Where is the silicon based lifeforms ?

Merolius

M
I have traveled over 12,000 lys from sol , but how come I haven't discovered silicone based lifeforms heap of water and ammonia based life forms , silicone being the closest to carbon, I would have thought there would have been millions of planets with silicone based .
 

Arthur Shappey

Arthur Shappey
Merolius said:
I have traveled over 12,000 lys from sol , but how come I haven't discovered silicone based lifeforms heap of water and ammonia based life forms , silicone being the closest to carbon, I would have thought there would have been millions of planets with silicone based .
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Just because your ship's limited human-intelligence-based surface scanners haven't picked up any silicon life, doesn't meant you haven't passed any. It's the way the sand winks at you that is misleading.
 

NascentChemist

N
It's actually quite unlikely that silicon life exists. Despite its superficial similarity to carbon, silicon doesn't have the same chemical versatility. Carbon can form double and triple bonds much more easily than silicon, for example.
 

Sapyx

Sapyx
Life, as far as we know it, needs a solvent for the biochemical reactions that form the basis of the life to take place. Here on Earth, that solvent is water, and the life is carbon-based because many carbon compounds are water-soluble. Ammonia is another postulated carbon-based-life solvent, which we see in abundance in ED. Methane is another possibility, but liquid methane is even colder than liquid ammonia and lacks the polarity of water and ammonia, limiting the solubility options. The earlier FFE/FE2 games had "methane weather system" planets, ED lacks them (Titan, for example, should be a methane planet), though ED does have those strange reddish planets with large black "lakes".

The main problem with "silicon-based life" is the lack of solubility of silicon compounds in any solvent that's likely to form naturally in bulk on the surface of a planet. Perhaps the "molten planets" with glowing red lava lakes might be your best chance to find silicon-based life. Planets with "silicates" atmospheres also might help. Such lifeforms, of course, would not be comfortable on an Earth-like planet or water world.
 

Augustus

Augustus
I've been Injecting Silicon Lifeforms into my FSD for Months... getting a 45% increase per Jump.

They really make my FSD Scream!

[alien]

Fly High, Drunk And Stoned CMDR's!

-gus
 

Limoncello Lizard

Limoncello Lizard
Thargoids are vegetables, so are made of paper. Bad for silicon based lifeforms.

[video=youtube;Kb1ztV93dsE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb1ztV93dsE[/video]
 
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Rafe Zetter

Banned
Rafe Zetter
Sapyx said:
Life, as far as we know it, needs a solvent for the biochemical reactions that form the basis of the life to take place. Here on Earth, that solvent is water, and the life is carbon-based because many carbon compounds are water-soluble. Ammonia is another postulated carbon-based-life solvent, which we see in abundance in ED. Methane is another possibility, but liquid methane is even colder than liquid ammonia and lacks the polarity of water and ammonia, limiting the solubility options. The earlier FFE/FE2 games had "methane weather system" planets, ED lacks them (Titan, for example, should be a methane planet), though ED does have those strange reddish planets with large black "lakes".

The main problem with "silicon-based life" is the lack of solubility of silicon compounds in any solvent that's likely to form naturally in bulk on the surface of a planet. Perhaps the "molten planets" with glowing red lava lakes might be your best chance to find silicon-based life. Planets with "silicates" atmospheres also might help. Such lifeforms, of course, would not be comfortable on an Earth-like planet or water world.
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the main problem with your assumption is that you (and others) believe all life follows a certain set of "rules". Extremophiles have already disproved certain theories regarding carbon based life on our own planet (and only in the last 30 years when the hydrothermal vents were found).

Who's to say what is out there in the multiverses?

The only assumption I make about life and where it can occur is this:

Assume everything you know is wrong.
 

Bortas

Bortas
Merolius said:
heap of water and ammonia based life forms , silicone being the closest to carbon, I would have thought there would have been millions of planets with silicone based .
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The water and ammonia based life forms you are talking about are in fact carbon based life forms living in water or ammonia environments. As others pointed out, silcon based life is very unlikely to exist, so we have only carbon based life in Elite.
 

biot

biot
The Horta, otherwise known as "man crawling under a crusty duvet"*, from Star Trek was silicon based.

* Have at it, you are welcome.
 
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