Posted on 11/17/2003 12:17:14 PM PST by PatrickHenry
[Review of Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life by David Grinspoon.]
Not many scientists have the reputation of being witty or entertaining, even when their subject matter is rich with possibility. But more and more scientists are allowing their Renaissance sides to emerge and publishing books explaining complex, scientific subjects and debates in lively prose.
David Grinspoon, principal scientist in the Department of Space Studies at Boulder's Southwest Research Institute and an adjunct professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, is one of those. His first book, "Venus Revealed" (1997) explored Earth's erstwhile "twin" (turns out the relationship is much more fraternal if even that than identical) in loving detail, making the book as poetic and awestruck as it was informed.
Now Grinspoon steps into the Cosmos-sized shoes of the late Carl Sagan with "Lonely Planets," the best, most entertaining examination of the possibility of other life in the universe since Sagan's best work. And he's got a head start: Grinspoon grew up around Sagan, a family friend.
Like Sagan, he brings a joyous, open, even boisterous enthusiasm "billions and billions!" to his writing. If you think a survey of "natural philosophical" history regarding the possibility of alien life might be dry, think again. There's something here for a wide audience, from scientists to dreamers to fans of UFOs.
You can tell Grinspoon is having fun early on, when he describes the delight he takes in not just hard science, but the "fringe" beliefs and tales of UFO abductions.
[Snip]
But despite coming up dry so far in our immediate spatial neighborhood (Grinspoon thinks we're spending too much time perusing Mars), like Sagan, he believes it's a near mathematical certainty that civilization exists elsewhere in the big, beautiful universe we live in.
[Snip]
"Who are we to say that our Earth is such a special place? Like parents certain that their baby is the cutest ever born, of course we think our planet is the chosen one."
(Excerpt) Read more at bouldernews.com ...
Not if it has a thousand year life-span.....
;-)
We have quite a few large-brained species on earth. Those in the oceans (octopi, whales, dolphins) will never develop technology, of course. No fire, thus no metallurgy. No metals, not much else. No language that we can detect. But on land, where a technological species can emerge, we have a few to think about: apes and elephants, for example have rather large brains. But alas, no technology, no language. Thus, no inter-species intercourse (in the traditional sense of the word).
So we may, perhaps, encounter some amazing creatures out there, some with very large brains; but we may still find ourselves alone. That's not necessarily bad.
It was an episode of the "Twilight Zone"..... a classic, I might add. At first, only the title ("To Serve Man") was translated, and this convinced most people that the aliens were benign. Only at the last moment, as earthlings who had accepted the aliens' invitation were boarding the space ship to "visit" the alien world, was the rest of the book deciphered, and it was realized that it was a recipe book. By then it was too late -- the appetizers had already left!
It would be somewhat disappointing if the intelligent races of the universe were more interested in the unique oropendula than in yet another boring old language-using species ;)LOL! I must admit, that I sometimes find animals like the oropendula more interesting than some (allegedly) intelligent people.
Only you and Zeno think I can't outrun a clam.
Are you trying to turn this discussion into some sort of slugfest? Slimes! Slimes!
</ end G3k Memorial whiner mode>
You are handsomer than the typical male mandrill, if not quite up to warthog standards.
Rare Earth assumes life must be just like us. Remember, we evolved to fit the niche, not the other way around.
The other issue is the distances involved. Since relativity does not appear to lend itself to FTL, it would be terribly difficult to travel from star to star.
IMHO, SETI is our best bet for discovering if another tool building species is out there. You may have noticed I did not say intelligent. There may be lots of intelligent races, however, if they never build tools or use EM for communications, it will be nigh too impossible to discover they exist. Using spectroscopy, we can find the signature of life, however, if they dont build tools we will never realize their intelligence.
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