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This documentary presented by Royal Astronomer Sir Martin Rees explores the science that provides the models, theories, and evidence for the evolution of intelligent life in the vastness of the universe we live in.

The first part analyzes the probability that Earth-like planets are likely to be found in out galaxy but also in the rest of the universe. The search for exoplanets yielded until 2010 over 400 planets, but the vast majority of them are gaseous giants like Jupiter. Finding an Earth-like planet in the billions of solar systems in our galaxy is a hard challenge, but even if we find it, it is going to have to be from a rare breed: it must lie within the habitable zone, that is, the distance from the sun where an Earth-like planet can maintain liquid water on its surface. Why is that? Carbon based life needs water.

The second part of the documentary goes into a thorough analysis of the limitless forms life is supposedly going to evolve to, if it manages to bootstrap itself from the ordered and stable chemical constructs found on an Earth-like planet. Contrary to the traditional view, which says evolution is only a blind watchmaker that randomly evolves lineages of creatures with no limits or constraints on their forms, some scientists say that there exists an “invisible landscape” on which evolution is taking place so that only specific lineages of organisms (with universal morphological and functional systems throughout the universe) are developed by being constrained to evolve only on specific “evolution landscape channels” universal to all life in the universe.

There are several examples in nature of what is called convergence, that is, evolution being able to separately find the same solution for a similar problem that two different species have. Flight, fur, photosynthesis, and sex are examples of such solutions that evolved separately in different lineages. One more obvious example is the eye that evolved separately in humans and octopuses – worth noting is that the most recent common ancestor of humans and octopuses lived 500 million years ago and it was blind. In this video scientists go so far as to say photosynthesis and hemoglobin might be universal solutions to similar problems, and we should expect to find them in life forms that habit Earth-like planets.

The third part of the documentary tries to answer the question of how probable it is that life might evolve into intelligent, technological beings like us. It might be that life on Earth is such a contingency that it may never have happened elsewhere in the universe. Others argue that there are some universal principles of chemical and physical organization which combine chemical elements in such a way that life is inevitable all over the vastness of space.

The possibility of Panspermia is considered, that is, the possibility that the “seeds” of life exist already all over the Universe. The methane on Mars, if it is found to be generated by organic life that evolved separately from life on Earth, may shed light on the aspect of life’s probability all over the universe.

Scientists present evidence to support the idea that intelligent life is going to evolve rather easily if a certain evolutionary boundary has been passed. Dolphins have their more recent ancestor with humans some 100 million years ago, but evolved a brain that is bigger than ours separately. Maybe self-awareness, consciousness, and intelligence is inevitable after all.

But here comes the Fermi PARADOX. Why, if there are millions of intelligent civilizations out there, isn’t there any evidence to support this idea? The answer to this question my friend, i will leave it for you to find out.

Enjoy this Must See Documentary!

References:
- Explaining the search for EXOPLANETS – SciTechExplained.com
- Who is Martin Rees? – Wikipedia
- What is the Habitable zone – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia