Why No Aliens?

Brian Clevinger is the brilliant mind behind the writing at 8-bit Theatre, as well as the scribe who pens Atomic Robo for Red 5 comics. He always takes pains to look at science fiction and fantasy from the perspective of a realist, and today on the Atomic Robo blog he makes a compelling argument against including aliens in a sci-fi setting.

The big problem is the Moon. Its size and orbit relative to the Earth have had two significant effects on the history of our world. First, it stabilizes the Earth’s axial tilt and rotation … Second, it sweeps the vast majority of meteors away from us. Basically, without the Moon’s stabilization and orbital housecleaning, we would experience environmental extremes on the order of Ice Ages every few hundred years while getting hit with extinction-level objects every few hundred thousand years. There’s just no way to develop complex life under those conditions.