The N = 1 Problem
The search for extraterrestrial life was doomed even before it began. The drunken wanderer life-sciences, in the search for life elsewhere in the universe, has wandered into a paradox. The paradox is, technically speaking, the N = 1 problem. If N = the sample “planet earth” and 1 = our definition of “life,” then should we go to planet Z we will be incapable of recognizing any life thereupon, trapped as we are in our earth biased definition of life. It is as if science had made a terrarium for itself, outside of which it cannot think. The lifeforms of earth are wriggling out of our taxonomical categories. Are rocks alive? Is a river? A virus? A fire? A spore? By Christ! Do you dare liken me to a lichen? Though science may be particularly susceptible to this trap, it is a common affliction of western man to barricade himself in hallucinated logic—see for example the history of Christianity. Laruelle calls this problem the principle of sufficient philosophy. In fact, it is so common why not say that the N = 1 problem is the basic structure of consciousness itself? A trick the superego plays on you, that only what you are told to be conscious of is real. Once we become familiar with the N = 1 problem, we begin to see it everywhere. For example: sexuality = reproduction; or truth = Christianity; or freedom = Sport Utility Vehicle and so on. In the end, even Sport Utility Vehicles possess an alien “life” that may elude scientific categories.
