You can use this same argument to conclude that there's an alien race that speaks French. Of course we know they don't: as big as the universe is, the possibility space of possible languages is much bigger. French is only spoken on Earth, not because French is unique, but because it's not unique.
But maybe, if everyone only spoke French, it wouldn't occur to us that other languages were even possible. We'd be trying to estimate how many French speaking aliens were out there.
Deoxyribonucleic acid is our French. Because it's all we know, we think it's special. But the possibility space is much bigger.
Comments
The universe is a really inconceivably big place. In fact they (the smart people) are not entirely sure that it isn't infinite.
Drake equation or not, seems such a big place that it seems hard to imagine that this tiny little spot is in some way unique.
You can use this same argument to conclude that there's an alien race that speaks French. Of course we know they don't: as big as the universe is, the possibility space of possible languages is much bigger. French is only spoken on Earth, not because French is unique, but because it's not unique.
But maybe, if everyone only spoke French, it wouldn't occur to us that other languages were even possible. We'd be trying to estimate how many French speaking aliens were out there.
Deoxyribonucleic acid is our French. Because it's all we know, we think it's special. But the possibility space is much bigger.
People have been thinking about non-carbon based life, so not everyone is thinking only about French, at least not all the time.