SETI 2020: A roadmap for the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence
by Roland D. Ekers et. al (eds.)
SETI Press, Mountain View, CA, 2002
550 pp., illus. b/w, paper
ISBN: 0-9666335-3-9
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Jan Delvinlaan 115, 9000 Gent, Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be
The tenacious search for extraterrestrial
intelligence (SETI) illustrates some very contradictory human fears
and hopes: the fear and hope of being alone and the hope and fear of
not being alone. If we are not alone, what will they do, what
will they look like, will they outsmart us and be a threat
or will they be friendly and fulfill our hopes with all the technology
we haven't even dreamt of? So, we are not so special after all. God
or whoever was responsible for our existence doesn't love us so dearly
that we have no rivals, no siblings. We might even be inferior, heaven
forbid. We might just not be the chosen people. In a monotheistic
culture, don't we expect to live in an single parent family? Just us
and our god. That allows us to go on viewing ourselves as somewhere
in between nature and supernatural and, gloating in our superiority,
ruin the planet for our own species-centered goals. On the other hand,
if we are alone, what will we do when we have done destroying our environment
and when we have no way to escape? Will there be no deus ex machina
in the form of a benevolent race, taking five couples from different
continents into some space analogy of Noah's Ark - biological, emotional
and intellectual representatives of a dying race whose DNA will be studied
by bewildered alien scientist: how could they evolve so far the they
actually extinguished themselves? What kind of genes are so selfish
that they let their phenotypes undermine the very conditions of their
own survival? Anyone out there who wants to be human? Hopes and fears
are easily used to justify weird acts, and that is true for SETI as
well.
it is, by all means, a foolish quest, but isn't
this exactly what makes it so very human? Foolishness and the complete
waste of talent and resources punctuate our history - and your guess
is as good as mine that our prehistory has seen some foolishness as
well, just think of those guys and gals who started scribbling marks
on a tablet to make sure that they'd be remembered 5000 years later...
It is a foolish quest once more because we have every reason to believe
that it will not change our lives in any practical sense whatsoever.
Suppose we do find some proof of ETI, how will it reduce the crime rate
in your neighborhood, the loneliness of the elderly in their homes or
the number of child soldiers in Africa? Of course, we will want to communicate,
to learn and teach and preach, to meet and even mate, but that will
take a little while longer. Got another thousand years? No need to queue,
next species will be here in 3020 AD! So what? Even if SETI is foolish
and a waste of resources, there are some other human endeavours that
have been as stupid but far more harmful.
The SETI Institute is probably the most prominent
example of how serious one can get doing foolish things. A special Working
Group has for two years (1997-1999) been studying the needs and possibilities
for continuing the search. Frank Drake was there, the man after whom
the famous equation for estimating the number of detectable civilisations
in the Milky Way Galaxy was named. And some people from famous institues
and companies around the world. They have published the results of their
work as a blueprint for the next 20 years or so. The first half of the
volume is equally interesting for believers and unbelievers, for the
fiercest adversaries, the skeptics and the enthousiasts. It contains
a history of the search and a very complete overview of the science
and engineering involved, the strategies to follow and the technologies
to develop. The second half of the book contains appendixes and descriptions
which are interesting for specialists and those who are interested in
becoming SETIsts themselves or who want some background information.
The book also has lists of acronyms, biographical summaries and a very
useful glossary.