How important is Earth and its inhabitants? Before Copernicus, it made sense to think of our central location in the universe. Since then, the other extreme (that our place is extremely ordinary) has become a popular opinion. But what is the truth? Should we be seeing things that make us seem less special? Sun-like stars and Earth-like planets seem to be bountiful in our galaxy. However, the cosmological constants used within the laws of physics are "fine-tuned" such that small variations would not lead to the material necessary for life. And what do we know about the genesis of life? What do we know about nonlinear emergent processes that lead to complexity? Scharf ponders these questions and more.
Hypothetical thought: Had an intelligent species evolved on a moon orbiting a Jupiter-like planet in a Goldilocks habitable zone, how would their scientific progression differ from ours?