Most people know that familiar helix shape of DNA the genetic code maker for all life on this planet. What if on other worlds life was not based on carbon but on silica with a different pattern that life springs. As we prepare to move out into space we may find life that has nothing in common with our own chemical makeup but will be intelligent enough to exchange ideas and concepts with the humans that land on their world or land here on Earth. This image is just an idea of what a silica life form may have instead of the familiar helix called DNA.

I wonder what it will be like to communicate with an intelligent being that is a silica based life form. Yes conversing with a rock could be a rather interesting process and some of our generalizations and sayings like “He/She is as smart as a bag of rocks” may be considered an affront to our new associates. Skipping stones across a lake could be considered a cruel barbaric ritual by our new neighbors of the universe. The possibilities of being PC just may have us all tongue tied, as we get accustomed to new interactions with a culture that is foreign but is as intelligent as our own society.

I am a very big sci-fi fan as I also enjoy science I grew up watching the morality plays by Gene Roddenberry while reading other sci-fi writers. I have always found it interesting that if you look at the sci-fi genre of the 1930’s it became part of the science facts of the 1960’s I have always looked at sci-fi as the potential of humanity as well the catalyst for future scientists. I wonder what will happen when we do find societies that are not based on carbon life forms and how we will interact with them, hopefully we will be better mannered than we are among the various societal groups that inhabit this orb called Earth.