The way we perceive the world is based on how we are raised and the environment we are subjected to growing up. The same applies to humanity as a whole too.

Our understanding of life is based on what we have observed on this planet. Life as we know it is largely carbon-based and that has shaped our understanding of what life looks like, behaves like, etc.

But what if this is merely a small sample of what life can actually be? What if there are many different forms of life in the universe that wouldn't even meet the definition of life by our standards?

What if this has kept us from finding alien life even though we might have come across it? And what if this will keep us from ever discovering it in the future?

A Limited View

The conditions on the planet that gave birth to life on Earth are pretty much understood. That is why we look for exoplanets with similar conditions, hoping to stumble upon something. In fact, water is the first thing we look for in an exoplanet in our search for alien life.

But it is certainly possible that some other conditions on some other planet gave birth to a totally different type of life. This idea isn't too far-fetched at all. I mean, life itself seems like a far-fetched idea given that it is just a collection of non-living particles, giving rise to something that is alive.

So, it wouldn't be too "out there" to think that a life form based on hydrogen or nitrogen or any other particle in the periodic table might have arisen. If that were so, they would look and behave totally different from carbon-based lifeforms.

It is also important to note that a highly advanced alien civilization could have simply built a virtual AI system and all of them chose to "give up" their physical bodies and exist in the virtual realm forever! In that case, we would never discover them since there is no physicality to their existence!

The mind boggles at the permutations and combinations that life could adopt to spring up in the universe.