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    The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence
    The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence
    The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence

    Written by Paul Davies

    Narrated by George K Wilson

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    About this audiobook

    Fifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake 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). But after a half century of scanning the skies, astronomers have little to report but an eerie silence-eerie because many scientists are convinced that the universe is teeming with life. The problem, argues leading physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies, is that we've been looking in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in the wrong way. Davies should know. For more than three decades, he has been closely involved with SETI and now chairs the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, charged with deciding what to do if we're confronted with evidence of alien intelligence. In this extraordinary book, he shows how SETI has lost its edge, then offers a new and exciting road map for the future.

    Davies believes that our search so far has been overly anthropocentric: we tend to assume an alien species will look, think, and behave like us. He argues that we need to be far more expansive in our efforts, and in this book he completely redefines 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 we ever do make contact. A provocative and mind-expanding journey, The Eerie Silence will thrill fans of science and science fiction alike.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 13, 2010
    ISBN9781400185511
    Author

    Paul Davies

    PAUL DAVIES is Director of the Beyond Center at Arizona State University and the bestselling author of more than twenty books. He won the 1995 Templeton Prize for his work on the deeper meaning of science. His books include About Time, The Fifth Miracle, and The Mind of God.

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    Reviews for The Eerie Silence

    4/5

    17 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5


      If you want a modern survey of the state of SETI, the likelihood of other life, and the Fermi paradox this is a good book to read, with good notes and bibliography to follow up further. No answers yet though!
    • 5/5
      I read this book partly for research for a sci fi book I'm writing, but also to understand why SETI has been so unsuccessful.

      He showed me why. Namely, 1. Concerning civilizations that detect our broadcasts, then send us a message, the timing doesn't work. For example, if the civilization is 100 light-years away, they would just be detecting our signals about now, and it would be another 100 years before we would get their signals. 2. Concerning our detecting incidental signals from other civilizations, they are just too weak for us. Also, judging from our brief transmission period (as we move towards cable), we'd have to be lucky to detect them at the right time, and 3. Concerning "tutorial beacons" they just take too much energy.

      He says we need to figure out new ways to search--the radio telescope thing isn't working.

      Surprisingly, his conclusion is that we are probably the only intelligent life in the observable universe. I read that several times. That's what he says.
    • 2/5
      Both Davies and Shostak agree that anything past us has hit ' post-biological ' a long time ago ( so what we're looking for are machines )

      He also agrees that sending signals ( METI ) is a very bad idea. ( But you can't stop anyone with the capabiliy to do so from doing it )
    • 5/5
      I admit, I'm a SETI supporter, even if only in spirit these days (my CPU's are doing Folding@home, now.) This is a great book that is simultaneously a highly accessible overview of the issues and details of SETI, an argument for doing SETI, and in the best tradition of SETI, an touches on many interesting questions (What is life? Technologically, and hence culturally, where might we go from here? Etc.)
    • 2/5
      I have been listening to a lot of physics lectures lately. Since i peick great lecturers i get a lot out of them. Unfortunately even though Davies is a famous actual scientist this book is incredibly pedantic and BORING. Thank god i found a great biography of Turing because This book is inhuman.
    • 5/5
      Comes to grips with the apparent lack of evidence for alien life.
    • 4/5
      Paul Davies summarizing the history and possibilities of the 50 years old SETI project. What are the methods alien civilizations can message to us? How can we find them? What can we do after finding them? Are they exist at all?
    • 4/5
      We've been listening to the universe for decades, and yet we have still been unable to find evidence for intelligent life beyond our planet. Why? Paul Davies tackles this question, providing numerous possibilities. There's a lot of food for thought in this book, and it's quite readable as long as you have a basic grasp of science.
    • 4/5
      Having recently read Contact for the first time, The Eerie Silence was a perfect 30 year follow-up to see where things stand in the search for intelligent life. The title says it all. Davies is an expert in the field and so I valued hearing his ideas, informed by scientific rigor (he is an astrophysicist). He balances the general arguments for and against alien life, and while the pro arguments are well known the con arguments are new to me, and somewhat persuasive as well. Davies also discusses the implications of finding alien life (or not), both for our current culture and the future of humanity. Overall there is a lot here to chew on. It needs a slow and considered reading which made the audiobook experience less than ideal, though I was generally able to keep up. I wish the writing was a little tighter and less essay-ish but the core ideas are still there.
    • 4/5
      Physicist/cosmologist/astrobiologist Paul Davies takes a thought-provoking look at various questions surrounding the idea of life elsewhere in the universe and our attempts to find it. What are the odds that life, and intelligent life, exist elsewhere? How can we even go about making educated guesses on that? What kind of evidence might change our estimation of the odds? If such life does exist, what might it be like? And what, if anything, does it mean that in fifty years of looking, we haven't found any intelligent signals, or at least none we could be remotely sure about? Is the conventional, radio-based attempt to detect alien communications really the best way to go about it? What other kinds of evidence might aliens leave of their existence, and how might we look for those? And what happens if we do find something? (Davies is particularly well-placed to address that last question, as he is the chairman of the group that makes protocol recommendations for the possible event.)Some of Davies' speculations are out there enough that they almost border on the wacky, but even those exist to make a reasonable point: that our traditional methods of looking tend to assume that aliens are too much like us, when, technologically speaking, what we're like is already changing on a scale of decades. Overall, it's a provocative, engaging, interesting read, albeit very far from the last word on the subject.
    • 3/5
      Are we or aren't we alone in the universe? Mr. Davies presents valid points for both sides of the argument. Because of the hypothetical nature of any of his points, a reader may find some of his more esoteric of his conclusions difficult to follow. As befits Mr. Davies' background, there is a heavy reliance on theoretical physics. While he does an admirable job of trying to explain the science behind the ideas, the science itself is at too advanced a level for the masses. Nutrinos, cosmic rays, quantum physics - while interesting, it can be mind-numbing and difficult to follow.Mr. Davies shines when presenting more theological and social implications for the eerie silence. Granted, no matter what the outcome, the implications for mankind are scary and rather depressing, an effect Mr. Davies himself acknowledges.The Eerie Silence is a fascinating study of reasons why being alone in the universe, or that we will most likely never make contact, is more probable than the idea that the universe is teeming with life. Mankind has, to date, taken for granted the idea that ET exists, but after fifty years, it may be time to make some adjustments in our assumptions. Mr. Davies makes a great case for the fact that should extraterrestrial life exist, it most likely will be either microbial or machine in nature rather than humanoid. In spite of some of the difficulties with the more hypothetical nature of the arguments, Mr. Davies presents his ideas clearly and concisely. His use of mathematics and well-known scientific laws helps make his theories more plausible and the book more enjoyable, even if they are at such a level that automatically precludes enjoyment by a large portion of the population. His image of possible alien life is extraordinarily rich and detailed, making it easy for a reader to be able to envision these possible life forms. The result is a rich and varied presentation on the possibilities behindThe Eerie Silence and suggestions for how to work around our current constraints.
    • 4/5
      Very GoodBook all about SETIPaul Davies is head of the SETI post-detection task group and has written a reflection of 50 years of scanning the skies for alien intelligence. This is an exploration of our existensial angst, are we alone in this vast universe? Davies explains why SETI may have been unsuccessful these last 50+ years. The option that we are truly alone, we after all only have 1 example of life (everything on Earth comes from a common ancestor), is thoroughly explored. Davies uses basic science and statistics to explore this idea and suggests a new way forward for SETI, not just to listen out for radio signals in a small wavelength but look for all different signs of life. Overall - This is a very thorough investigation of what it would mean to find intelligent life “out there”. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      This book has been on my to-read pile for some time, and as with many books about science it has suffered a little from the pace of progress. All of the Kepler mission's discoveries are in the book's future, for example. Not the book's fault, clearly, and in fact it's interesting to read knowing some things the author didn't.I was surprised that Davies didn't touch on one possible reason for The Eerie Silence of his title: that we live in a simulation. It's a theory worth examination in a book such as this.Otherwise, a good overview of SETI and the competing theories for the lay reader.