freelance paradigm

Some say that this global warming thing might end up the life on Earth. It is far too pessimistic to assume that our contribution can sterilize the planet. We can easily erase our kind, but life will eventually win. It is enough for a few rats, some lizards and a couple of bacteria to survive and we'll have the same richness of life within 20 million years (that happened when dinosaurs were gone).

But one thing is striking. It took about 530 million years since The Cambrian explosion to make practically all evolution of complex life which ends up with an intelligent one. Since the Sun still has about 2 billion healthy years of shining, that could easily result into 3 or even 4 more such evolutions. Each of them can end up with intelligent life even sooner (given the ever lower possibility for meteor collision). It's a pity we won't be there to see it.