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Epistemology and Anomaly Detection in Astrobiology

Kinney, David and Kempes, Christopher (2022) Epistemology and Anomaly Detection in Astrobiology. [Preprint]

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Abstract

We examine the epistemological foundations of a leading technique in the search for evidence of life on exosolar planets. Specifically, we consider the ``transit method'' for spectroscopic analysis of exoplanet atmospheres, and the practice of treating anomalous chemical compositions of the atmospheres of exosolar planets as indicators of the potential presence of life. We propose a methodology for ranking the anomalousness of atmospheres that uses the mathematical apparatus of support vector machines, and which aims to be agnostic with respect to the particular chemical biosignatures of life. We argue that our approach is justified by an appeal to the "hinge" model of epistemic justification first proposed by Wittgenstein (1969). We then compare our approach to previous work due to Walker et al. (2018) and Cleland (2019a, 2019b).


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Kinney, Daviddavid.kinney@princeton.edu
Kempes, Christopherckempes@santafe.edu
Keywords: astrobiology, anomaly detection, hinge epistemology, bayesianism
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Complex Systems
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User: Dr David Kinney
Date Deposited: 15 May 2022 03:57
Last Modified: 15 May 2022 03:57
Item ID: 20591
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Complex Systems
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
General Issues > Theory Change
Date: 12 May 2022
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20591

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