Well, it is interesting when philosophers jump in on extraterrestrial life. Pober & Schwitzgebel (2026) published a recent and very speculative paper arguing on how extraterrestrial consciousness could arise in different arrangements of matter (think of what biological constructs are needed for human consciousness to arise). Their logic is simple:
P2: These species have substantially different substrates
P3: Some of these species with substantially different substrates are conscious
Conclusion: Therefore, consciousness is possible in substantially different substrates
Adding some other thoughts - each galaxy has over a million planets - combine to that a relaxation of the constraint that it must be the same substrates as on Earth. Interesting to speculate on, but in terms of the levels of argument, it's a Level 4.
You can read the paper here: Substrate Flexibility and the Copernican Principle of Consciousness
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