Additional information
by Paul Davies (Author)
A noted scientist and acclaimed populizer explores the scientific quest for extraterrestrial life, showing how the current efforts of SETI have failed, and charting a path forward.
Back Jacket
Refreshing . . . A penetrating analysis of the assumptions that underlie SETI and the entire enterprise of searching for life beyond Earth. Chris McKay, Nature
Fifty years ago, Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope at nearby stars in the hope of picking up a signal from an alien civilization. Thus began one of the boldest scientific projects in history, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). However, astronomers have little to report but an eerie silence eerie because many scientists are convinced that the universe is teeming with life. Could it be, wonders the physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies, that we ve been looking in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the wrong way?Closely involved with SETI for three decades, Davies now chairs the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, charged with deciding what to do if we re confronted with evidence of alien intelligence. He believes the search so far has fallen into an anthropocentric trap assuming an alien species will look, think, and behave like us. In this mind-expanding and provocative book, he refocuses the search, challenging existing ideas of what form an alien intelligence might take, how it might try to communicate with us, and how we should respond if it does. An immensely readable investigation of the SETI enterprise . . . [A] wonderful book. New ScientistPAUL DAVIES is an internationally acclaimed physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist at Arizona State University. He is the author of more than twenty books, including The Mind of God, About Time, How to Build a Time Machine, and The Goldilocks Enigma."Author Biography
PAUL DAVIES is an internationally acclaimed physicist, cosmologist, and astrobiologist at Arizona State University, where he runs the pioneering Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He also chairs the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Post-Detection Taskgroup, so that if SETI succeeds in finding intelligent life, he will be among the first to know. The asteroid 1992OG was officially renamed Pauldavies in his honor. In addition to his many scientific awards, Davies is the recipient of the 1995 Templeton Prize--the world's largest annual prize--for his work on science and religion. He is the author of more than twenty books, including The Mind of God, About Time, How to Build a Time Machine, and The Goldilocks Enigma. He lives in Tempe, Arizona.
