The “oxygen bottleneck” may leave aliens stuck with primitive technology

3 years ago by Renneder to c/becomeme

Oxygen's role in enabling open-air combustion has been critical in the evolution of human technology, particularly in metallurgy.

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Renneder 12 points 3 years ago

To create advanced technology, a species would likely require the capability to increase the temperature of the materials used in its production. Oxygen's role in enabling open-air combustion has been critical in the evolution of human technology, particularly in metallurgy. Exoplanets whose atmospheres contain less than 18% oxygen would likely not allow open-air combustion, suggesting a threshold that alien worlds must cross if life on them is to develop advanced technology.

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Nomecks 13 points 3 years ago

Well it's not like our planet allows open air smelting either. Sure you can get a fire going, but blast furnaces still need oxygen enrichment.

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prettybunnys 13 points 3 years ago

That and this assumes that in the face of a different challenge another solution wouldn’t arise.

Our technology formed because of the problems we had and the ways we worked around them and iterated on that. Necessity is the mother of invention.

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Anticorp 2 points 3 years ago

Given that the universe is infinite, with infinite galaxies, each full of billions, or even trillions of planets, I think it is plausible that a few of them have enough oxygen.

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