It isn’t about knowing how carbon life works but understanding basic chemistry which we do.
Carbon is the atomic floozy it will hook up with a lot of other elements and can form relatively strong bonds, and it can have upto 4 bonds per carbon atom nominally.
This makes carbon the star of its little own chemistry show.
Silicon is similar to carbon in this regard which is why it is in the same column in the periodic table however it bonds with fewer elements and it’s chem requires more energy and is often less stable.
This is what the grandparent question always skips over.
"Why not alternatives to organic life?"
Underestimates the fact that, as near as we can tell, building life from organic molecules is easier (and substantially so).
Given that life seems to be a relatively rare event sequence, and that organic life is the easiest form we've been able to figure out from chemistry (ne physics)... betting on another kind is a long shot.
Granted, maybe we've missed something obvious. Maybe our understanding is critically flawed. But from everything we know right now, one can't just handwave and say "Well, many kinds of life are possible."
Indeed, currently there is no replacement for organic chemistry for life because it seems that we can't find another combination that would be as flexible and stable as carbon.
Silicon can replace carbon in a few scenarios but it isn't likely enough for any plausible mechanism that would support life to be based on silicon alone.
This is why likely all life is carbon based, some of the other elements like phosphors vs arsenic have more wiggle room but there is simply no "glue" other than carbon and this is simply due to physics not lack of imagination or knowledge.
Yes not possible not enough complexity or stability for that matter and the energy levels required are well explosive the smaller you go the more energy is needed since you essentially go form gravity (macro) to electroweak (molecular and atomic) to the strong nuclear force (subatomic) and there is a pretty big increase in magnitude of the forces that govern interactions between each phase.
Heck even within the unified electroweak force there is a huge range e.g. burning coal releases he energy in the stored covalent carbon bonds which are tied by electromagnetism part of the electroweak force but if you start breaking protons a part from neutrons which is the weak force you get a nuclear bomb.
Life needs bonds that are cheap to create, cheap to break and ones that don’t explode once you do break them.
Carbon is the atomic floozy it will hook up with a lot of other elements and can form relatively strong bonds, and it can have upto 4 bonds per carbon atom nominally.
This makes carbon the star of its little own chemistry show.
Silicon is similar to carbon in this regard which is why it is in the same column in the periodic table however it bonds with fewer elements and it’s chem requires more energy and is often less stable.