Unfortunately.
A guess was always just a guess and could not be taken as fact.
Humans were good at thinking.
If a piece of information was interpreted deeply, it could open the door to all sorts of wild ideas.
It could give rise to all kinds of sensational conspiracy theories and conjectures.
But.
Without evidence to prove them, they were useless, and could only be dismissed as flights of fancy.
It was like the comment sections of certain popular-science videos.
There were always netizens who loved to pontificate and tell the uploader what to do, offering ideas they considered especially thoughtful.
The bolder ones.
Even thought their ideas were far more impressive than those of scientists.
They believed scientists' thinking was too limited.
However.
In reality, everything ordinary people could think of had long since been considered in the scientific community. Ideas even more outrageous than theirs had appeared.
But.
In the end, all those ideas had been abandoned.
Why?
Take an example.
When scientists searched for extraterrestrial life, they used Earth as a reference and the evolution of carbon-based life as their standard.
Some people would say, "The universe is so vast. Extraterrestrial life might not be carbon-based!"
"Why must you measure the universe by your own standards?"
That sounded reasonable.
But the problem was, could you propose another standard? Could you propose another definite way for life to exist?
You could not.
The only known form of life humans currently had was carbon-based life.
This was a proven path that had successfully evolved into life. Using it as a reference was the most realistic approach.
You said silicon-based life?
Fine.
Then explain the conditions required for silicon-based life to evolve.
What kind of environment did it require?
How would you prove that your idea was correct?
You could