Seti Pioneers: Scientists Talk about Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence [Hardcover]

David W. Swift (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1990

Why did some scientists decide to conduct a search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)? What factors in their personal development predisposed them to such a quest? What obstacles did they encounter along the way? David Swift interviewed the first scientists involved in the search & offers a fascinating overview of the emergence of this modern scientific endeavor. He allows some of the most imaginative scientific thinkers of our time to hold forth on their views regarding SETI & extraterrestrial life & on how the field has developed. Readers will react with a range of opinions as broad as those concerning the likelihood of success in SETI itself. ''A goldmine of original information.''

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This instructive book by a University of Hawaii sociologist compiles Q & A interviews with 17 researchers, mostly American, who are involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). While the field, which did not attract attention from scientists until 1959, remains a fledgling discipline, it now draws physicists, astronomers, electrical engineers, chemists, an aerospace physician into its orbit. Scientists featured here discuss current methods used to investigate ETI, and others they hope to develop, but general readers will most likely value the impact of their personalities--modest, open, thoughtful, occasionally waggish--above talk of technicalities. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

This instructive book by a University of Hawaii sociologist compiles Q & A interviews with 17 researchers, mostly American, who are involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). While the field, which did not attract attention from scientists until 1959, remains a fledgling discipline, it now draws physicists, astronomers, electrical engineers, chemists, an aerospace physician into its orbit. Scientists featured here discuss current methods used to investigate ETI, and others they hope to develop, but general readers will most likely value the impact of their personalities--modest, open, thoughtful, occasionally waggish--above talk of technicalities. -- Publishers Weekly --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 434 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press; First Edition edition (April 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816511195
• ISBN-13: 978-0816511198
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,453,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unedited interviews of varying interest, May 24, 2004

By 

M. A Michaud "michael_michaud" (Dulles, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seti Pioneers: Scientists Talk about Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Hardcover)

This book is a collection of interviews Swift conducted with sixteen scientists and engineers who played significant roles in starting a scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (a seventeenth interview of a younger researcher is tacked on at the end). The interviews vary widely in substantive interest. Unfortunately, Swift gives us the full contents of each interview, including what he said himself. This forces the reader to wade through a lot of marginal verbiage to get to the nuggets of thought-provoking material. The book would be far more readable, and shorter, if Swift had been tougher about editing his own work. The concluding chapter provides some interesting sociological analysis.