A deep thought regarding life out there

[Husky65]

You seem to be ignoring the fact that we were intelligent before we started using fire.

[Alpha Kodiak]

It seems to me that on a methane or hydrogen atmosphere world, an oxygen source would essentially be the "fuel" for the fire, so your cigarette lighter would contain some sort of oxygen producer to allow a flame. As to percentages of gasses in the atmosphere, remember that the largest component of our atmosphere is actually nitrogen, which is inert. On a methane world, chances are that any quantity of oxygen, or any other reactive gas would already have been "burned" into a non-reactive compound. I realize that I am using terms loosely from a pure chemistry standpoint, but you get the idea.

[capnq]

Current theory is that life has to evolve on a planet before it can get a substantial oxygen component in the atmosphere. Oxygen reacts with just about everything, so you need life forms to pump it into the atmosphere faster than it can all combine into other compounds. Oxygen breathing life didn't appear until the first blue-green algaes supplied the oxygen.

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Cap'n Q

[Lucanos]

Intelligence - or awareness/consciousness as in "knowledge of reality" is overestimated when speaking of terrans (trying to be as objective as possible).

The terrans think that the "invention" of firemaking (rather a discovery than an invention) is something to be proud of.

On a methane world the lifeforms would probably not need to make fire and would consider it pointless.

But that doesn't mean that they would be inferior in their knowledge of reality.

[Aussie Gamer]

I am not a Biologist or anything like that but it seems a bit narrow minded to remove the possilblity of life breathing other gases.
We understand really our own biology but have not yet found life on another world to study it. This could be because yes you do need O2 or the worlds near us just suck.

Hopefully one day we get to find out that we are not alone is this universe.

[Marty Ward]

I don't understand how we can even attempt to think of what other "life" may exist. We only know that our type of life form exists and all our assumptions are based on that. Given the number of galaxies out there we are definately not alone, we just may have trouble recognizing others if we meet them.

[Sirkit]

With regard to the thoughts of species living on other types of gases complex lifeforms currently live on earth 'breathing' a type of methane oxide mix, now I must admit since these things are considered plants due to the fact they rely on something called cemo-sythesis, witch instead if using light oxegen and carbon dioxide they react the methane oxides in their bodies in what appear to be modified chloropLasts the reactions is, energetic, and provides sufficient energy to produce ATP (The chemical that animals store energy in) So a methane breather is not that far out there. Hydrogen, however is a major component on most of the shugars and fossile fules, but because they requirement of oxygen to create these chemicals is needed I don't know how succesful the species would be because I know of no process in witch hydrogen can be burned without carbon to produce anything but water. For a species witch did manage to breath methane fire would be no big deal as inside their bodies reactions so strong would be going on that they would be a furnace unto themselves, personally I feel mans greatest feat was to figure out puting a magnet through a coil of wire produced an electric current, this single feat produced the culture witch exists now. How many people are reading this with a light over their computer?