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Carbon chauvinism
 
 
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Carbon chauvinism is a relatively new term
Neologism

A neologism is a newly coined word that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language . Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event....
 meant to disparage the assumption that extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
 will resemble life on Earth. In particular, it would be applied to those who assume that the molecules responsible for the chemical processes of life must be constructed primarily from carbon
Carbon

Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
. It suggests that, as carbon-based life forms who have never encountered any life
Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
 that has evolved outside the earth’s environment, human beings may find it difficult to envision radically different biochemistries
Alternative biochemistry

Alternative biochemistry is the speculative biochemistry of alien life forms that differ radically from those known on Earth. It includes biochemistries that use elements other than carbon to construct primary cellular structures and/or use solvents besides water....
.






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Carbon chauvinism is a relatively new term
Neologism

A neologism is a newly coined word that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language . Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event....
 meant to disparage the assumption that extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
 will resemble life on Earth. In particular, it would be applied to those who assume that the molecules responsible for the chemical processes of life must be constructed primarily from carbon
Carbon

Carbon is a chemical element with chemical symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalence?making four electrons available to form covalent bond chemical bonds....
. It suggests that, as carbon-based life forms who have never encountered any life
Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life which does not originate from Earth. It is the subject of astrobiology and its existence remains hypothetical, because there is no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community....
 that has evolved outside the earth’s environment, human beings may find it difficult to envision radically different biochemistries
Alternative biochemistry

Alternative biochemistry is the speculative biochemistry of alien life forms that differ radically from those known on Earth. It includes biochemistries that use elements other than carbon to construct primary cellular structures and/or use solvents besides water....
. The term was used as early as 1973, when Carl Sagan described it and other human chauvinisms that limit imagination of possible extraterrestrial life in his Cosmic Connection.

In a 1999 Reason
Reason (magazine)

Reason is a libertarianism monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation.Reason was founded in 1968 by Lanny Friedlander as a more-or-less monthly Mimeograph machine publication....
 magazine article discussing the theory of a fine-tuned universe
Fine-tuned universe

The fine-tuned Universe is the idea that the conditions that allow life in the Universe can only occur when certain universal physical constants lie within a very narrow range, so that if any of several fundamental constants were only slightly different the universe would be unlikely to be conducive to the establishment and development of mat...
, Kenneth Silber quotes astrophysicist Victor J. Stenger
Victor J. Stenger

Victor J. Stenger is an United States physicist, and an advocate of naturalism , skepticism, and atheism.Active for many years in particle physics research, he is now mainly known as a critic of intelligent design, the aggressive use of the anthropic principle, and other pseudoscience ideas....
 using the term:

See also

  • Anthropocentrism
    Anthropocentrism

    Anthropocentrism is the belief that humans must be considered at the center of, and above any other aspect of, reality. This concept is sometimes known as humanocentrism or human supremacy....
  • Chauvinism
    Chauvinism

    Chauvinism is extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of a group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group....
  • Chemical evolution
    Chemical evolution

    Chemical evolution may refer to:*Nucleosynthesis of the chemical elements in the universe following the Big Bang and in stars and supernovas;*Abiogenesis, the study of how life on Earth may have emerged from non-life;...
  • Carbon-based life
    Carbon-based life

    Carbon forms the backbone of biology for all life on Earth. Complex molecules are made up of carbon chemical bond with other chemical element, especially oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen....
  • They're Made Out of Meat
    They're Made Out of Meat

    They're Made Out of Meat is a Nebula Award-nominated short story by Terry Bisson. It was originally published in Omni . It consists entirely of dialogue between two characters, and Bisson's website hosts a play adaptation....