The evolution of complex life in the universe has, heretofore, thought to have been quite a long slog.
But in a paper submitted to the journal Astrobiology, theoretical cosmologist Avi Loeb argues that some form of complex life may have arisen within the first billion years of our universe’s existence.
To date, however, the standard paradigm for the evolution of intelligent life in the universe is that if it’s out there, it’s probably only been around for the last 6 billion years, or about a billion years after the peak of cosmic carbon production.
But what if life did evolve on an earth-like planet circling an early Population II star? One born only 50 million years after the Big Bang?
If it vectored into intelligence that somehow persisted over much of the universe’s 13.8 billion-year history, by now such an ancient civilization’s technology would arguably be nothing short of “godlike.”
“The picture that we have of the [early] universe is that the cosmos is sort of dead,” said Loeb. “But it’s quite possible that life is everywhere and we are the late-comers.”
