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Aliens: Can We Make Contact With Extraterrestrial Intelligence?
In plain English, a father-son team of scientists draws on their extensive knowledge of contemporary physics and astronomy to describe the latest attempts to locate extraterrestrials and to explore the philosophical implications of that search.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 17, 2019
Fine update at the time
Probably not any time soon but, as this very readable volume insists, we sure ought to try. Messrs. Clark explore the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence as completely as any book I've read, from rocketry to genetics, and they do it with a calm rationality that inspires confidence and credence.
The book is organized around what they consider the three big questions of ETI: The "SETI Question," the "McCrea Question," and the "Fermi Question." The SETI question from the Drake equation asks, if ETI is common in the galaxy, why haven't we detected signals from them? The McCrea query from astronomer Sir William McCrea, who asked it of the authors, posits, if elementary life forms are common, what is the chance that creatures like humans will evolve? The famous Fermi quip is, if they are there, why aren't they here? The authors explore these questions in light of the latest knowledge and speculation. The answers they come to are similar to those found in the classic Extraterrestrials: Where Are They? edited by Ben Zuckerman and Michael H. Hart, namely that there are many reasons we haven't heard from them, from they don't care to communicate, to their civilizations are short-lived, to creatures like humans are very rare, etc.
The authors make a couple of important points I don't recall in other SETI books. The first is obvious once mentioned, namely that a communicating ETI must have more than just intelligence. It must have dexterity. "[H]ighly evolved dolphins with the intellect of Frank Drake are not going to build radio telescopes to search out ETI," is the way the authors put it on page 92.
The second point is that science should not abandon "ufology" because it is now mostly in the hands of pseudoscience and the tabloid mind; instead the methods of science should be applied to UFOs as elsewhere; this despite the fact that it is pretty well realized that alien visits are highly unlikely. I might add that keeping a scientific eye on UFOs is valuable because if aliens ever do visit we may need the most acute and discerning instruments, experience, and intelligence to even notice them. My suspicion is that ETI may be so much different from us that we wouldn't recognize it if it sat down next to us!
This is an up to date report that manages to be accessible to a wide audience without any dumbing-down. It includes a glossary, a short bibliography and some web sites. But books on SETI are like computers. Because of the rapid pace of technological and scientific advancements, we must have a new one every three years or so. I'm already looking forward to the next.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
Probably not any time soon but, as this very readable volume insists, we sure ought to try. Messrs. Clark explore the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence as completely as any book I've read, from rocketry to genetics, and they do it with a calm rationality that inspires confidence and credence.
The book is organized around what they consider the three big questions of ETI: The "SETI Question," the "McCrea Question," and the "Fermi Question." The SETI question from the Drake equation asks, if ETI is common in the galaxy, why haven't we detected signals from them? The McCrea query from astronomer Sir William McCrea, who asked it of the authors, posits, if elementary life forms are common, what is the chance that creatures like humans will evolve? The famous Fermi quip is, if they are there, why aren't they here? The authors explore these questions in light of the latest knowledge and speculation. The answers they come to are similar to those found in the classic Extraterrestrials: Where Are They? edited by Ben Zuckerman and Michael H. Hart, namely that there are many reasons we haven't heard from them, from they don't care to communicate, to their civilizations are short-lived, to creatures like humans are very rare, etc.
The authors make a couple of important points I don't recall in other SETI books. The first is obvious once mentioned, namely that a communicating ETI must have more than just intelligence. It must have dexterity. "[H]ighly evolved dolphins with the intellect of Frank Drake are not going to build radio telescopes to search out ETI," is the way the authors put it on page 92.
The second point is that science should not abandon "ufology" because it is now mostly in the hands of pseudoscience and the tabloid mind; instead the methods of science should be applied to UFOs as elsewhere; this despite the fact that it is pretty well realized that alien visits are highly unlikely. I might add that keeping a scientific eye on UFOs is valuable because if aliens ever do visit we may need the most acute and discerning instruments, experience, and intelligence to even notice them. My suspicion is that ETI may be so much different from us that we wouldn't recognize it if it sat down next to us!
This is an up to date report that manages to be accessible to a wide audience without any dumbing-down. It includes a glossary, a short bibliography and some web sites. But books on SETI are like computers. Because of the rapid pace of technological and scientific advancements, we must have a new one every three years or so. I'm already looking forward to the next.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
May 16, 2010
Clark, Andrew J. H. and David H. Clark. Aliens: Can We Make Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence? (1999)*****
Fine update at the time
Probably not any time soon but, as this very readable volume insists, we sure ought to try. Messrs. Clark explore the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence as completely as any book I've read, from rocketry to genetics, and they do it with a calm rationality that inspires confidence and credence.
The book is organized around what they consider the three big questions of ETI: The "SETI Question," the "McCrea Question," and the "Fermi Question." The SETI question from the Drake equation asks, if ETI is common in the galaxy, why haven't we detected signals from them? The McCrea query from astronomer Sir William McCrea, who asked it of the authors, posits, if elementary life forms are common, what is the chance that creatures like humans will evolve? The famous Fermi quip is, if they are there, why aren't they here? The authors explore these questions in light of the latest knowledge and speculation. The answers they come to are similar to those found in the classic Extraterrestrials: Where Are They? edited by Ben Zuckerman and Michael H. Hart, namely that there are many reasons we haven't heard from them, from they don't care to communicate, to their civilizations are short-lived, to creatures like humans are very rare, etc.
The authors make a couple of important points I don't recall in other SETI books. The first is obvious once mentioned, namely that a communicating ETI must have more than just intelligence. It must have dexterity. "[H:]ighly evolved dolphins with the intellect of Frank Drake are not going to build radio telescopes to search out ETI," is the way the authors put it on page 92.
The second point is that science should not abandon "ufology" because it is now mostly in the hands of pseudoscience and the tabloid mind; instead the methods of science should be applied to UFOs as elsewhere; this despite the fact that it is pretty well realized that alien visits are highly unlikely. I might add that keeping a scientific eye on UFOs is valuable because if aliens ever do visit we may need the most acute and discerning instruments, experience, and intelligence to even notice them. My suspicion is that ETI may be so much different from us that we wouldn't recognize it if it sat down next to us!
This is an up to date report that manages to be accessible to a wide audience without any dumbing-down. It includes a glossary, a short bibliography and some web sites. But books on SETI are like computers. Because of the rapid pace of technological and scientific advancements, we must have a new one every three years or so. I'm already looking forward to the next.
--a review by Dennis Littrell
Fine update at the time
Probably not any time soon but, as this very readable volume insists, we sure ought to try. Messrs. Clark explore the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence as completely as any book I've read, from rocketry to genetics, and they do it with a calm rationality that inspires confidence and credence.
The book is organized around what they consider the three big questions of ETI: The "SETI Question," the "McCrea Question," and the "Fermi Question." The SETI question from the Drake equation asks, if ETI is common in the galaxy, why haven't we detected signals from them? The McCrea query from astronomer Sir William McCrea, who asked it of the authors, posits, if elementary life forms are common, what is the chance that creatures like humans will evolve? The famous Fermi quip is, if they are there, why aren't they here? The authors explore these questions in light of the latest knowledge and speculation. The answers they come to are similar to those found in the classic Extraterrestrials: Where Are They? edited by Ben Zuckerman and Michael H. Hart, namely that there are many reasons we haven't heard from them, from they don't care to communicate, to their civilizations are short-lived, to creatures like humans are very rare, etc.
The authors make a couple of important points I don't recall in other SETI books. The first is obvious once mentioned, namely that a communicating ETI must have more than just intelligence. It must have dexterity. "[H:]ighly evolved dolphins with the intellect of Frank Drake are not going to build radio telescopes to search out ETI," is the way the authors put it on page 92.
The second point is that science should not abandon "ufology" because it is now mostly in the hands of pseudoscience and the tabloid mind; instead the methods of science should be applied to UFOs as elsewhere; this despite the fact that it is pretty well realized that alien visits are highly unlikely. I might add that keeping a scientific eye on UFOs is valuable because if aliens ever do visit we may need the most acute and discerning instruments, experience, and intelligence to even notice them. My suspicion is that ETI may be so much different from us that we wouldn't recognize it if it sat down next to us!
This is an up to date report that manages to be accessible to a wide audience without any dumbing-down. It includes a glossary, a short bibliography and some web sites. But books on SETI are like computers. Because of the rapid pace of technological and scientific advancements, we must have a new one every three years or so. I'm already looking forward to the next.
--a review by Dennis Littrell
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews