An Ode to Panspermia is a tongue-in-cheek piece I penned back in 1971 dedicated to the theory (supportable and plausible, by the way) that Earth was seeded with the stuff of life from “out there somewhere.” Evidence in favor of this theory continues to mount, though there is vociferous resistance to both the theory and its implications at all levels. There aren’t many who like the idea that we may have accidentally (deliberately?) been transported here from somewhere else. Anyway, I thought this might be fitting here. If for no other reason than to drop a little humor and maybe spur some creative juices. Many of you may have seen this since it has been around for a mite over forty-five years, and I’ve had the unmitigated gall to post and publish it in several places. My apologies.
AN ODE TO PANSPERMIA
by
J. Richard Jacobs
I’m an alien, you’re an alien—we sprang from alien sources.
Homo Sapiens and the Simians—even Arabian horses.
I’m an alien, you’re an alien—we came on alien transports.
So did the orca, the dolphin clan, and all their cetacean cohorts.
And now that we’re here, we’ve nothing to fear but future visits from alien sources.
4
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2 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Many of the building blocks of life can be generated in a lab with no more than simulations of heat and lightning on to a soup of the type of chemicals reckoned to exist in abundance on early earth. Some of those could have become self-replicating molecules. Asteroids from elsewhere could have dropped alien versions of self-replicators on to this planet, to mingle with our home-grown stuff. Whatever it was, self-replicators gradually became more complex, and the fittest surviving. Whether an alien variety of RNA/DNA or a home grown one became dominant can never be proven - there were no referees - but that all life developed from a particularly suitable and belligerent self-replicator is pretty certain. There is actually a great variety of virus designs, which could well have evolved separately. However, self-replicators can assimilate, gaining characteristics of both and losing others. Hence mitochondria. But all life on earth almost certainly has alien elements.
Petter
Level 9
Apr 7, 2018
1
The theory that alien transports were responsible is far less likely than microbes in a meteor.
273kelvin
Level 8
Apr 7, 2018
1
I would classify meteors as alien, therefore as alien transports.
@Petter Yes but the word transports implies some sort of intelligence aforethought. From what we are learning about some biological life forms here on earth, it maybe just accidental. ie A planet exploded and bacteria or even more basic life forms may have just been there and survived deep space.