u/PretendAd6200

I've been building a speculative framework for a non-carbon life form and I want people to tear it apart.

The entity I'm calling SBSC — silicon, boron, sulphur, chlorine — uses ammonia the way we use water. The actual living thing is a crystal lattice. When ammonia evaporates it doesn't die, it goes dormant and waits. Like a tardigrade but made of minerals. When ammonia returns, it wakes up.

There's a variant called SBSF where fluorine permanently locks the lattice. It never goes dormant again. It just slows down with temperature. It's effectively immortal.

The uncomfortable part: Enceladus has confirmed hydrothermal vents, silica, ammonia, sodium chloride as a chlorine source, and molecular hydrogen. That's most of what SBSC needs to exist right now. NASA keeps calling it promising for life as we know it. What if we're looking for the wrong life?

The bigger question: if this chemistry is simple enough to have emerged at the birth of the galaxy, what does a 4 billion year old version look like? Our definitions of life were written entirely around carbon and water. Is that a description of life, or just a description of us?

[Speculation] Is our definition of life too carbon-biased? I've been exploring a silicon/boron alternative and want the science checked.

I've been thinking about non-carbon life and whether ammonia could work as a solvent the way water works for us. Not as the life form itself — ammonia would be the medium, like water is our medium, not what we're made of.

The structure I've been exploring is a silicon/boron crystal lattice stabilised by chlorine, using ammonia as its operating fluid. I'm calling it SBSC. When conditions change and ammonia evaporates it doesn't die — it crystallises and waits, like a tardigrade. When ammonia returns it revives.

Enceladus has confirmed hydrothermal vents, silica nanoparticles, ammonia, sodium chloride and molecular hydrogen. That's almost exactly the environment this would need.

My questions for people who actually know the chemistry:

• Is silicon/boron/chlorine chemistry viable in liquid ammonia?
• Are there reasons this couldn't work that I'm missing?
• Are we possibly searching for the wrong kind of life on Enceladus?

I'm speculating but trying to speculate correctly. Please tear it apart.