The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence

The Eerie Silence looks like a small book, but it's not light reading. It is packed with information and extensive in the topics it explores. Despite this, it was entertaining throughout. The ideas it covered were very interesting. Some parts I was familiar with, but others were new to me, so I did learn some things. I thought the book was well written; it is hard for a book like this to hold the reader's interest, but this book doesn't have that problem. I've been interested in the universe, life, extraterrestrials, etc. for some time, so it's not surprising that I really enjoyed the book. However, I would recommend this to almost anyone because I think that the subjects discussed have broad appeal. A few of the chapters even sparked some really engaging discussions with my friends.

In The Eerie Silence, Paul Davies considers both the arguments for and against the existence of life on other planets, and how the SETI project might be improved to do a better job of looking for it. In a nutshell, either the existence of life on Earth is so extremely unlikely that there are no other minds in the universe to contact, or the existence of life on Earth is the result of conditions repeated many times throughout the universe. In the first case, we're wasting our time trying to contact others, but in the second case, why haven't they contacted us? Davies does an excellent job of thinking through both alternatives, framing the discussion in terms very accessible to lay readers. He discusses estimates of how many planets there might be that could support life as we know it (and briefly considers other possible bases for life such as silicon). He discusses many reasons why, if life has arisen many times, alien intelligences have not contacted us. A very interesting discussion, bringing up points I had not heard before such as that life on Earth may have arisen later in the viability window of the planet than in other places, meaning that those civilizations might have come and gone before we were there to be found. And he debunks the idea that old I Love Lucy shows are traveling through the universe betraying our presence to aliens. Even more interestingly, Davies talks about what the existence of extraterrestrial life might mean to us. Should we be scared? Should we expect to be conquered, or to be given technological gifts, or to be ignored as juvenile irrelevancies? And what about religions? Will the uniqueness of the Incarnation be challenged? Will we discover that an equivalent to Jesus's life on earth and death on earth happened on many planets? What if the extraterrestrials never experienced the equivalent of the Fall? Davies manages to raise this question without blasphemy, which is a virtue in itself. Davies also discusses why the standard SETI search and those plaques sent out with Voyager may not put us in contact with actual aliens. Their perceptions may be different, they may not create signals in a form we can detect, and so on. All good points, carefully explained. Finally, Davies gives us his verdict. In fact, touchingly, he gives us several verdicts. Paul Davies the scientist, Paul Davies the journalist, and Paul Davies the individual person all get to weigh in. While some might find this to be more dithering than decision, I thought it was just right. So, should you read this book? If you have any interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life, or if you enjoy a good discussion of the implications of ideas, or if you want to learn more about recent research in geology, astronomy, and related disciplines, certainly. It's a good read, with complex interesting ideas expressed clearly.

More than 50 years ago the great Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi - in response to an outbreak of UFO and Flying Saucer sightings - offered a famous reply: If the Universe is teeming with alien life, where are they? The eerie silence that fills the universe is very strange if intelligent aliens are out there. We have no hard evidence that intelligent life or even life of any kind exists out among the stars. But the search continues. Over the past 15 years more than 300 extra-solar planets have been discovered, mostly giants that are the easiest to find using the most common method of discovery. But we are closing in on the holy grail of discovering an Earth-like world, perhaps with an oxygen atmosphere and substantial water vapor, indicators of possible life. Such a discovery would be a profound step, at least raising the possibility of the existence of the conditions for life, if not life itself. And the SETI program continues its radio search for alien intelligence, a method Davies thinks is woefully misguided. Davies discusses the reasons why all current methods of searching the cosmos are unlikely to succeed. The techniques we've used are deeply anthropocentric with little likelihood of uncovering advanced societies many millennium removed from something as antiquated as radio waves. In fact he points out that following a peak output in the 70s and 80s Earth is no longer sending radio and television waves out into the cosmos, our terrestrial broadcasts that used to leak out into space having now been supplanted by cable and fiber optics. If we've outgrown radio shouldn't a society a million years more advanced than us? The answer is obvious. Along with a change in search methods Davies also recommends a change in the human psyche. There are many reasons why an alien species might find us to be the dangerous life form. If we learn that we are alone in the cosmos then that is a stunning reality. If we learn that the universe is filled with galactic civilizations then that too is a monumental discovery. In the end Davies is not sanguine about the possibility of alien intelligence or even of simple life forms. The contingencies that surround the evolution of life on Earth are just so unlikely. But the search must continue, Davies suggests, because we just don't know. I finished this fine book feeling strangely unnerved. What if we ARE alone? Highly evolved primates with brains we don't use frequently enough. And what if the emergence of life on a single small planet truly was - and Davies uses the "M" word - miraculous. A result of a series of random contingencies that couldn't be repeated in the lifetime of our universe. Here we sit on a frail planet: stuck with no way off waiting for the comet/asteroid with our name on it so that we can go the way of the dinosaur. The only life in the universe flickering like a candle. This is a superb book that brings us up-to-date in an easy and relaxed manner. There are few scientific difficultie

This is such an excellent book that delves into explanations of what SETI is (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and the scientific philosophies and methods used to reveal the mystery of the question... is there other life in the universe? Is it possible they would use something other than radio signals? How does SETI decide the frequency to search for and what about lasers as communication. He includes discussions on the effect that the first alien message would have on religion and the SETI Post Detection Task group and how it will deal with the first contact. Points are made; who knows what focus technology and life will be on earth in 2090 when return messages would even be received. If nothing else there are an abundance of quotes such as; regarding the idea that life could have arisen spontaneously "it is easier to believe that a whirlwind passing through a junkyard would assemble a 747" or "sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us". Davies does a commendable job on simplifying for those of us that are not scientists, but he never `talks down`. He fills his chapters with fascinating points and ideas that are understandable. Questions that you might have had, if you have ever pondered life and the universe are answered in simple enough language that most anyone can comprehend. The question is still out there...Is anybody there?; but the best summing up is that of Arthur Clarke; "Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering". Read this book to understand both sides of this query, it's an imponderable mystery that Paul Davies does a marvelous job in illuminating.