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Paul Davies

The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence Paperback – Bargain Price, April 13, 2011

by Paul Davies (Author)

86 customer reviews

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One of the world’s leading scientists explains why—and how—the search for intelligent life beyond Earth should be expanded.

Fifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake first 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). After a half-century of scanning the skies, however, astronomers have little to report but an eerie silence—eerie because many scientists are convinced that the universe is teeming with life. Physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies has been closely involved with SETI for three decades and chairs the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, charged with deciding what to do if we’re suddenly confronted with evidence of alien intelligence. He believes the search so far has fallen into an anthropocentric trap—assuming that an alien species will look, think, and behave much like us. In this provocative book Davies 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Highly recommended for both science fiction and astronomy buffs."—Publisher's Weekly

"All readers interested in astrobiology, SETI, and extraterrestrial life will benefit from this book."
—Library Journal

"After half a century of fruitless searching, SETI needs a summing up. This book does the job—you need no other. Davies ranks among our very best science writers, and this book should prompt deep rethinking among the entire SETI community."—Gregory Benford, author of Timescape

"Paul Davies has written a most delightful book, perhaps the most thoughtful, thorough, and comprehensive book ever published on the key question: are we alone in the universe? Davies addresses one of the most pivotal questions facing humanity, and does it with wit, style, and rigor. The Eerie Silence will satisfy the curiosity of anyone interested in big cosmic questions about intelligence in the universe." —Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics and author of Physics of the Impossible, Hyperspace, and Parallel Worlds

"Paul Davies gives us a panoramic view of the quickening search for cosmic company—a fascinating tale stuffed with novel ideas about the nature of intelligence far beyond our own."—Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute

"Are we looking for life in all the wrong places? This is the deep scientific question that inspires Paul Davies’ The Eerie Silence. With clarity and passion, Davies not only brings you up to speed on the cutting-edge perspective, he also presents his own preferred strategies for making contact. Within may be found some scenarios that even the sci-fi writers haven’t tumbled on yet. A feast for thought about the most fascinating mystery of all." —Ann Druyan, creative director, NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Message, and co-creator, with Carl Sagan, of Contact

"Paul Davies imagines the unimaginable. After fifty years in which radio astronomers have listened in vain for voices from a silent sky, with clarity and authority Davies sets out a stunning new prospectus for the continuing search for intelligence beyond the Earth. A must-read for anybody fascinated by the most profound of questions: are we alone?"—Stephen Baxter, author of Manifold: Time and Flood

About the Author

PAUL 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.

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Product details

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books; First Edition edition (April 13, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 054742258X
ASIN: B005OHT0WS
Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 9.2 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 86 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,684,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2473 in Cosmology (Books)
- #2929 in UFOs (Books)
- #842 in Scientific Experiments & Projects

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M. LaPlante

Are we alone?

January 11, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

In The Eerie Silence, physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies explores the current state of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Today’s SETI program focuses on scanning the skies for signs of alien life using large radio telescopes. Despite 50 years of effort and regularly improving technology, the search has so far proven unsuccessful. Davies’ book analyzes why this might be, and proposes alternate techniques that may be more appropriate for future SETI programs.

One of the themes of the book boils down to the fact that almost every facet of SETI is at least in part guesswork. It’s hard to search for alien life when no one has ever discovered any such life to analyze. We don’t know that the life forms we’re searching for even exist, let alone where they live, or what technology (if any) they possess. Davies expends a substantial amount of effort addressing these concerns.

Major points of discussion include:

* Should we expect advanced intergalactic beings to have similar technology to ours? What else could we look for?
* For that matter, what is life, and would extraterrestrial species even be identifiable as life forms as we know them?
* What are the odds of life existing elsewhere in the universe in the first place?
* If SETI succeeds some day, what do we do about it? What are the implications?

The Eerie Silence is part math, part science, and part philosophy. The book, as with the entire field of study, has no answers to any of the hard questions. Even so, I left feeling enlightened, at least with regard to the complexity of the problems and the diversity of possible solutions. The media often glosses over these types of sticky details, but Davies addresses them head on. Is life really likely to be abundant in the galaxy or isn’t it? Does all life eventually lead to higher intelligence? The answers aren’t clear, and for some genuinely interesting reasons. I didn’t agree with every assertion the author made, but such is the case with conjecture.

Paul Davies manages to distill complex topics down to a level which is both readable and accessible, if a bit dry at times. The book is well worth a read for those with an interest in life, science, and the universe. The content is thought provoking to say the least, and may even lead you to think a little differently about our own place in the cosmos.

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Randi

Mind Bending Read

November 20, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book has changed the way I think about SETI. For one, I've previously viewed it as a somewhat quixotic but interesting scientific search for alien radio signals in the hope of connecting with intelligent beings from somewhere else in order to answer the question "are we alone?".

In this fascinating book, Paul Davies tries to get us thinking about the much more fundamental questions literally about Life, The Universe, and Everything! First, despite the success of Darwinian Evolution in explaining how life changes and adapts, Davies points out that science has so far failed to explain how life got started in the first place. Although the Kepler satellite has given evidence of "earth like" planets, we have no way to predict the chances of life actually existing on any of these worlds.

A great deal of the book looks at the way traditional SETI has been conducted (by looking for signals similar to the the kinds employed by us humans in the last eighty or so years) and this is where the book really gets interesting, as the scientist/author tries to think outside the anthropocentric box and ask the question of how to look for technology that's as far ahead of us as we are beyond the Stone Age, and quite likely much further.

4 people found this helpful

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Jmoss

Are we alone - or not?

June 17, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

It is remarkable that Davies is heavily involved in SETI, yet clearly ranks the probability of intelligence elsewhere near Zero! This is a logical position, as there is always "that one chance..." Since no one knows for sure the viability of SETI to find anything, or even if life of any kind exists elsewhere, it pays to keep looking. However, Davies' reasons for pessimism about alien life is well-founded. The complexity of even the simplest life (Archea?) defies our previous naive view, "find a warm pool, stir and mix." And, in the ironic words of Joel Achenbach, if by some chance it happens there are no aliens, it would certainly make the search for them considerably more difficult. This book well worth your perusal and helps round out an understanding of where current SETI efforts stand.

4 people found this helpful

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readsalot

Thought provoking book, easy to read.

August 3, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The author knows his stuff, the book has the potential to bog down but never does. This should be a subject of interest to most people. Science to me is more about exploring the path than arriving at some end point. The author rides the fence quite well, whether life and intelligence is common or rare. I believe it's possible that shadow life (and intelligence) may out shine life as we know it, we need to closely look near at hand (why is desert varnish so little studied?), a wealth of thought and depth is possible. Not covered: life escaping planets to become more successful in space, life as we know it originating outside our solar system, life as we don't know it being possible on gas giants or stars.

3 people found this helpful

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