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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.

 

 

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