> we may look for organisms with self-replication skills... and prediction skills...
Sure, but I imagine this is easier said than done. We 21 c. humans would be most likely to recognize as intelligent life something obviously not a natural feature of the landscape, that operates on a time scale under a year and above a split second or so, that predicts that which we can predict, and most importantly has a form corresponding to Earth creatures. Without ticking all those boxes, especially in a truly strange chemical environment, we will have people asserting that they are a complicated chemical processes, but in no sense alive the way we are alive, if we can even recognize them at all.
Sure, but I imagine this is easier said than done. We 21 c. humans would be most likely to recognize as intelligent life something obviously not a natural feature of the landscape, that operates on a time scale under a year and above a split second or so, that predicts that which we can predict, and most importantly has a form corresponding to Earth creatures. Without ticking all those boxes, especially in a truly strange chemical environment, we will have people asserting that they are a complicated chemical processes, but in no sense alive the way we are alive, if we can even recognize them at all.