Research
Clever! A New Method to Find Alien Life
Backreaction · By Sabine Hossenfelder ·
The Brief
- A new method for searching for alien life using complexity has been proposed, according to a Backreaction blog post by Sabine Hossenfelder dated 2026-11-09.
- The method builds on assembly theory, a framework a group of researchers introduced a few years earlier to quantify complexity.
- The group says the method solves one of the biggest problems in the search for alien life; the source excerpt is truncated and does not name the problem.
Why it matters
If complexity can be measured reliably, it could offer a new way to think about signs of life beyond Earth. The source is a single blog excerpt, so the claim is not yet independently tested.
Who’s affected
- astrobiologists and researchers working on biosignatures
- scientists interested in complexity theory
- #astrobiology
- #assembly theory
- #complexity
- #biosignatures
- #alien life
Physics has an elephant in the room and its name is complexity. A few years ago a group of researchers made the first serious attempt to quantify it – called “assembly theory” – and now the same group says their method solves one of the biggest problems in the search for alien…