The SETI Factor: How the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Is Revolutionizing Our View of the Universe and Ourselves

Discusses NASA's new SETI project, and speculates on the impact of contacting extraterrestrials or learning that we are probably alone in the universe

In 1992, NASA's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) goes into high gear, with radio telescopes scanning the skies in the hope of detecting signals from an alien civilization. White's ( The Overview Effect ) succinct, speculative report invites readers to consider what the immediate and long-term impact of humanoid contact might be. He uses equations to estimate the number of communicating civilizations in our galaxy. He acknowledges that the first 30 years of the SETI movement were a failure, and that SETI is a search for ETLOs (extraterrestrials like ourselves) who presumably will broadcast over the same electromagnetic spectrum we use. But he remains optimistic and urges us to "get ready for SETI" by confronting what it means to become "citizens of the universe." Interviews with Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, anthropologist Ben Finney and others serve as a launchpad for this odyssey.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The year 1990 marks the 30th anniversary of the federally funded Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program. This has spawned a number of books on the topic, including First Contact: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence , edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss, and David W. Swift's SETI Pioneers (both LJ 4/1/90). White's study complements these two titles, but takes more of a social science approach. He examines how scientists need to frame this particular research question, how various creation and contact myths have evolved, what the probabilities of contact are, and what the immediate and long-term impacts of contact on human belief systems are. Various appendixes complete the volume. Recommended for collections where SETI books prove popular.
- Gary D. Barber, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.