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Alien Invasion: How to Defend Earth
The ultimate survival guide for the ultimate attack – written by two top scientists who know their subject inside and out! An amazing journey through what we do – and do not – know about how to defend ourselves before, during and after an alien invasion from space.
What if there really are aliens and they do attack? Read what two scientists reveal in this “how-to” survival manual for the space age.
Alien invasion. Unlikely? As unlikely as Pearl Harbor? The extinction of the dinosaurs? A meteor strike that levels whole forests in Siberia? You get the drift. Some events produce such a massive setback to life, the Earth and to humanity that we must understand and prepare for them, even if the chances are low that they’ll come about. In fact, it will be criminal and abrogation of our duty to future generations if we do not get ready! But where to begin?
Drs. Travis S. Taylor and Bob Boan have the answers. Both are experienced scientists, physicists with expertise in both defense and military signal intelligence and experience working with both the Department of Defense and NASA. These are intellectual heavyweights who have a clear idea of the possibilities of alien contact, the calculations of whether or not that contact will be friendly…and what to do if it’s not.
An amazing journey through what we do – and do not – know about how to defend ourselves from space. Sure, that day may never come in our lifetimes – but everyone should have a copy of this lying around JUST IN CASE. Heck, better yet, why not commit a few of these scientists solutions to memory! Just in case.
About Travis S. Taylor’s ground-breaking popular
“…explodes with inventive action…dazzling, cutting edge scientific possibilities…” – Publishers Weekly
About Alien Invasion :
“In a business that strictly separates technology and conjecture, this is a well considered, very comprehensive work. United States Space is a serious business, but what IF there is an external threat?”— Dr Byron Knight, NRO Chief Scientist, MASINT
“...the definitive book on the defense of earth against a potential alien incursion....the book also serves as an important primer on the potential future of warfare on every level. It is tightly grounded in current day realities of war and extrapolates thoughtfully but closely about future potentials. It should be on the reading list of anyone who is serious about national security and the future of war.” — John Ringo, New York Times best-selling author of military SF
“It looks like the time has come to take a serious look at planetary defense from all aspects. This book introduces the subject in a way to stir thoughtful and intelligent debate. Hats off to the authors.” — Gerald B. Helman, former US Ambassador to the UN Geneva and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs
What if there really are aliens and they do attack? Read what two scientists reveal in this “how-to” survival manual for the space age.
Alien invasion. Unlikely? As unlikely as Pearl Harbor? The extinction of the dinosaurs? A meteor strike that levels whole forests in Siberia? You get the drift. Some events produce such a massive setback to life, the Earth and to humanity that we must understand and prepare for them, even if the chances are low that they’ll come about. In fact, it will be criminal and abrogation of our duty to future generations if we do not get ready! But where to begin?
Drs. Travis S. Taylor and Bob Boan have the answers. Both are experienced scientists, physicists with expertise in both defense and military signal intelligence and experience working with both the Department of Defense and NASA. These are intellectual heavyweights who have a clear idea of the possibilities of alien contact, the calculations of whether or not that contact will be friendly…and what to do if it’s not.
An amazing journey through what we do – and do not – know about how to defend ourselves from space. Sure, that day may never come in our lifetimes – but everyone should have a copy of this lying around JUST IN CASE. Heck, better yet, why not commit a few of these scientists solutions to memory! Just in case.
About Travis S. Taylor’s ground-breaking popular
“…explodes with inventive action…dazzling, cutting edge scientific possibilities…” – Publishers Weekly
About Alien Invasion :
“In a business that strictly separates technology and conjecture, this is a well considered, very comprehensive work. United States Space is a serious business, but what IF there is an external threat?”— Dr Byron Knight, NRO Chief Scientist, MASINT
“...the definitive book on the defense of earth against a potential alien incursion....the book also serves as an important primer on the potential future of warfare on every level. It is tightly grounded in current day realities of war and extrapolates thoughtfully but closely about future potentials. It should be on the reading list of anyone who is serious about national security and the future of war.” — John Ringo, New York Times best-selling author of military SF
“It looks like the time has come to take a serious look at planetary defense from all aspects. This book introduces the subject in a way to stir thoughtful and intelligent debate. Hats off to the authors.” — Gerald B. Helman, former US Ambassador to the UN Geneva and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs
- GenresNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2011
2 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Travis S. Taylor
54 books224 followersTravis Shane Taylor is a born and bred southerner and resides just outside Huntsville, Alabama. He has a Doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering, a Master’s degree in Physics, a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a Master’s degree in Astronomy from the Univ. of Western Sydney, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Alabama.
Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He is currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space based beamed energy systems, future combat technologies and systems, and next generation space launch concepts. He is also involved with multiple MASINT, SIGINT, IMINT, and HUMINT concept studies.
He has published over 25 papers and the appendix on solar sailing in the 2nd edition of Deep Space Probes by Greg Matloff.
His first science fiction novel is, Warp Speed, and his second is The Quantum Connection published by Baen Publishing. He is also working on two different series with best-selling author John Ringo also by Baen Publishing. He has several other works of both fiction and nonfiction ongoing.
Travis is also a Black Belt martial artist, a private pilot, a SCUBA diver, races mountain and road bikes, competed in triathlons, and has been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of several hard rock bands. He currently lives with his wife Karen, his daughter Kalista Jade, two dogs Stevie and Wesker, and his cat Kuro.
Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He is currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space based beamed energy systems, future combat technologies and systems, and next generation space launch concepts. He is also involved with multiple MASINT, SIGINT, IMINT, and HUMINT concept studies.
He has published over 25 papers and the appendix on solar sailing in the 2nd edition of Deep Space Probes by Greg Matloff.
His first science fiction novel is, Warp Speed, and his second is The Quantum Connection published by Baen Publishing. He is also working on two different series with best-selling author John Ringo also by Baen Publishing. He has several other works of both fiction and nonfiction ongoing.
Travis is also a Black Belt martial artist, a private pilot, a SCUBA diver, races mountain and road bikes, competed in triathlons, and has been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of several hard rock bands. He currently lives with his wife Karen, his daughter Kalista Jade, two dogs Stevie and Wesker, and his cat Kuro.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 4, 2012
As a contributor to this book, I suppose my review might be a tad biased. But when Travis asked me to contribute an essay to the book during its writing, and to use my expertise as a former NASA payload flight controller, I couldn't resist. So I wrote an essay explaining how current mission operations would have to be changed in order to counter any possible attack during a mission. I fully expected it to simply be edited into the copy of the book, with a thanks in the authors' notes. Instead and to my delight, Travis dropped it into the book entire, with a byline attributing it to me. And I was not the only subject matter expert he approached to do so. This is a book that is chock full of fascinating reading, things to make you think, and to wonder "What if?" It is also a very good outline on what to do and what not to do when it comes to attracting attention "Out There."
January 8, 2018
Probably deserves a 3, this book was disappointing, but it was still interesting. It annoyed me how they kept saying there is a "finite probability" of an alien invasion when they should have been saying nonzero. Also the abuse of the central limit theorem bothered me. I was not at all convinced that alien life is highly probable, their analysis wasn't strong. And I'm shocked there was no mention of the anthropic principle. They treated faster than light travel as likely, which should have been explained more because it still sounds like complete sci-fi to me. And if aliens can travel faster than light, it seems like we have no chance of fighting them, they could have done better to convince that we would have some sort of chance. Also they kept citing their own books or coauthors, even the quote on the cover is from a common coauthor of Travis S. Taylor.
Overall it wasn't bad, but it didn't live up to my hopes.
Overall it wasn't bad, but it didn't live up to my hopes.
February 16, 2016
This is a thought-provoking book that has already been topical in reference to the recent report in the journal Acta Astronautica that made headlines with its claim that our pollution problem on earth might attract ETs who would destroy humanity in order to save the earth. (Sounds like someone has seen the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" too many times.)
The authors of "Alien Invasion" would likely disagree. For one thing, they argue that there are plenty of ways for ET to recognize that earth is inhabited aside from seeing our pollution. They might actually have built a huge orbital telescope capable of visualizing the surface of the earth from thousands of light years away. It might actually be possible that an inhabited alien planet, technologically far ahead of us, has seen us just that clearly, and yet not been able to visit us because they might not be able to get around the speed-of-light speed limit; their journey to earth might take thousands of years, you see. Would we want to visit a planet, even though we knew it to be inhabited, if it took that long to get there?
"Persuasive" is the word that best describes the authors' approach to this unlikely subject. They explore and demolish arguments that pooh-pooh the possiblity of visitors ever arriving from across the great distances of space. Nature seems not to have too many one-of-a-kind phenomenon; if there are planets around our sun, there are also planets around other stars; if there are billions upon billions of stars in the universe, some of them must have inhabited planets around them just as our sun does. The authors look at the enormous distances between solar systems and conclude that it is so vast that we really need to give ET more time to discover us before we give up on him; they point out that just because something has not happened yet does not mean that it won't or that preparations for the event are unnecessary. They consider the probability that there are all kinds of ETs just as there are all kinds of stars and planets. We do not have any way of knowing what a typical intelligent lifeform is like. (We only have ourselves to go by, and that is an awfully small sample.) Some ETs might be more warlike than we are and some might be less so. Which is in the majority? The authors admit that logic only takes one so far and then all of the other variables are unknowable.
The question is, how do we prepare for the possibility that hostile ETs will some day invade earth? While special plans would have to be made by governments, the authors say that there is nothing specific to an alien invasion that the average person can do; we can only prepare for a major disaster. For you or me, preparing for a killer hurricane calls for the same action and planning that an alien invasion does. Since the odds are greater that each of us might face a natural disaster, this book sends a message that seems worthy of consideration: prepare as if ET is coming, and if he doesn't, you will be prepared for every kind of disaster.
I am beginning to read the part about warfare and how the military will have to revise a great deal of their thinking if we are to survive an alien invasion.
The authors do not assume that we will have to fight with any aliens who visit; rather they assume that if we do not have a plan for our first contact with aliens, then a war might happen by happenstance. They prescribe that we should, as a planet, develop a protocol to determine what we should do depending on how aliens present themselves to us. This, of course, should include data gathering operations so that we can detect to the best of our abilities when aliens approach.
The authors of "Alien Invasion" would likely disagree. For one thing, they argue that there are plenty of ways for ET to recognize that earth is inhabited aside from seeing our pollution. They might actually have built a huge orbital telescope capable of visualizing the surface of the earth from thousands of light years away. It might actually be possible that an inhabited alien planet, technologically far ahead of us, has seen us just that clearly, and yet not been able to visit us because they might not be able to get around the speed-of-light speed limit; their journey to earth might take thousands of years, you see. Would we want to visit a planet, even though we knew it to be inhabited, if it took that long to get there?
"Persuasive" is the word that best describes the authors' approach to this unlikely subject. They explore and demolish arguments that pooh-pooh the possiblity of visitors ever arriving from across the great distances of space. Nature seems not to have too many one-of-a-kind phenomenon; if there are planets around our sun, there are also planets around other stars; if there are billions upon billions of stars in the universe, some of them must have inhabited planets around them just as our sun does. The authors look at the enormous distances between solar systems and conclude that it is so vast that we really need to give ET more time to discover us before we give up on him; they point out that just because something has not happened yet does not mean that it won't or that preparations for the event are unnecessary. They consider the probability that there are all kinds of ETs just as there are all kinds of stars and planets. We do not have any way of knowing what a typical intelligent lifeform is like. (We only have ourselves to go by, and that is an awfully small sample.) Some ETs might be more warlike than we are and some might be less so. Which is in the majority? The authors admit that logic only takes one so far and then all of the other variables are unknowable.
The question is, how do we prepare for the possibility that hostile ETs will some day invade earth? While special plans would have to be made by governments, the authors say that there is nothing specific to an alien invasion that the average person can do; we can only prepare for a major disaster. For you or me, preparing for a killer hurricane calls for the same action and planning that an alien invasion does. Since the odds are greater that each of us might face a natural disaster, this book sends a message that seems worthy of consideration: prepare as if ET is coming, and if he doesn't, you will be prepared for every kind of disaster.
I am beginning to read the part about warfare and how the military will have to revise a great deal of their thinking if we are to survive an alien invasion.
The authors do not assume that we will have to fight with any aliens who visit; rather they assume that if we do not have a plan for our first contact with aliens, then a war might happen by happenstance. They prescribe that we should, as a planet, develop a protocol to determine what we should do depending on how aliens present themselves to us. This, of course, should include data gathering operations so that we can detect to the best of our abilities when aliens approach.
January 10, 2015
I would have liked to rate this one a bit higher, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. The author raises some interesting discussion points, but then races off to what I can only describe as head-shakingly bizarre conclusions. For example, he argues quite seriously that a secret group should be set up, siphoning off the best and brightest minds and lots of cash, to work on technologies to fight off alien invaders. And if no alien invaders show up soon, well then we can just use these advanced weapons on earthy enemies. Oh, and there is no need to worry about this secret group doing any nefarious or bad with their secret stash of money and advanced tech, oh no, that could never happen in the USA.
Try to find this one used, somewhere.
Try to find this one used, somewhere.
February 15, 2019
Thought provoking and good background for the proposition that it would be prudent to prepare for the possibility, however unlikely, that first contact with space aliens may be with a civilization that is not benevolent.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews