The contact paradox : challenging our assumptions in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
Cooper, Keith2019
Books
For the past six decades a small cadre of researchers have been on a quest to find out as part of SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. So far SETI has found no evidence of extraterrestrial life, but with more than a hundred billion stars in our Galaxy alone to search, the odds of quick success are stacked against us. The silence from the stars is prompting some researchers, inspired by the Arecibo transmission, to transmit more messages into space, in an effort to provoke a response from any civilisations out there that might otherwise be staying quiet. However, the act of transmitting raises troubling questions about the process of contact. We look for qualities such as altruism and intelligence in extraterrestrial life, but what do these mean to humankind? Can civilisations survive in the Universe long enough for us to detect them and what can their existence, or lack thereof, reveal to us about our future prospects? Can we learn something about our own history when we explore what happens when two civilisations come into contact? SETI forces us to confront our nature in a way that we seldom have before where did we come from, where are we going, and who are we in the cosmic context of things? This book considers the assumptions that we make in our search for extraterrestrial life, and explores how those assumptions can teach us about ourselves.
Main title:
Author:
Imprint:
London : Bloomsbury Sigma, 2019.
Collation:
336 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
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Notes:
Includes glossaryIncludes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9781472960429
Dewey class:
576.839
Language:
English
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Subject:
BRN:
364999
More Information:
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandringham Library | Adult Non Fiction - Science and Technology | 576.839 COO | Available |