The Eerie Silence

In this fiftieth anniversary year of SETI, physicist Paul Davies has published a book called The Eerie Silence which examines the premise of SETI and proposes a broader search for alien life generally and evidence of intelligence in the cosmos specifically. The book is full of fascinating ideas, from scouring Earth for life forms based on something besides DNA-- a "second genesis," as Davies calls it, that he says would cinch the case for life being abundant throughout the universe-- to speculation that if we ever find intelligent life, it will likely be machine intelligence, or cyborg, or something humans cannot yet imagine.

Davies is also currently chair of a taskgroup charged with working out possible procedures and strategies that might be employed if SETI, in fact, succeeds. His views on what might happen to human civilization and humanity's view of itself in that new circumstance are also interesting.

Since SETI has only been pursued for fifty Earth years so far, and for much of that time only fitfully and focused on strategies that made sense to humans but may or may not resonate with aliens, the silence to this point might not be particularly eerie, especially considering a few incidents that may yet lead to success. Still, it's a fascinating, worthwhile book.