Astronomers Detect a Possible Signature of Life on a Distant Planet

If life evolves on a planet with only oceans, no surface, imagine how much longer it would take to discover rockets that can leave the planet.

Like if there was no surface on earth, and only fish, there must be some very significant reason for advanced fish to even want to leave the water, let alone the atmosphere

That seems like a very landbased mindset. From a high level, what is an ocean but a thick atmosphere? I could even imagine an underwater culture would be quicker to explore because they would surely discover the surface of the ocean quicker than we discovered the concept of the atmosphere and that innately leads to the questions of whether the atmosphere has a "surface" and what is above it.

To support this: Oceans are more conducive to exploration due to their natural currents and lack of mountainous regions or rivers which inhibit movement.

Like the comment below was getting at: if you are water bound, you are very unlikely to discover or become proficient with fire, which to us, as if now seems like a requirement to travel through space.

There’s also the massive weight disadvantage water has compared to “air”.

So no fire and have to travel with a water filled rocket instead.

But again maybe these are just land centered views.

Maybe you can just inject oxygen into the water that merely surrounds your head.

And maybe there’s a hydrogen power rocket that is more efficient than our fire ones.