All news
ChatGPT Calculates There Is Life Within 6 Quadrillion Kilometers of Us. But It's Not Certain
By combining all these factors and calculating the probabilities, ChatGPT concluded that the probability that at least one planet with life exists within 665 light years (or 6 trillion kilometers) of Earth is about 99.9%. This means that life on other planets in this region of space is virtually inevitable.
6 trillion kilometers is an almost unimaginable distance. In kilometers, that number is: 6,290,000,000,000,000 km. To get an idea of the scale, consider that light, traveling at almost 300,000 km/s, takes 665 years to travel that distance.
To date, no planets 665 light years away have been directly explored. However, there is still no technology that would allow humans to explore a planet 665 light years away. Even the fastest modern spacecraft would take millions of years to reach that point. On the other hand, advances in technology, such as more powerful telescopes and radio systems, will allow us to study exoplanets and detect potential signs of life thousands of light years away.
ChatGPT's calculations show that life is almost certainly present at this distance. And while it's still just a theory, the fact that we live in a world where many other forms of life could exist is inspiring and encourages us to continue to explore and investigate.
Life also requires a source of energy for metabolic processes. The presence of an atmosphere helps maintain favorable conditions for life, such as temperature, and provides protection from dangerous radiation. The planet's gravity must be strong enough to support an atmosphere, but not so strong as to prevent the evolution of complex organisms. In addition, the planet's star must be stable and not emit large amounts of harmful radiation.
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking also believed that extraterrestrial life existed, but cautioned against actively attempting contact. He believed that a highly advanced extraterrestrial civilization could be dangerous, especially if its level of technological development was far superior to ours. However, he believed that it was safer to explore space than to try to attract attention, and supported projects that passively searched for radio signals, such as Breakthrough Listen.
Hawking also acknowledged that extraterrestrial life could be completely different from life on Earth, evolving in conditions we consider unsuitable for life. He pointed out that ideas about extraterrestrial life should not be limited to the usual forms based on carbon and water.
As a result, the Princeton researchers emphasize that despite the rapid emergence of life on Earth, we don’t know how likely it is elsewhere. Spontaneous generation (the process of turning nonliving matter into living nature – Ed.) can be rapid and widespread, or rare and difficult to achieve. This uncertainty makes it impossible to predict exactly how many planets might support life.
Fontanka asked Igor Izmailov, PhD in Physics and Mathematics, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Astronomy and Stellar Astronomy of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to comment on the calculations of artificial intelligence. He was critical of the results and noted the arbitrariness of the GPT variable — “the probability of life on the planet.” At the same time, Igor Izmailov considers this indicator to be the most interesting in his conclusions about artificial intelligence.
Another conclusion is that we can make a judgment about the scientific naivety of artificial intelligence. After all, it has no knowledge of its own and uses only what is given to it by developers and AI trainers. And here quantity does not necessarily turn into quality, so the scientific method with empirical research cannot be used. I have no idea where it got the variable 10-5 from. Either it copied it from one of the millions of works "assigned" to it by scientists, or it used a random number generator. In any case, it is impossible to verify these calculations in the near future, so everyone can be optimistic about this.