first Life

All that effort and now what supposedly is the very tip of that evolutionary effort, the bearer of the brains who can decipher the code and reveal of its mysteries and secrets is thoroughly preoccupied with fashion, make-up, silicon implants, sport cars, football games, economic growth ... there shall be a very british sense of humour behind it all, don't you think ?

David Attenborough's First Life

life, universes and everything

Of course the answer is 42. Which makes sense. Nothing else really does make sense when we talk about life in the Universe. This Universe, or one of the possible Multiverses.
Let's be clear: I'm no specialist. An online course on astrobiology does not qualify me to speak about extremophiles, or discuss about where and how to find them within our solar system.
Yet, I like to think about the existence of sentient beings other than ourselves and our fellows in the animal kingdom as an obvious fact of ... life.
But sentient beings does not mean "things" that see in the visible spectrum of light, or even that see at all. In caves animals loose the ability to see, since they do not need to see a light that does not exist. And I assume that beings which would have evolved on the Moon, if that would have been the case, would not have used air waves to communicate, since air is not an option on the Moon.
Now, those are of course simplified cases, but considering how quickly our body adapts to different conditions, say, microgravity, by loosing fluids or calcium, or reducing muscle mass, we can only assume that beings growing in a different world would adapt to the physical parameters of that world. Therefore developing a need to use the most appropriate senses for that world.
Now, there is a chance that some of those beings may have developed some ways to sense portions of their environment that we share: like x- or gamma- rays. Unless they went for a more local adaptation, and then who knows, what beings living in the core of stars may be able to sense.
For them, beings like us, living in the cold of a planet surface would be real extremophiles, don't you think?

playing demiurge

Systematical use of trial and error (evolution) has made us, stubborn beings, interested by displays and keyboards, curious and addicted to bricolage. Some more stubborn and perseverant than others, some more systematic, some just better organised. And of course, we all love LEGO. And alchimia.
You mesh it all up, and a web of intricate logic sprouts into existence. And we play demiurge, with life as the coach, and topic, of the lesson. Isn't that fantastic ?
With open source, and a growing registry, it's all out there for artisan biologists and computer addicts to play with http://partsregistry.org/.
The outcomes ? I'd say ... 42 !

A glimpse here: http://documentaryheaven.com/playing-god/

it's all about teaming up

Image from USCG

Say what you want, it's all about teaming up and playing, for the sake of survival first, and then efficiency. Life is the essence and result of escaping dangers, cooperation, trial and error, specialisation, and bitter competition.
How it all came into being is a story of adaptation, niches, opportunities. And us, with all our preoccupations for decorations, fashion, make-up, faster cars, silicon implants, are supposedly the end result? Hardly believable. If conscience has evolved to make sense out of it all, evolution must somehow have a weird sense of humour.

A couple of interesting documentaries:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/david-attenboroughs-first-life/
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/earth-making-of-a-planet/