– before the Oklo evidence was discovered) from which radiation-resistant extremophile life might derive its energy flows. A civilization arising from such life, while still biocentric, as well as being a civilization of planetary endemism, would be quite different from civilizations of the Steliferous Era dependent upon stellar flux for their energy flows.
There are, then, at least two ways in which we can imagine de novo civilizations emerging during the Degenerate Era, suggesting that the strong biocentric thesis could be confronted with counter-examples and is not as secure as the weak biocentric thesis. But how secure is the weak biocentric thesis? Are there counter-examples for this as well? This will be a thought experiment for another time.
