Carbon chauvinism, perhaps coined by Carl Sagan, refers to the narrow-minded view that extraterrestrial life must be based on carbon because all life on Earth is.
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Comments 2
I think it turns out that there's carbon and then silicon which is clearly not as good and, er, that's it. It isn't as if you can invent new elements. So 'chauvinism' seems kind of strong.
The PBS Space Time YouTube channel has a really nice video that covers the idea of silicon serving as a basis for life. Their conclusion is that while there is some space to admit non-carbon based life, the underlying chemistry put up a lot of roadblocks. Carbon plus water fits into a sort of cosmological sweet-spot that other combinations of elements and compounds just don't have.
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