Evolution Did life start in the early universe soon after the Big Bang?

[Maciamo]

This is the hypothesis developed by Kurzgesagt in this video. Very well argued and rather convincing.

 

[November]

I agree. I was very skeptical at first but when he showed the timeline of the average temperature being that of liquid water ( @ STP) it did leave the possibility open if you have enough 'metals' from supernovas which also seems possible. This wasn't offered as a proof but to stimulate discussion and speculation.

 

[norbert]

I don't see why it shouldn't be possible. Early on the cosmic timescale means a period between ca. 300 million and 1 billion years. It is in this period (the Cosmic Dark Ages) that first Population III stars form, meaning stars that fuse helium atoms to heavier elements like carbon, oxygen, silicon and all the way to iron. Those are the elements that enable complex chemical compounds that would eventually lead to organic matter, life and ultimately a matter that emerged to self-awareness. There is no reason to assume that life didn't emerge elsewhere but it must be very rare and intelligent life even more so. The argument that the universe is teeming with life because there are hundreds of billions of stars in a galaxy and hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe is not a convincing argument but wishful thinking and a "common sense" inherent to human intuition which is relative and self-deceptive. But who knows, maybe we'll find life in the depths of Europa or Enceladus and have more reason to believe that life may not be rare after all.