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Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials
This book describes a wide variety of speculations by many authors about the consequences for humanity of coming into contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The assumptions underlying those speculations are examined, and some conclusions are drawn. The book emphasizes the consequences of contact rather than the search, and takes account of popular views. As necessary background, the book also includes brief summaries of the history of thinking about extraterrestrial intelligence, searches for life and for signals, contrasting paradigms of how contact might take place, and the paradox that those paradigms allegedly create.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published November 14, 2006
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August 18, 2019
Absolutely required reading for SETI enthusiasts
Before the publication of David Grinspoon's Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (2003), which I highly recommend (see my review), I was frankly starved for speculations and information about the search for extraterrestrial life. With this volume however I think I am sated. This could be called the mother of all SETI books and then some.
The text runs to 376 dense pages. There are 72 pages of "References," although I wish there were a separate bibliography in which the works referenced were presented alphabetically by author. I don't find this newfangled practice of omitting a bibliography convenient. Regardless Michaud seems to quote just about anybody even remotely connected with SETI including many scientific lights, Carl Sagan, David Darling, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Drake, Seth Shostak, Jill Tarter, Frank Tipler, et al., along with scifi literary illuminati like Olaf Stapledon, not to mention religious people, politicians, and even a poet or two.
He begins with what he calls "a condensed history of speculations...up to 1959" which is followed by "brief descriptions of the scientific searches" for ETs and their signals, and then he launches into a step by step consideration of the Drake equation. He brings us up to date on the latest thinking. As most SETI knowledgeable people know, the Drake equation on the probability of there being intelligent life elsewhere has been given a big boost in recent years by the discovery of planets revolving around other stars, and by our learning just how inhospitable environments can be and still harbor microbial life, as in deep ocean vents and far down into the earth's crust. To me this last discovery is especially exciting because (as Michaud points out) it greatly increases the number of places in the cosmos where life could be thriving--around brown dwarfs (or maybe even ON them!), in interstellar space, in dust clouds and of course under frozen surfaces, such as exist on Europa.
Skeptics as well as wide-eyed optimists are quoted. The UFO controversy is examined. Consequences of contact are explored, etc. But with all the speculations, learned and otherwise, we are still left with just one example of life from which to extrapolate. So, interesting as all this material is, it is not nearly as interesting as just one itty-bitty, bonafide example of extraterrestrial life would be. I hope I live long enough for one to be found.
To conclude let me concentrate on a couple of issues that I find most interesting.
First, the issue of colonization of the galaxy. I prefer to ask not Fermi's "Where are they?" but "Why should they?"
The assumption that there is an innate propensity for life to reproduce ad infinitum is one that is hard to argue with when applied to life on earth. The assumption that life elsewhere will have a similar urge is also reasonable. However when we look at the average lifespan of species on this planet we realize that something like a million years is the norm. How much of the galaxy could a species that exists for a million years colonize? Further qualify this by asking what is the average lifespan of a species that leaves the environment to which it is adapted? It may well be that if we ourselves go space-faring, we may find artifacts of extinct ETs but not the ETs themselves.
There is also the question why would intelligent beings want to live in hostile environments? Some of their kind, like some of our kind, might very well volunteer for the uncertainties of a lifetime in space and a lifetime in space for their progeny, but most probably would not. And how massively advanced does a civilization have to be to go space-faring, confident that nothing will go wrong over the span of a hundred years, a thousand years, ten-thousand years...? Humans as presently constituted would find living on a spaceship for even months at a time very difficult. Think of how our ideas have changed since the time of Shakespeare, a mere four hundred years ago. By the time the space travelers are gone a generation or two, it is possible that they may change their minds about the virtue of the mission.
As Freeman Dyson said, "Interstellar travel...is essentially not a problem in physics or engineering but a problem in biology." (p. 130) He might well have added "psychology."
Another issue is that of sending out probes or self-replicating "Von Neumann machines" that would terra form the galaxy while endowing the new turf with the seed of their makers. But again, why would they? Darwinian biological creatures tend to reproduce to the carrying capacity of their environments; but any creatures that have the intelligence to colonize space would presumably be beyond such biological imperatives. In fact, the real question is why would any advanced society want to create more of its kind? It seems to me more likely that such creatures would want instead to observe life forms different from themselves in so far as possible. Michaud recalls that Andrew Clark and David Clark characterized sending out self-replicating probes as "galactic vandalism." Michaud adds that such probes could end up threatening the civilization that made them. (pp. 170-71) It's possible that sufficiently complex self-replicating machines could "evolve" into something with intentions very different from that of their creators.
There are historical examples of civilizations reigning in their exploratory and reproductive instincts, such as the Chinese before the European Age of Exploration, and the declining birth rates today in industrialized countries. It may very well be the case that once biological creatures reach a certain level of understanding, they stop all activity because there is no desire to do anything. If we build machines that have an intelligence vastly superior to ours, unless somehow the desire to continue is built into them, why would they continue?
I don't think anyone really interested in SETI can afford to miss this exciting book.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
Before the publication of David Grinspoon's Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (2003), which I highly recommend (see my review), I was frankly starved for speculations and information about the search for extraterrestrial life. With this volume however I think I am sated. This could be called the mother of all SETI books and then some.
The text runs to 376 dense pages. There are 72 pages of "References," although I wish there were a separate bibliography in which the works referenced were presented alphabetically by author. I don't find this newfangled practice of omitting a bibliography convenient. Regardless Michaud seems to quote just about anybody even remotely connected with SETI including many scientific lights, Carl Sagan, David Darling, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Drake, Seth Shostak, Jill Tarter, Frank Tipler, et al., along with scifi literary illuminati like Olaf Stapledon, not to mention religious people, politicians, and even a poet or two.
He begins with what he calls "a condensed history of speculations...up to 1959" which is followed by "brief descriptions of the scientific searches" for ETs and their signals, and then he launches into a step by step consideration of the Drake equation. He brings us up to date on the latest thinking. As most SETI knowledgeable people know, the Drake equation on the probability of there being intelligent life elsewhere has been given a big boost in recent years by the discovery of planets revolving around other stars, and by our learning just how inhospitable environments can be and still harbor microbial life, as in deep ocean vents and far down into the earth's crust. To me this last discovery is especially exciting because (as Michaud points out) it greatly increases the number of places in the cosmos where life could be thriving--around brown dwarfs (or maybe even ON them!), in interstellar space, in dust clouds and of course under frozen surfaces, such as exist on Europa.
Skeptics as well as wide-eyed optimists are quoted. The UFO controversy is examined. Consequences of contact are explored, etc. But with all the speculations, learned and otherwise, we are still left with just one example of life from which to extrapolate. So, interesting as all this material is, it is not nearly as interesting as just one itty-bitty, bonafide example of extraterrestrial life would be. I hope I live long enough for one to be found.
To conclude let me concentrate on a couple of issues that I find most interesting.
First, the issue of colonization of the galaxy. I prefer to ask not Fermi's "Where are they?" but "Why should they?"
The assumption that there is an innate propensity for life to reproduce ad infinitum is one that is hard to argue with when applied to life on earth. The assumption that life elsewhere will have a similar urge is also reasonable. However when we look at the average lifespan of species on this planet we realize that something like a million years is the norm. How much of the galaxy could a species that exists for a million years colonize? Further qualify this by asking what is the average lifespan of a species that leaves the environment to which it is adapted? It may well be that if we ourselves go space-faring, we may find artifacts of extinct ETs but not the ETs themselves.
There is also the question why would intelligent beings want to live in hostile environments? Some of their kind, like some of our kind, might very well volunteer for the uncertainties of a lifetime in space and a lifetime in space for their progeny, but most probably would not. And how massively advanced does a civilization have to be to go space-faring, confident that nothing will go wrong over the span of a hundred years, a thousand years, ten-thousand years...? Humans as presently constituted would find living on a spaceship for even months at a time very difficult. Think of how our ideas have changed since the time of Shakespeare, a mere four hundred years ago. By the time the space travelers are gone a generation or two, it is possible that they may change their minds about the virtue of the mission.
As Freeman Dyson said, "Interstellar travel...is essentially not a problem in physics or engineering but a problem in biology." (p. 130) He might well have added "psychology."
Another issue is that of sending out probes or self-replicating "Von Neumann machines" that would terra form the galaxy while endowing the new turf with the seed of their makers. But again, why would they? Darwinian biological creatures tend to reproduce to the carrying capacity of their environments; but any creatures that have the intelligence to colonize space would presumably be beyond such biological imperatives. In fact, the real question is why would any advanced society want to create more of its kind? It seems to me more likely that such creatures would want instead to observe life forms different from themselves in so far as possible. Michaud recalls that Andrew Clark and David Clark characterized sending out self-replicating probes as "galactic vandalism." Michaud adds that such probes could end up threatening the civilization that made them. (pp. 170-71) It's possible that sufficiently complex self-replicating machines could "evolve" into something with intentions very different from that of their creators.
There are historical examples of civilizations reigning in their exploratory and reproductive instincts, such as the Chinese before the European Age of Exploration, and the declining birth rates today in industrialized countries. It may very well be the case that once biological creatures reach a certain level of understanding, they stop all activity because there is no desire to do anything. If we build machines that have an intelligence vastly superior to ours, unless somehow the desire to continue is built into them, why would they continue?
I don't think anyone really interested in SETI can afford to miss this exciting book.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
February 27, 2015
EDIT: Reread this book for a talk I am doing and appreciate it more. Upgraded review to four stars.
YMMV with this book. It's not bad in any sense but I personally found it a bit boring because I have at some point contemplated the majority of the ideas in it. There's this for example:
Well that occurred to me when I thought about the "Golden Record" attached to the Voyager probes. The selection is pretty disingenuous in the way that it paints a warm, fuzzy picture of H. sapiens. There is a greeting in Akkadian on that record. Can you believe it? Try to imagine Sennacherib giving E.T. a big hug without laughing. The record is also disingenuous in the way it exaggerates the modal cultural output of the human species. I can just imagine the kind of crap that such a recording would have to include if it were made today, provided that the producers wanted to make their effort representative. We'd probably Rickroll the aliens.
That's just one thing that did not seem novel, to me anyway. There are quite a few others and the book starts to seem somewhat repetitive after a while.
But hey, I've been thinking about what aliens might be like for almost as long as I can remember. You might get a lot more out of this title than I did.
YMMV with this book. It's not bad in any sense but I personally found it a bit boring because I have at some point contemplated the majority of the ideas in it. There's this for example:
The drafting of a message to aliens would be heavily influenced by the fact that such a transmission also is a message to ourselves. We would be tempted to disguise our problems while inflating our achievements. Extraterrestrials might not be above doing that themselves.
Well that occurred to me when I thought about the "Golden Record" attached to the Voyager probes. The selection is pretty disingenuous in the way that it paints a warm, fuzzy picture of H. sapiens. There is a greeting in Akkadian on that record. Can you believe it? Try to imagine Sennacherib giving E.T. a big hug without laughing. The record is also disingenuous in the way it exaggerates the modal cultural output of the human species. I can just imagine the kind of crap that such a recording would have to include if it were made today, provided that the producers wanted to make their effort representative. We'd probably Rickroll the aliens.
That's just one thing that did not seem novel, to me anyway. There are quite a few others and the book starts to seem somewhat repetitive after a while.
But hey, I've been thinking about what aliens might be like for almost as long as I can remember. You might get a lot more out of this title than I did.
February 16, 2020
This is the best so far in my stack of nonfiction, scientifically-oriented books on extraterrestrial aliens. As a sci-fi writer, I want to be well-informed about all things ET. For anyone interested in SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), this is a must-read, as it gives a detailed history of human interest in aliens, from Copernicus to Aricebo. The table of contents is seven pages long, and the book has 71 pages of references plus an index.
The history begins with a discussion of "other minds," and it points out how the Copernican revolution reversed figure and ground, raising into sharp focus the question, "Are we alone in the universe? The discussion then ritualistically paces through the "Drake Equation," a list of dependent probabilities of finding intelligent life beyond Earth. (Short answer: The probability is extremely small, but given the enormous number of stars, even a small probability is a significant non-zero number of potential places where aliens could reside).
The logically flawed Anthropic Principle is, surprisingly, considered seriously. The "principle" states that our intelligent life is so delicately dependent on such a long list of critical but unlikely chance circumstances (such as a world with a 20% oxygen atmosphere), that it "could not have happened twice." The argument is a classic exercise of the logical fallacy, post-hoc, ergo propter hoc, or "assuming the consequent."
Then the question turns to Fermi's so-called paradox: If there are so many aliens out there, why haven't we detected them? Dozens of answers to that conundrum are considered in turn, everything from "We haven't looked hard enough," to "They don't want to be seen," and "They're already here but we just don't know it."
The author's presentation is based on scientific facts about astronomy, chemistry, and government funding, but the truth is, there are no scientific facts about aliens because we've never found one. Instead, the book is filled with argument, speculation and opinion, some of it quite interesting, but none of it really evidential. This is the book's greatest failing, the conflation (on purpose or unintentionally, I cannot tell), of fact and opinion.
If Carl Sagan said that "Aliens are surely out there," that's a fact. He did say it. What is not a fact is that aliens are surely out there. That's just his opinion. The book does not make a clear distinction, and the book is filled with pithy epigrams and authoritative-sounding statements of opinion. All this might give the impressionable reader the false sense of reading 500 pages of facts about the search for alien intelligence. Actually, about 100 pages are factual material, the rest only opinions, as careful study of the reference list reveals. There is no fact of the matter when it comes to aliens.
Despite that fundamental flaw, the book is a provocative read, especially helpful for sci-fi writers who want to get their aliens right. The author does quote a number of opinions from sci-fi writers alongside those of the scientists, though he admits that sci-fi speculation about aliens needs a tome of its own. This book is for scientific speculation.
And that leads to the second major flaw in the book, the absence of serious philosophical input. Scientists are self-selected into a club that is largely blind to its own subjectivity, and that's no accident. Science is the gold standard of objectivity. However, a consequence is that, for all its meticulous logic, scientific speculation is necessarily half-blind.
No serious consideration is given, for example to what "intelligence" might be, in humans or aliens. From the text, one might deduce it means "able to build and operate a radio telescope." The term appears in the book's index but points back only to the reference list, where "Intelligence" appears in newspaper headlines or speculative essays.
The same criticism holds for the term "message." SETI researchers want a "message" from the stars. The text acknowledges that a "signal" or a "pattern" from the stars may or may not be interpretable by us, but no consideration is given to the very concept of defining a "message," which is a "communication," which implies "intentionality," "meaning," "subjectivity," and "intersubjectivity." None of those terms, including "message," appears in the index.
When objective scientists speculate on "the other" without regard to their own subjectivity, they end up projecting themselves. Aliens will be like us, but slightly different. Ultimately, I would say this book is really about colonialism here on Earth, unconsciously projected into the skies.
This implicit bias delivers the disappointment of a missed opportunity. Even so, I found it thought-provoking in places just because of its egregious oversights, and I came away with a new question: Can a truly alien (non-human) mind be imagined or is that impossible in principle?
Michaud, Michael A.G. (2007). Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials. New York: CopernicusBooks, 460 pp.
The history begins with a discussion of "other minds," and it points out how the Copernican revolution reversed figure and ground, raising into sharp focus the question, "Are we alone in the universe? The discussion then ritualistically paces through the "Drake Equation," a list of dependent probabilities of finding intelligent life beyond Earth. (Short answer: The probability is extremely small, but given the enormous number of stars, even a small probability is a significant non-zero number of potential places where aliens could reside).
The logically flawed Anthropic Principle is, surprisingly, considered seriously. The "principle" states that our intelligent life is so delicately dependent on such a long list of critical but unlikely chance circumstances (such as a world with a 20% oxygen atmosphere), that it "could not have happened twice." The argument is a classic exercise of the logical fallacy, post-hoc, ergo propter hoc, or "assuming the consequent."
Then the question turns to Fermi's so-called paradox: If there are so many aliens out there, why haven't we detected them? Dozens of answers to that conundrum are considered in turn, everything from "We haven't looked hard enough," to "They don't want to be seen," and "They're already here but we just don't know it."
The author's presentation is based on scientific facts about astronomy, chemistry, and government funding, but the truth is, there are no scientific facts about aliens because we've never found one. Instead, the book is filled with argument, speculation and opinion, some of it quite interesting, but none of it really evidential. This is the book's greatest failing, the conflation (on purpose or unintentionally, I cannot tell), of fact and opinion.
If Carl Sagan said that "Aliens are surely out there," that's a fact. He did say it. What is not a fact is that aliens are surely out there. That's just his opinion. The book does not make a clear distinction, and the book is filled with pithy epigrams and authoritative-sounding statements of opinion. All this might give the impressionable reader the false sense of reading 500 pages of facts about the search for alien intelligence. Actually, about 100 pages are factual material, the rest only opinions, as careful study of the reference list reveals. There is no fact of the matter when it comes to aliens.
Despite that fundamental flaw, the book is a provocative read, especially helpful for sci-fi writers who want to get their aliens right. The author does quote a number of opinions from sci-fi writers alongside those of the scientists, though he admits that sci-fi speculation about aliens needs a tome of its own. This book is for scientific speculation.
And that leads to the second major flaw in the book, the absence of serious philosophical input. Scientists are self-selected into a club that is largely blind to its own subjectivity, and that's no accident. Science is the gold standard of objectivity. However, a consequence is that, for all its meticulous logic, scientific speculation is necessarily half-blind.
No serious consideration is given, for example to what "intelligence" might be, in humans or aliens. From the text, one might deduce it means "able to build and operate a radio telescope." The term appears in the book's index but points back only to the reference list, where "Intelligence" appears in newspaper headlines or speculative essays.
The same criticism holds for the term "message." SETI researchers want a "message" from the stars. The text acknowledges that a "signal" or a "pattern" from the stars may or may not be interpretable by us, but no consideration is given to the very concept of defining a "message," which is a "communication," which implies "intentionality," "meaning," "subjectivity," and "intersubjectivity." None of those terms, including "message," appears in the index.
When objective scientists speculate on "the other" without regard to their own subjectivity, they end up projecting themselves. Aliens will be like us, but slightly different. Ultimately, I would say this book is really about colonialism here on Earth, unconsciously projected into the skies.
This implicit bias delivers the disappointment of a missed opportunity. Even so, I found it thought-provoking in places just because of its egregious oversights, and I came away with a new question: Can a truly alien (non-human) mind be imagined or is that impossible in principle?
Michaud, Michael A.G. (2007). Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials. New York: CopernicusBooks, 460 pp.
December 12, 2021
This book is the most thoroughly-researched and closely-referenced work I have ever read. It's worth 3 stars for the meticulous research alone.
The author covers the search for extraterrestrials and what might happen if we find them from just about every angle in considerable detail. Significantly, he brings us up to speed with the latest thinking on the Drake equation, and his considerations go some way to answering the Fermi Paradox.
It's very difficult for a work as dense and complicated as this to provide a review that does it justice. I would simply urge anyone with an interest in SETI and possible contact scenarios to read this book. It does indeed seem to be the mother of all such books in this genre and clearly represents many years' of learning and experience - as well as work - on the part of the author.
To his credit the author keeps the tone of the book soberly factual and objective throughout, when it would have been easy for him to delve into areas that are the preserve of science fiction fans. If he's repetitive, its because its difficult not to be in a work that is treating a purely speculative subject. Personally, I don't feel the relatively small amount of repetition is a problem - it merely serves to highlight the totally speculative nature of the entire discourse. We may or may not encounter extraterrestrials for a myriad of reasons. They may or may not wish to communicate with us for another myriad of reasons.
But easy bedtime reading this is not - it's a dense, tightly-packed theoretical work loaded with thoughts, theories, questions and issues touching on science, philosophy, ethics, politics and history. In my view the author does full justice to what must be a very difficult subject to write well about.
This book is not easy but is well worth the effort - I urge any interested reader to pick it up. It's definitely a title I'm going to be holding onto.
The author covers the search for extraterrestrials and what might happen if we find them from just about every angle in considerable detail. Significantly, he brings us up to speed with the latest thinking on the Drake equation, and his considerations go some way to answering the Fermi Paradox.
It's very difficult for a work as dense and complicated as this to provide a review that does it justice. I would simply urge anyone with an interest in SETI and possible contact scenarios to read this book. It does indeed seem to be the mother of all such books in this genre and clearly represents many years' of learning and experience - as well as work - on the part of the author.
To his credit the author keeps the tone of the book soberly factual and objective throughout, when it would have been easy for him to delve into areas that are the preserve of science fiction fans. If he's repetitive, its because its difficult not to be in a work that is treating a purely speculative subject. Personally, I don't feel the relatively small amount of repetition is a problem - it merely serves to highlight the totally speculative nature of the entire discourse. We may or may not encounter extraterrestrials for a myriad of reasons. They may or may not wish to communicate with us for another myriad of reasons.
But easy bedtime reading this is not - it's a dense, tightly-packed theoretical work loaded with thoughts, theories, questions and issues touching on science, philosophy, ethics, politics and history. In my view the author does full justice to what must be a very difficult subject to write well about.
This book is not easy but is well worth the effort - I urge any interested reader to pick it up. It's definitely a title I'm going to be holding onto.
July 29, 2018
The book is very informative in discussing various scenarios of alien contact (a bit out of date for the recent developments in exoplanets), but unfortunately it is boring to read. It reads more like a long list than a book about "hopes and fears." That said, it's very good as a reference.
January 25, 2024
One more book with the mainstream vision of astrophisics, cosmology, contact with ET via SETI and other points, very normal and very little new information, still the author do a good compilation with all the information one cans muster on the subject.
September 10, 2014
Michael Michaud thoroughly examines the question of life in the universe from different angles. He presents society’s views on this subject in the past and in the present, exploring the implications for humanity if life is discovered in exoplanets. This book gives the most comprehensive examination I have read on this subject.
Below, for example, are two quotes on the historical perspective of Christianity (Kindle version):
Some sought to reconcile plurality with Christian doctrine by invoking what later became known as the Principle of Plenitude. (…) Multiple worlds with sentient life-forms could be seen as demonstrating the wisdom and benevolence of God) This theory did not resolve the underlying dilemma for Christian theology; if there were intelligent beings on other worlds, we might not be God's unique and central concern. (Loc. 250)
Vast realms of our own planet, previously unknown to Europe, were found to be inhabited by strange peoples and alien societies that had developed independently of Eurasia. Saint Augustine had condemned the belief in the very existence of such "Antipodeans." (Loc. 272)
Below, for example, are two quotes on the historical perspective of Christianity (Kindle version):
Some sought to reconcile plurality with Christian doctrine by invoking what later became known as the Principle of Plenitude. (…) Multiple worlds with sentient life-forms could be seen as demonstrating the wisdom and benevolence of God) This theory did not resolve the underlying dilemma for Christian theology; if there were intelligent beings on other worlds, we might not be God's unique and central concern. (Loc. 250)
Vast realms of our own planet, previously unknown to Europe, were found to be inhabited by strange peoples and alien societies that had developed independently of Eurasia. Saint Augustine had condemned the belief in the very existence of such "Antipodeans." (Loc. 272)
August 31, 2009
A really great overview of the search for extraterrestrial life, in the past, present and future.
In many ways it reads like a textbook and is a good review of our obsession with ETs and all the debates surrounding the possibility of life elsewhere. It delves into all aspects of the issue including many that you many not think of on your own. The chapters are well organized and the points are all well researched and thought out. In particular I was impressed by the authors coverage of both sides of every debate and his ability to look at each subject from every angle.
The only real critisisms I have are that there is alot of redundancy (which, in part, I understand as many things the author states apply to multiple sections and need to be restated) and that the textbook feel of the book doesn't always make for the most enthralling read.
I'm on a bit of an astronomy kick right now and this book is an excellent compendium of our search for extraterrestrial life.
In many ways it reads like a textbook and is a good review of our obsession with ETs and all the debates surrounding the possibility of life elsewhere. It delves into all aspects of the issue including many that you many not think of on your own. The chapters are well organized and the points are all well researched and thought out. In particular I was impressed by the authors coverage of both sides of every debate and his ability to look at each subject from every angle.
The only real critisisms I have are that there is alot of redundancy (which, in part, I understand as many things the author states apply to multiple sections and need to be restated) and that the textbook feel of the book doesn't always make for the most enthralling read.
I'm on a bit of an astronomy kick right now and this book is an excellent compendium of our search for extraterrestrial life.
July 25, 2008
I haven't finished it yet, but I'm going to review it none the less. I can see where it's going.
Not a very well written book. It covers the same information over and over and over and over again. Most of the book seems like an effort to pad the page count.
There is a lot of interesting information though, and quite a few things I didn't know. Plenty of possibilities I hadn't considered.
I can't say it's awesome, but it's enjoyable enough if you're interested in contact with alien civilizations...I think I paid less than $5 for it too, so I definitely got my money's worth.
Not a very well written book. It covers the same information over and over and over and over again. Most of the book seems like an effort to pad the page count.
There is a lot of interesting information though, and quite a few things I didn't know. Plenty of possibilities I hadn't considered.
I can't say it's awesome, but it's enjoyable enough if you're interested in contact with alien civilizations...I think I paid less than $5 for it too, so I definitely got my money's worth.
June 9, 2012
I really loved all the things discussed in each chapter because they weren't like anything other authors has said concerning the topic of ETs. Michaud described much about the sociological and psychological effects on people if we were to ever discover/be discovered by or encounter them. Some material I've actually considered before reading this, others I haven't but thought it was a great idea. It really have me a wonderful insight on what could happen to us if we found extraterrestrial life forms or how we should prepare for their arrival.
February 15, 2019
Great depth and academic breadth in this review of the issues surrounding SETI and METI. I especially like his lamentation of how scientific investigation of UFOs has been poisoned by zealots on both sides of that issue.
March 7, 2011
AWESOME
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews