The Eerie Silence · Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence by Davies, Paul -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Dedication List of Illustrations Epigraph Preface The Eerie Silence

1: Is Anybody Out There?

WHAT IF ET CALLS TOMORROW? IS SETI STUCK IN A RUT? IT’S GREAT – BUT IS IT SCIENCE? A BRIEF HISTORY OF ALIENS LIFE AMONG THE STARS AND FINALLY, WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE UFO STORIES?

2: Life: Freak Side-Show or Cosmic Imperative?

A UNIVERSE TEEMING WITH LIFE? HOW DID LIFE BEGIN? LIFE AS A BIZARRE FLUKE MAKING LIFE IN A TEST TUBE SEEKING A SECOND GENESIS ON MARS

3: A Shadow Biosphere

SEEKING A SECOND GENESIS ON EARTH WEIRD EXTREMOPHILES ALIENS AMONG US HOW TO TELL A ROOT FROM A BRANCH HAS SHADOW LIFE ALREADY BEEN FOUND? TARGETING THE SHADOW WORLD

4: How Much Intelligence is Out There?

PLANET OF THE APES FALLACY IS SCIENCE INEVITABLE? THE DRAKE EQUATION HOW LONG DO TECHNOLOGICAL CIVILIZATIONS LAST? THE PERILS OF USING STATISTICS OF ONE THE GREAT FILTER ARE WE DOOMED?

5: New SETI: Widening the Search

THEY DON’T KNOW WE ARE HERE BEYOND THE PHOTON BEACONS NARROWING THE SEARCH A MESSAGE ON OUR DOORSTEP NANOPROBES, VIRAL MESSENGERS AND GERRYMANDERED GENOMES

6: Evidence for a Galactic Diaspora

WHERE IS EVERYBODY? AND WHERE ARE ALL THE TIME TOURISTS? A COSMIC FOOTPRINT RIDING THE WAVE DID THE WAVE PASS THIS WAY? ONE OF OUR PLANETS IS MISSING ABSENT EXOTICA

7: Alien Magic

SIGNATURES OF DISTANT SUPER-TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY AS ‘NATURE-PLUS’ FANTASTIC SUPER-SCIENCE FLAWS IN THE LAWS

8: Post-Biological Intelligence

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE ABSURD KIND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE I’VE SEEN ET, AND IT’S AN ATS QUANTUM COMPUTERS AND QUANTUM MINDS

9: First Contact

THE POST-DETECTION TASKGROUP MEDIA FRENZY THE BLANKET OF SILENCE FALLACY ‘IT’S OFFICIAL – WE ARE NOT ALONE!’ INTERCEPTING INTERSTELLAR E-MAIL SECRETS FROM THE STARS IMPACT ON SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICS IMPACT ON RELIGION OF GODS AND MEN. IS SETI ITSELF A RELIGION?

10: Who Speaks for Earth?

SHOUTING AT THE HEAVENS WHAT SHOULD WE SAY? WHY DO SETI? MIGHT WE BE ALONE AFTER ALL? THE THREE-HATS ANSWER

Illustrations Appendix: A BRIEF HISTORY OF SETI Bibliography Notes Index