# Human-Centered Views of Life Are Unwarranted by J. Craig Venter > “Our human centric view of life is clearly unwarranted. From the millions of genes that we have just discovered in environmental organisms over the past months we learn that a finite number of themes are used over and over again and could have easily evolved from a few microbes arriving on a meteor or on intergalactic dust.” > **— J. Craig Venter**, *2005 Edge Annual Question, response passage* ## Sources and Context - **Direct publication and locator:** [Genomics Researcher; Founder & President, J. Craig Venter Science Foundation — J. Craig Venter](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11015) — 2005 Annual Question response, contiguous sentence(s) within the representative extract. - **Exact original excerpt:** “Our human centric view of life is clearly unwarranted. From the millions of genes that we have just discovered in environmental organisms over the past months we learn that a finite number of themes are used over and over again and could have easily evolved from a few microbes arriving on a meteor or on intergalactic dust. Panspermia is how life is spreads throughout the universe and we are contributing to it from earth by launching billions of microbes into space.” - **Context and editing:** The poster preserves “could” in Venter’s speculative origin scenario. This 2005 Annual Question asked what contributors believed though they could not prove it; it is not a settled origin-of-life finding. No editorial words were inserted. - **Local Edge archive:** [[research/Edge 2005 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2005 Full Quotation Curation]], response EDGE2005-063. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Greatest Transformation in Human History|The Greatest Transformation in Human History]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Our human centric view of life is clearly unwarranted. From the millions of genes that we have just discovered in environmental organisms over the past months we learn that a finite number of themes are used over and over again and could have easily evolved from a few microbes arriving on a meteor or on intergalactic dust.” — J. Craig Venter, 2005 Edge Annual Question, response passage https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-craig-venter-human-centered-views-life-unwarranted ```