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The "if there really is life on Venus, we could be doomed" proposal

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/briankoberl...be-doomed/

EXCERPT: Astronomers have detected the presence of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. This could indicate the presence of life since some living organisms are known to produce phosphine. [...] If cellular life exists on Venus, then it implies that it exists almost everywhere. Venus is a hot, inhospitable world that has no liquid water and rains sulfuric acid. If life can evolve in the atmosphere of Venus, then places like Mars, Europa, and Titan almost certainly have life. That means the great filter doesn't happen at an early stage.

The great filter must happen much later. While Earth has seen many periods of mass extinctions, life has always rebounded. When it does, it tends to increase its diversity pretty quickly. Intelligent life also seems to have lots of opportunities. If we primates hadn't risen to civilization, it's likely that some other branch of the evolutionary tree would have. If there is life on Venus, then a wet temperate world such as Earth will almost certainly give rise to an intelligent species.

But we don't see intelligent life scattered about the universe. That would likely mean that the great filter occurs after the rise of civilization. Here on Earth, we now have the technological power to transform our environment. But our technology has also created pollution and global warming problems that threaten to drive us to extinction. We could be our own great filter... (MORE - details)

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OPINION: However, Venus probably wasn't always a hellish world; and thus it was Earth-like conditions that would have spawned life which adapted to survive in the acidic upper atmosphere later on when the planet dramatically changed. Additionally, life may have traveled from younger Earth to younger Venus or vice-versa; or even have originated on early Mars. Point being that a lone world could still have been the source, not many.
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