Why are the conditions for alien life to evolve the same as ours? Why can’t they evolve without water, or extremely far from their sun? Is there a reason for this or is it just because our only example is ourselves?

Question

Idk if to put biology or planetary science so ye.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Life is really difficult. We have reason to believe that

a) most examples of life in the universe will have achieved it in something close to the easiest way possible, though there may be some rare examples, 1 in a billion say, who did it a harder way, e.g. methane not water, silicon not carbon.

b) life on Earth is a typical example, that took the shortest path to life.

There are many shapes that complex life can take, aliens will likely not appear “humanoid”, but basic chemistry does not have a lot of easy alternatives to what we see.