Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life [Paperback]

David Grinspoon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2004

An anecdotal exploration of the possibility of extraterrestrial life by a NASA advisor draws on scientific data, historical records, and folklore to offer insight into humanity's ability to comprehend life on other planets, the field of astrobiology, and the philosophical and scientific significance

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Lonely Planets, astronomer David Grinspoon is buoyantly optimistic about the possibility that we are not alone in the universe. Grinspoon, who serves as principal scientist in the Department of Space Studies at the Southwest Research Institute, lays out a detailed but not boring case for life on other planets, dropping authoritative quotes and goofy footnotes in equal measure. The Grinspoon family hung out with Carl Sagan and other astronomical royalty, giving young David an early appreciation for SETI and the heady astrobiological theorizing of the 1970s. In the 21st century, scientists are still split on the question of extraterrestrial life. Grinspoon believes that a "natural philosophy" approach is the key to furthering our knowledge in this field, since there is precious little evidence with which to apply the scientific method. Instead of looking for the familiar and testable, he writes, we should expect the unexpected.

Expecting to find DNA elsewhere is like expecting a Star Trek universe with humanoid aliens who speak English and insist that we join them for dinner at eight.

Lonely Planets is a substantial book, covering the origins of life on Earth as well as the changes in religious and social thought that have affected astronomers' search for other planets and their theoretical inhabitants. Grinspoon's style is exuberant, even a little cocky, and the result is delightful readability. Lonely Planets lets readers share the dismay of finding out there are probably no Martians and the thrill of wondering if there might be Europans. "I think our galaxy is full of species," writes Grinspoon. "The wise ones are out there waiting for us to join them." --Therese Littleton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute's department of space science, Grinspoon offers an up-to-date picture of the search for extraterrestrial life and the prospects of finding it in a universe that we now know contains other solar systems. It also covers the nearly four centuries that the search has been under way since the initial observations of Renaissance astronomers. As soon as biology joined the inquiring minds, theories multiplied thick and fast; the historiography of the scientific debate is complex and has the potential for being unbearably dull. But Grinspoon handles the wide variety of material necessary for a coherent narrative with great aplomb, marshalling material such as the charming Conversations, a 17th-century dialogue by a French astronomer in which a philosopher and a marquise debate astronomical topics. Even when he turns to physics, the author runs to phrases like "the Sun in its wild youth" to describe the energy output of various kinds of stars, making this book less a popularization than a personable chat on life, the universe and everything.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060959967
• ISBN-13: 978-0060959968
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astrobiology made personal, December 7, 2003

By 

"rs7181" (CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (Hardcover)

David Grinspoon has written the book I wanted to write, and he's done it so very well that I'll be forever thankful I never got to it! David's style is so direct, so personal, and so punctuated with delightful humor that it's like sitting in his living room with him. At the same time he is dealing with cutting edge scientific knowledge in the revolutionary field of astrobiology and he speaks of it from understanding his science at depth.

David covers the subject from the Epicureans of ancient Greece to the SETI Institute while passing informatively through the Copernican revolution, up to the minute astrophysics, the origins of DNA, crop circles and alien abductions along the way. If you want to know what we know today, and how we got here, this book puts it all, not only into perspective, but into relationship.

What's particularly wonderful about David's approach in this book is that he is willing to look at and deal with things which other scientific writers are unwilling to touch. He makes quite clear when he's off into speculation or his own musings on the more controversial subjects, but he nevertheless digs into them. I found myself again and again nodding my affirmation (or more truthfully, interrupting my wife to read a paragraph to her) as he approached some of the more bizarre ideas that circulate in the public mind with sympathetic understanding while not compromising his scientific grounding.

David closes the book by diving into those things we all wonder about when we let our kid come out; are we alone, who else might be "out there", will we ever make contact, and how are we related? Are we part of the plan of the universe or some freak of circumstance? The latter seeming vanishingly improbable, the unavoidable question then becomes, where are "they"? Is there some rite of passage required by the Universe for us to qualify for cosmic citizenship? Great questions to grapple with and a terrific author to hold hands with in doing so.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Toward a new science and a new way of thinking?, February 27, 2004

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (Hardcover)

What planetologist David Grinspoon is working on in this book is similar to the consilience that biologist Edward O. Wilson talked about in his book of that name and what C.P. Snow dreamed about in his discussions of the two academic cultures half a century ago. But what Grinspoon is reconciling is the informed and creative speculation of the human mind with the rigorous requirements of scientific orthodoxy. He uses the almost forgotten term "natural philosophy" as a means to the end of reconciling the dreamer in his soul with the scientist in his head.

Grinspoon represents a new breed of scientist not afraid to speculate aloud and in public about matters that cannot be proven, to joke about them, to relate to them personally and passionately, and to say that it shouldn't be career-threatening for a scientist to venture into the realm of the unknown.

He realizes how complex and wondrous is all that we know and especially all that we don't know, and that in a world of uncertainty one can still make decisions and speculate while recognizing that there is a place where science ends and natural philosophy begins. In this regard is a nice quote from Bertrand Russell:

"When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also add that some things are more nearly certain than others." (p. 374)

This is perhaps Grinspoon's major point. He seeks to separate not just pseudoscience from science, but the likely from the unlikely, and to allow the unproven to remain the unproven but without prejudice. He admits his biases and he gives his reasons for them. At the same time he allows that he could be wrong and hopes that in some cases he is. "Aliens on the White House lawn?--Not yet, but it could happen," might be a fair way to summarize Grinspoon's position.

This book is about why we think about alien life (which is in some sense just a metaphor for the unknown) and how our emphasis and focus have changed over time, and what we know and what we don't know, and what the prospects are for finding answers. Grinspoon is clearly on the side of the angels in spirit, but with the Skeptical Inquirer in cognition.

Grinspoon knows that the new science, like the new music, always sounds discordant to the establishment. But because he comes from a personal culture steeped in the ideas of Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Olaf Stapledon, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, etc., not to mention Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg, Bob Dylan and Jerry Steinfeld and, yes, even Madonna, he doesn't care. Let the establishment cope with the new sciences of complexity, astrobiology, chaos, and let them grapple with the inadequate definitions of "life" and "consciousness." Let them rankle at Gaia and squirm at group selection. Grinspoon wants to go beyond that. He wants us to become one of the "immortals"--civilizations so advanced and in tune with the cosmos that they will never die until the universe grows cold, and maybe not even then.

Here are some examples of Grinspoon's thought and expression in this wonderfully expressive and exciting book:

"[O]ther planets must be inhabited because natural selection would fashion living beings to take advantage of local conditions..." (p. 36)

Recalling Percival Lowell's Martian canals: Gaps in the "sketchy data at the limits of current abilities...may be filled by our desires, [and] by the power of suggestion..." (p. 39)

Asserting that "the planets were where we thought they'd be and...we reached them...has got to be the most solid confirmation of the scientific and technological revolutions of the past four centuries," Grinspoon adds in a characteristic footnote: "Stuff that in your socially constructed pipe and smoke it!" (p. 62)

"We don't really know what life is. We may as well try and catch the wind as pin life down with a tidy definition." (p. 98) --By the way, this incorporation of song lyric and scientific thought is something that Grinspoon does very well throughout the book. ("We really don't know life at all." --Joni Mitchell)

How did single-celled organics beget multi-celled organisms? "This, not some shadowy ape-man, is the real 'missing link' in evolution." (p. 113)

"We are the life of the sun." (p. 123) --One of my favorite ideas that is not scientific because it begs the question of the definition of life. It is an idea--typical of what Grinspoon is getting at--that needs contemplation.

"Thank Gaia..." (p. 134)

"The classical concept of the habitable zone starts to seem like a bourgeois notion invented by self-centered, Sun-worshiping surface dwellers." (p. 199)

"Who are we to say that the universe couldn't make some kind of complex, self-organizing, evolving structures using its gravitational or nuclear forces, forming living structures that are too large or small for us to notice?" (p. 265)

Our consciousness "is most likely just some vague foreshadowing of what would be called true consciousness..." (p. 396)

Grinspoon employs a self-effacing, disarming literary style that uses the idioms of popular culture to make his points. Don't be fooled! Grinspoon is an expert in several disciplines including evolutionary biology, astronomy and cosmology. Although he makes no such claim I can tell by some of what he writes that he is also an expert on world religions. (See especially pages 383-385.) It is refreshing to read a scientist who understands religion since few people do, including the so-called religious. Grinspoon rejects monotheism. He doesn't say why or for what, but I suspect he sees God as beyond any of the attributes that we can dream up for God. Perhaps Grinspoon is enamored of the God of the Vedas about which nothing can be said, a God without an attribute that we could name. Certainly he rejects "scientism" and any personal god. My guess is he is saving these ideas for a future opus. I will be reading that book. I highly recommend that you read this one.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hip & Scientifically Savvy Look at the Search for ALIENS, November 18, 2003

By 

Kate Mckinnon (Tucson, Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life (Hardcover)

I loved Dave's book. He covers the debate about the possibility of alien life from every angle, thoughtfully and with a strong sense of humor. I appreciate the perspective that he brings to the issues- not only is he a scientist, but he is a musician, an explorer, and he has a deep love for culture and subculture.

I know quite a few planetary scientists, and I find them in almost complete agreement on the mathematical probability that other sentient life evolved somewhere in the universe. If you run the numbers, as Dave does quite entertainingly in this book, you see how far-fetched it is to assume that we occupy the only planet in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE with organized civilisations of life forms. The universe is freaking gigantic. It's huge! And we have only the sketchiest idea of what might be out there.

I found his discussions of the various alien abduction subcultures and the people who talk about government coverups of crashed ships to be very sympathetic to the cause, and I followed him through the book with anticipation, wondering how he would come down on the myriad of issues. What's real? What's crazy? What might be out there that we can't even fathom?

Get the book, you'll love it. Even if you never watched Star Trek.