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The Eerie Silence, by Paul Davies
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I've just finished reading an ARC of The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence
, a book by the physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies on the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and why we haven't yet found any evidence of alien intelligence (or even life).
The primary question of the book is: is there anyone out there, and if so, why haven't we found them yet? Davies first focuses on life in general, rather than intelligent life, and discusses ways it might have begun, and the possibility of an existing shadow biosphere consisting of different molecular and biochemical processes than known life (short version: our methods for detecting life detect *known* life processes and are not so good at detecting *unknown* life processes; also see Davies et al Signature of a Shadow Biosphere [PDF]). This is important, because if we can prove that life can arise with different processes, it makes it more likely that life has arisen elsewhere in the Universe, because it doesn't rely on just one (possibly extremely unlikely) set of circumstances.
The next section of the book talks about intelligent life: what is it, is science inevitable, how long technological civilizations last, and so on. Davies also points out that our thoughts about intelligence and how intelligence acts are (naturally) anthrocentric and limited: it's difficult to conceive of other forms of communication than the ones we know. For example, the SETI Project scans radio waves for signs of non-terrestrial artificial signals, and at the time it began it was patently obvious that just as the Earth was blanketed with radio signals heading out to space, so would any other planet harboring advanced technology. Fast-forward to now, and the radio signals are quieting down. TV has gone digital and is no longer being broadcast. It's not inconceivable that in the not-too-distant future an alien probe might pass by the Earth and not hear anything on the radio spectrum. If this is typical of advanced technology, then scanning the sky for radio signals might be a waste of resources.
Davies also explores other types of intelligence, especially machine intelligence, and other ways that aliens who wanted to contact others might do so, and signatures of advanced technology that we might look for. He is also the chairman of the SETI: Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup, which explores issues and formulates recommendations for actions to take should we find evidence of alien life.
The books also attacks philosophical questions - what would the impact of finding alien life be, who's speaking for humans, what we should say, and why we should even look at all. And tackles the profound question of: how probable is it that we're alone in the universe? The Drake Equation is a formula that attempts to make an educated guesstimate of the probability of intelligent alien life in the universe, but the variable that feed into it are themselves guesses. We don't even know if life is a common occurrence or an uncommon one. Let's put it this way: whether the processes that resulted in life arising on Earth are common or so improbable so as to only have once in a billion squillion years, from our point of view, the result is the same. We may be bog-standard life, or we may be a once-in-a-magillion fluke. Each of those situations produces extremely different odds as to finding other life out there.
Davies aims the book at the educated layman with an interest in the subject, explaining concepts and theories in clear, simple terms. If you're a SETI geek and very knowledgeable about current events in the field, you'll probably find the majority, if not all, of the contents familiar to you, but if you've more of a passing familiarity or want to begin learning about the subjects in the book, this is excellent. If you're an aspiring science fiction writer and want ideas for stories, this is also an excellent resource. (I'm also going to mention this to the science librarian here and see if he thinks it'll be useful for our collection.)
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Note: I found this book through NetGalley, an online service that allows professional readers (librarians, reviewers, bloggers, booksellers, etc.) to read digital galleys of books from publishers affiliated with it. There's no obligation to review if you request a galley and are approved. I posted about this earlier, but left it under f-lock because I was leery of it being too full of my "OMG FREE BOOKS!" squeebling and not professional-sounding enough. :D Right now there's a lot of urban fantasy and mysteries available and not many non-fiction books, but I'll be checking back every week or so to see what's new.
ETA: Review from New Scientist here: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-mystery-of-the-silent-aliens.php
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I've just finished reading an ARC of The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence
, a book by the physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies on the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and why we haven't yet found any evidence of alien intelligence (or even life).The primary question of the book is: is there anyone out there, and if so, why haven't we found them yet? Davies first focuses on life in general, rather than intelligent life, and discusses ways it might have begun, and the possibility of an existing shadow biosphere consisting of different molecular and biochemical processes than known life (short version: our methods for detecting life detect *known* life processes and are not so good at detecting *unknown* life processes; also see Davies et al Signature of a Shadow Biosphere [PDF]). This is important, because if we can prove that life can arise with different processes, it makes it more likely that life has arisen elsewhere in the Universe, because it doesn't rely on just one (possibly extremely unlikely) set of circumstances.
The next section of the book talks about intelligent life: what is it, is science inevitable, how long technological civilizations last, and so on. Davies also points out that our thoughts about intelligence and how intelligence acts are (naturally) anthrocentric and limited: it's difficult to conceive of other forms of communication than the ones we know. For example, the SETI Project scans radio waves for signs of non-terrestrial artificial signals, and at the time it began it was patently obvious that just as the Earth was blanketed with radio signals heading out to space, so would any other planet harboring advanced technology. Fast-forward to now, and the radio signals are quieting down. TV has gone digital and is no longer being broadcast. It's not inconceivable that in the not-too-distant future an alien probe might pass by the Earth and not hear anything on the radio spectrum. If this is typical of advanced technology, then scanning the sky for radio signals might be a waste of resources.
Davies also explores other types of intelligence, especially machine intelligence, and other ways that aliens who wanted to contact others might do so, and signatures of advanced technology that we might look for. He is also the chairman of the SETI: Post-Detection Science and Technology Taskgroup, which explores issues and formulates recommendations for actions to take should we find evidence of alien life.
The books also attacks philosophical questions - what would the impact of finding alien life be, who's speaking for humans, what we should say, and why we should even look at all. And tackles the profound question of: how probable is it that we're alone in the universe? The Drake Equation is a formula that attempts to make an educated guesstimate of the probability of intelligent alien life in the universe, but the variable that feed into it are themselves guesses. We don't even know if life is a common occurrence or an uncommon one. Let's put it this way: whether the processes that resulted in life arising on Earth are common or so improbable so as to only have once in a billion squillion years, from our point of view, the result is the same. We may be bog-standard life, or we may be a once-in-a-magillion fluke. Each of those situations produces extremely different odds as to finding other life out there.
Davies aims the book at the educated layman with an interest in the subject, explaining concepts and theories in clear, simple terms. If you're a SETI geek and very knowledgeable about current events in the field, you'll probably find the majority, if not all, of the contents familiar to you, but if you've more of a passing familiarity or want to begin learning about the subjects in the book, this is excellent. If you're an aspiring science fiction writer and want ideas for stories, this is also an excellent resource. (I'm also going to mention this to the science librarian here and see if he thinks it'll be useful for our collection.)
--
Note: I found this book through NetGalley, an online service that allows professional readers (librarians, reviewers, bloggers, booksellers, etc.) to read digital galleys of books from publishers affiliated with it. There's no obligation to review if you request a galley and are approved. I posted about this earlier, but left it under f-lock because I was leery of it being too full of my "OMG FREE BOOKS!" squeebling and not professional-sounding enough. :D Right now there's a lot of urban fantasy and mysteries available and not many non-fiction books, but I'll be checking back every week or so to see what's new.
ETA: Review from New Scientist here: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/the-mystery-of-the-silent-aliens.php
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I pinged Joe on the Drake Equation once (for story purposes) and he said, It's one big handwave. Heh. (Although this is not, strictly speaking, Joe's field, unless we start talking about hypothetical civilizations advanced enough to be manipulating black hole inspirals or something.)
no subject
Orbital engineering for better computing
It's probably not the case, but it's kind of an eerie feeling to contemplate.
no subject