i was thinking of silicones because silanes are unstable even at room temperature, let alone at undersea-vent temperatures, while silicones can be stable up to lava temperatures if you don't require them to be organic (the alkali silicates i mentioned upthread, which gradually shade into the kinds of organic-functionalized silane surfactants used to enable organics to bond to phyllosilicate functional fillers). maybe silanes, dissolved in liquid ammonia, could work at low temperatures, but i doubt it
my thought with the undersea vents is that, if there was a diverse hadean or archean ecosystem of non-carbon-based life, some of it should have survived in the parts of the vents that are too hot for carbon-based life. maybe the cells that froze to death in boiling water would become food for carbon-based extremophiles, but the cells in the hotter parts of the rock should be safe
but we don't observe that, and i think that the most likely explanation is that there wasn't any silicone-based life in the hadean
nucleic acids are definitely not a requirement for all forms of life
my thought with the undersea vents is that, if there was a diverse hadean or archean ecosystem of non-carbon-based life, some of it should have survived in the parts of the vents that are too hot for carbon-based life. maybe the cells that froze to death in boiling water would become food for carbon-based extremophiles, but the cells in the hotter parts of the rock should be safe
but we don't observe that, and i think that the most likely explanation is that there wasn't any silicone-based life in the hadean
nucleic acids are definitely not a requirement for all forms of life