I apologize for the long read, but this is the shortest version unfortunately I’ve been thinking about a version of the seeding hypothesis that goes beyond “aliens genetically engineered humans” or the usual ancient-aliens arguments. Directed panspermia itself isn’t a completely unserious concept. Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel proposed back in 1973 that an advanced civilization could deliberately send microorganisms to habitable planets. It wouldn’t explain the ultimate origin of life, it wo...