Ian Whates > Quotes

“Perhaps life is rare, either because the precise conditions necessary for it to occur are uncommon or because the chances of it arising are so vanishingly improbable that the Universe just hasn’t been around for long enough. Some scientists argue that the Earth may be a rather exceptional planet after all, with its large, stabilising moon and uncommonly well-behaved sun. We may even lie in a peculiarly habitable part of the galaxy, central enough to benefit from the chemical enrichment of previous generations of stars but safely distant from the harsh radiation of the galactic core. In this case we might not be the only life forms in the Universe, but we could be among the first.”
― Ian Whates, Paradox: Stories Inspired by the Fermi Paradox

“He wanders around a bit checking out how governments work and reckons they don’t.”
― Ian Whates, Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction

“Being a scientist, Fermi attempted to add a degree of numerical rigour to the discussion with some back-of-the-envelope calculations. By combining educated guesses about the frequency of Earth-like planets and the possibility of life arising, he came to the conclusion that alien civilisations should be numerous – and yet we see no credible signs of their existence. This is the heart of what has become known as the Fermi Paradox; a conflict between an overwhelming probability and a total lack of evidence.”
― Ian Whates, Paradox: Stories Inspired by the Fermi Paradox

“Yet the people yearned for superheroes, dreaming of them in films and comic books, but, like the disbelieved Cassandra, only villains were permitted to tell the truth...”
― Ian Whates, Solaris Rising 3: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction

“The vibrant new field of astrobiology”
― Ian Whates, Paradox: Stories Inspired by the Fermi Paradox