The Biological Universe: The Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science

by Steven J. Dick

Throughout the twentieth century, from the furor over Percival Lowell's claim of canals on Mars to the sophisticated Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, otherworldly life has often intrigued and occasionally consumed science and the public. The Biological Universe provides a rich and colorful history of the attempts during the twentieth century to answer questions such as whether "biological law" reigns throughout the universe and whether there are other histories, religions, and philosophies outside those on Earth. Covering a broad range of topics, including the search for life in the solar system, the origins of life, UFOs, and aliens in science fiction, Steven J. Dick shows how the concept of extraterrestrial intelligence is a world view of its own, a "biophysical cosmology" that seeks confirmation no less than physical views of the universe. This book will fascinate astronomers, historians of science, biochemists, and science fiction readers.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology

Paperback

First published June 13, 1996

About the author

Steven J. Dick is an American astronomer, author, and historian of science most noted for his work in the field of astrobiology. He served as the NASA Chief Historian and Director of the NASA History Office from 2003 to 2009 and, prior to that, as an astronomer and historian of science at the U.S. Naval Observatory for more than two decades.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A MASTERFULLY DETAILED HISTORY OF ET RESEARCH, UFOs, ETC.

Steven J. Dick is an American astronomer, author, and historian of science who served as the Chief Historian for NASA from 2003 to 2009, and as the Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology from 2013 to 2014; prior to that, he was an astronomer and historian of science at the United States Naval Observatory from 1979 to 2003.

He wrote in the introduction to this 1996 book, “No matter how much we learn about the varied life forms of Earth and the physical nature of the universe of which we are a part, the question of biological uniqueness is central to the quest for who we are and what our role in nature may be, questions as much a part of religion and philosophy as of science. The whole thrust of physical science … has been to demonstrate the role of physical law in the universe… The question at stake in the extraterrestrial life debate is whether an analogous ‘biological law’ reigns throughout the universe; whether there are other histories, religions, and philosophies… These are questions that have been asked many times and are still unanswered, but the attempts to answer them form one of the most interesting chapters in the history of science and culture. The rich and colorful history of those attempts during the twentieth century is the subject of this book.”

He notes, “the extremely contentious arguments hinging of planetary observations provide a prime study of the problematic nature of observation in science. This problematic nature characterizes not only the observations undertaken at the immense distances of planets, but even those garnered when Space Age technology allowed spacecraft to land on planetary surfaces. Yet… the debate progressed throughout the century from the question of intelligence in the solar system, to vegetation, and finally to microorganisms and organic molecules. False leads, emotional debate, and wishful thinking notwithstanding, the historical record shows that twentieth-century science did resolve the question of life in the solar system to the satisfaction of most. Precisely how it reached its momentous conclusion, through a thicket of subtle problems, is the subject of the present chapter.” (Pg. 61)

Of UFOs, he comments, “for better or worse, this controversy would become intimately associated with the debate over the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence… the UFO controversy was unlike other novel scientific ideas such as evolution, in which scientists tried to impose new ideas on the masses. Rather… it was the masses who tried to impose a novel idea on a mostly incredulous community of scientists. Between public gullibility and scientific clos-mindedness, between perception and reality, lies an important chapter in the history of the extraterrestrial life debate and a story of the limits of science under the most trying circumstances… we are not interested for present purposes so much in the details of specific cases as in the scientific and public reaction to the extraterrestrial hypothesis; how this reaction reflects on the scientific and public attitudes toward the existence of life beyond the Earth; and the nature of the arguments scientists brought to bear in reaching their conclusions.” (Pg. 267-268)

He points out that “Carl Sagan, having just 2 years earlier published with [Iosif Samuilovich] Shklovskii ‘Intelligent Life in the Universe’ [which even suggested that ‘there is then a possibility that contact with an extraterrestrial civilization has occurred within historic times’], found the extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs not at all persuasive. He was much more impressed with the psychological explanations of Jung and others… Sagan therefore supported a moderate investigation of UFOs, but suggested that it would be much better for Congress to support the spacecraft investigations of life and radio searches for intelligent signals.” (Pg. 299)

J. Allen Hynek noted that “the Condon Report contained many unexplained cases, which Condon chose to ignore in this summary and recommendations…by choosing to equate UFOs with the extraterrestrial hypothesis, Condon wrongly rejected the entire UFO phenomenon; and that Condon himself was preoccupied with the weirdest cases, to the detriment of the better ones. Significantly, Hayek pointed out that the extraterrestrial hypothesis could not be proven untrue, and that he deduced from this not that it was true (as some would), but that the Condon tteam had adopted the wrong methodology.” (Pg. 309)

He notes that “[a] factor in the decline of the extraterrestrial hypothesis in mainstream science is the appearance of New Age UFO theories… The fact that aliens were devoutly desired in the New Age movement did not advance the extraterrestrial hypothesis one bit in the scientific community… the spectacular claims of new phenomena ironically contributed mightily to the downfall of UFO respectability among scientists. In particular, the rise of belief in ancient astronauts, crashed spaceships, contactees, and abductees made the extraterrestrial hypothesis disreputable… The question of ancient astronauts was not invalid; given the time scale of the universe, it is not out of the question that Earth could have been visited in the past. The challenge was to come up with substantial evidence, and here almost all scientists, and … much of the public, found [writers like Erich] von Däniken wanting.” (Pg. 314-316)

He recounts that “A much bolder theory of actual life, rather than prebiotic chemicals, coming to Earth was put forward by Fred Hoyle… and his colleague [Chandra] Wickramasinghe… the authors argue for the astronomical basis for the origin of life… By 1979 Hoyle and Wickramasinghe had carried their theory another step, interpreting interstellar absorption in the UV to be evidence of frozen bacteria… microorganisms that occasionally caused epidemics on Earth… Nor was Hoyle’s the wildest panspermic theory of the origin of life… Francis Crick… proposed with Leslie Orgel the idea of ‘directed panspermia,’ whereby life was sent by spaceship from other planets to intercept Earth, among others… however, Crick and Orgel did not claim that their hypothesis had amassed enough evidence to be taken as true or even likely. It was… perhaps the ultimate elaboration of panspermic theory that had begun a century earlier.” (Pg. 377) Later, he adds, “By the 1980s… Hoyle… argued that life could not have been produced by a random sequence of events and then drew the … conclusion that it is derived from a cosmic intelligence.” (Pg. 383)

Of the SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] efforts, he observes, “the discussion … centered on the likelihood of communicative extraterrestrial civilizations utilizing radio technology. In this task, the compelling nature of an equation---even one whose parameters were not well known---was not to be denied, as can be seen by the meteoric career of the Drake Equation following its debut… Perhaps the decisive events in the spread of the Drake Equation were Walter Sullivan’s account of it in ‘We Are Not Alone’ (1964) and Sagan’s inclusion of it into … Shklovskii’s book (1966). These books ensured the rapid diffusion of the Drake Equation to the public and scientists alike… the Drake Equation, with its emphasis on radio communication, focused attention on the electromagnetic radio search paradigm… Radio communication seemed relatively tame compared to [Frank] Dyson civilizations and galactic probes… For these reasons, the discussion of rationale and strategy within the radio search paradigm continued to broaden.” (Pg. 437-438)

He recounts, “Administratively, SETI had gone from a few people within a division… to two project offices… with a combined staff of about 65 in 1992. Its annual budget has risen from a few hundred thousand dollars in the early 1970s to over 10 million in the 1990s… [However] hopes were soon dashed by Congress. After more than 15 years…the program was terminated as part of congressional budget cuts… it was unceremoniously excised from the U.S. government, cutting off not only the federal government’s financial and intellectual sponsorship … but also denying the support NASA had given… A significant number of the project’s personnel, however, joined the nonprofit SETI Institute, which had some success in raising private funding to carry on at least a scaled-back version of the original Targeted Search.” (Pg. 468-469) Later, he adds, “To its advocates, the problem at century’s end still seemed too important to be permanently derailed by mundane concerns like funding.” (Pg. 500)

He states, “Fred Hoyle undermined the whole anthropic program when he concluded that although the occurrence of life is the greatest of all problems… Instead of cosmology telling us about life… we should let life (which we know more about) tell us about cosmology… the controversy over the Anthropic Principle is yet another case demonstrating the diversity of scientific cultures, particularly when it comes to scientific method.” (Pg. 533)

He concludes, “the study of the extraterrestrial life debate would undoubtedly benefit from a historical comparison with those other great shifts in cosmological worldviews of the past… Although many aspects of culture have already been affected to some extent by the mere possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, they are likely to be affected even more is and when the biophysical cosmology is confirmed. Nor need the parallels be confined to physical worldviews; the Darwinian worldview… might serve as an even closer parallel. Indeed, the biophysical cosmology raises Darwinism to a cosmic context in which humanity is part of a much larger chain of being rather than simply at the apex of the apes.” (Pg. 542)

This book is absolute “must reading” for anyone seriously studying the extraterrestrial hypotheses; it includes not only “historical” material, but even detailed summaries of fiction, and films, dealing with aliens.