Life Before Earth · HackerPapers discussions

Life Before Earth — HN submission

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 16:23:20 GMT

Life Before Earth

4 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Life Before Earth — mentioned by theparanoid

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 01:38:09 GMT

A more interesting paper is Life Before Earth, https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.3381, analyzing biological complexity and projecting into the past for an origin of 9.7 billion years ago.

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Life Before Earth — mentioned by hyperpallium2

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 05:30:14 GMT

Backtrapolating the rate of increase of complexity of life over time suggests "intelligent life has just begun appearing in our universe". https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.3381

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Life Before Earth — mentioned by hyperpallium2

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 05:38:05 GMT

(not OP) Another clarification: before you said "non-earth life". Panspermia[1] implies Ceres and Earth life are related, so that native Ceres life is hard to distinguish from Earth's (and arguably is the same as Earth life). 1. Backtrapolating exponential evolution finds an origin older than Earth. https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.3381

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Life Before Earth — mentioned by hyperpallium

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:44:48 GMT

Even if there was heavy bombardment, it wouldn't be everywhere at once, and deep sea vents would be somewhat protected by kilometers of water. (assuming the bombardment wasn't so severe as to vapourise the ocean). That life was present as soon as earth was hospitable fits with the intriguing theory that extrapolates the origin of life to predate earth, based on the rate of increase in complexity: http://www.davidyerle.com/where-are-the-aliens/ (actual article pdf 287kb: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.3381)

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Life Before Earth — HN submission

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 15:33:53 GMT

Life before Earth (2013) [pdf]

1 point; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Life Before Earth — mentioned by 6ren

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:58:20 GMT

Those complaining about extrapolation may like to read the paper, rather than the article... https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://arxiv.org/pdf/1304... There's discussion of measuring DNA complexity; issues in extrapolation (there's evidence suggesting recent increases are hyperexponential, which would push back the origin of life even further); section 8 notes function complexity has increased much faster with the "mind" (as in what birds and mammals have) which is not reflected in DNA complexity (chimp-human encephalization rate is x100 faster). I love the fresh perspective of not…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.