Journal of Astrobiology & Outreach

Abstract

Life as a Cosmic Phenomenon: The Panspermia Trajectory of Homo sapiens

N. Chandra Wickramasinghe and Gensuke Tokoro

We discuss the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens in a cosmic context, and in relation to the Hoyle- Wickramasinghe theory of panspermia for which there is now overwhelming evidence. It is argued that the first bacteria (archea) incident on the Earth via the agency of comets 3.8-4 billion years ago continued at later times to be augmented by viral genes (DNA,RNA) from space that eventually led to the evolutionary patterns we see in present-day biology. We argue that the current evolutionary status of Homo sapiens as well as its future trajectory is circumscribed by evolutionary processes that were pre-determined on a cosmic scale – over vast distances and enormous spans of cosmic time. Based on this teleological hypothesis we postulate that two distinct classes of cosmic viruses (cosmic viral genes) are involved in accounting for the facts relating to the evolution of life.