Inside the difficult questions about humanity's search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
What will happen if humanity makes contact with another civilization on a different planet? In The Contact Paradox, space journalist Keith Cooper tackles some of the myths and assumptions that underlie SETI--the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
In 1974 a message was beamed towards the stars by the giant Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, a brief blast of radio waves designed to alert extraterrestrial civilizations to our existence. Of course, we don't know if such civilizations really exist. But for the past six decades a small cadre of researchers have been on a quest to find out, as part of SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The silence from the stars is prompting some researchers, inspired by the Arecibo transmission, to transmit more messages into space, in an effort to provoke a response from any civilizations out there that might otherwise be staying quiet. However, the act of transmitting raises troubling questions about the process of contact. We look for qualities such as altruism and intelligence in extraterrestrial life, but what do these mean to humankind? Can we learn something about our own history when we explore what happens when two civilizations come into contact? Finally, do the answers tell us that it is safe to transmit, even though we know nothing about extraterrestrial life, or as Stephen Hawking argued, are we placing humanity in jeopardy by doing so?
In The Contact Paradox, author Keith Cooper looks at how far SETI has come since its modest beginnings, and where it is going, by speaking to the leading names in the field and beyond. SETI forces us to confront our nature in a way that we seldom have before--where did we come from, where are we going, and who are we in the cosmic context of things? This book considers the assumptions that we make in our search for extraterrestrial life, and explores how those assumptions can teach us about ourselves. The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
The Contact Paradox is an interesting take in SETI's search for extraterrestrial life in the universe, detailing not only the agency's efforts and new discoveries, but also the inherent problems humanity would face as a species if we were to find something and be unprepared for how to handle it on a cultural level. The books covers a large variety of topics, including Dyson Spheres, Earth like planets, extinction events, and the science of black holes.
While this is a highly scientific book, I was appreciative that it was written by Keith Cooper in terms I could fully understand, and as such it was never a chore to read. For those with an interest in learning more about what's possible in the vastness of the universe, this is a great pick up.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Bloomsbury USA** The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Very good read! This book does an excellent job of explaining how our minds work when it comes to theorizing about the existence of extraterrestrials! The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence I wanted to like this book as it's about the kinds of topics I'm interested in (cosmology & physics), but I was annoyed at several things. 3.5 bumped down to 3. The things that annoyed me the most: the superficial use of the example of the Aztecs and Moctezuma, the reliance on Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed which has many problems of its own, and the part on the Doomsday Argument which I frankly find ridiculous, no matter how sound the mathematics might appear to be. So, these annoyances reduced my enjoyment of the book. Still, lots of ideas to mull over in this one. The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence This is a book that I think is very good at what it does, but it just doesn’t do what I was looking for.
The premise — examining assumptions behind our search for extraterrestrial intelligence — really appeals to me. I had found Jim Al-Khalili’s collection of scientific and speculative articles on the same subject (Aliens: The World’s Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life) terrific in its questioning of some of those assumptions. So I was looking to get more perspectives and maybe go deeper.
And some of the early chapters more than met my hopes. Cooper challenges the assumption that alien civilizations would act “altruistically’ enough to spend resources on sending detectable signals (radio or otherwise). And he challenges the assumption that we could expect the evolution of intelligence itself (at least of the relevant type — technological, communicative intelligence) to be common where life originates at all.
The focus of the book changed a bit as Cooper began to examine such things as the detectability of intelligent, technological civilizations. And some of this is very good. For example, he discusses the “Arecibo Myth.” Researchers sometimes use the Arecibo radio telescope as a kind of benchmark — if we sent a signal, a relatively modest amount of information with some minimal recognizability as coming from an intelligent source, how far away could an alien civilization be and still detect our signal?
Calculations and included factors vary, giving a range of distances between Frank Drake’s original estimate of 10,500 light years and Seth Shostak’s more recent 400 light years. If Shostak is right, there’s little chance of a signal transmitted from Arecibo being detected by an alien civilization, even if such civilizations are abundant. Likewise, there’s little chance of our detecting a signal, using the Arecibo telescope, from an Arecibo-like telescope on an alien world. In order for detection to be feasible, we really have to count on the alien civilization possessing either immensely powerful transmitters or immensely powerful receivers, and of course the willingness to expend the resources necessary to build them.
This is setting aside what information may be contained in such a signal or how decipherable it might be.
But traditional SETI of that sort (i.e., detection of radio signals) may be anachronistic. After all, our own communications systems have moved on from radio to other media. So Cooper moves along to more contemporary efforts at detecting biosignatures (e.g., the presence of atmospheric gases like oxygen and methane that may indicate the presence of life) and technosignatures.
Technosignatures of course are more relevant to potential detection and contact with intelligent, technological civilizations. The detection of biosignatures that truly confirmed the presence of life on an alien world would be momentous in itself, but the detection and confirmation of technosignatures would be mind-boggling — the true “We are not alone” moment.
When we talk about detecting technosignatures, keeping in mind that the hypothetical civilizations we want to detect would be both alien and incredibly advanced with respect to us (given that we are likely only in the early stages of a technological civilization) we have to allow our imaginations free reign. Thus talk of Dyson Spheres, Dyson Trees, other “Megastructures,” the taming of black holes, and on and on. But the likelihood of our getting any of this right seems infinitesimally small — after all, we are not the aliens and we have no idea what a technological civilization, even one very much like our own, would develop over the next million or so years.
There’s nothing wrong with exploring different avenues of speculation, like Dyson Spheres and tamed black holes, but, as I said, the chances of getting such things right seem remote. I think the book lost some of my interest here, just on that very ground — that we literally don’t know what we are talking about.
I will mention, though, one approach I wasn’t aware of and that sounds especially interesting. In the final chapter of the book, on 21st Century SETI, Cooper discusses an approach led by Lucianne Walkowicz. Given the uncertainties surrounding what kinds of things we should be trying to detect by way of technosignatures, let’s not look for something specific. Instead let’s look for something “weird” — something that suggests artificiality because it doesn’t fit what we expect of the universe. Of course, much of what appears “weird” (fast gamma ray bursts, etc.) turn out to be natural phenomena that we just didn’t understand yet. But I think the potential genius in Walkowicz’s approach is the acknowledgement that we don’t know specifically what to look for but we do know that we are looking for something that doesn’t fit.
And we don’t necessarily need new observations and new data to conduct such a search. Existing sky surveys have already produced a wealth of data to analyze for anomalies.
Toward the end of Cooper’s discussion, I began to wonder what exactly the “paradox” is that the title is referring to. We do get it, also toward the end of the book. The paradox is really between our willingness to search, and to put resources behind a search, for extraterrestrial intelligence and our reticence to actually contact and communicate with any intelligence we may find. As Cooper puts it, “This is the Contact Paradox. We search the Universe for evidence of extraterrestrial life to make contact with others, for humanity to be able to share the Universe with others. Yet we find ourselves in a position of not being confident about whether we should try and make contact.”
Just as we have no idea what technologies (if any) an intelligent alien civilization might develop, we have no idea what their motivations might be in spending resources to detect and contact other civilizations. The specter of alien invasion may sound like 1950s SciFi movie stuff, but, again, our imaginations are unequal to the task of discerning the motivations of creatures we know exactly nothing about.
Although that tension is interesting and important, again, it diverges from what at least I hoped I was getting into with the book. I thought I was getting into a discussion of how to think about and how not to think about what we mean by “life,” “intelligence,” “technology,” and other key concepts involved in SETI.
Cooper isn’t responsible for my expectations, so I’m happy to recommend the book for what it is.
I’ll also mention (for anyone wanting to pursue something along the lines of what I was looking for) not only the book edited by Jim Al-Khalili (Aliens: The World’s Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life), but also another collection edited by Chris Impey (Talking About Life: Conversations on Astrobiology). Both books contain fascinating discussions on those questions about the concepts of “life” (especially the Impey book), “intelligence,” and “technology.” The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence The Contact Paradox is a brilliant scientific and philosophical exploration of the questions of whether or not we are alone in the cosmos, what we should (and shouldn’t) do to find out, and what we should do if we are/aren’t. While based in astrophysics, it is presented in a manner that can be thoroughly consumed by anyone with an interest in the stars, the planets, and ET. The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Should we be search for ET? What if they don't know we're here and we alert a non-altruistic race?
The essence of “The Contact Paradox” is that if aliens do come calling, and if they’re anything like us, humanity is in trouble. The encounter would likely not go well, if history is any guide. First contacts between wildly varying human societies have frequently been characterized by violence, exploitation, slavery, and sometimes genocide.
This is the most comprehensive book on this topic and covers the search history, how we search, how we could be found, and what a discovery could be like.
The takeaway is, be careful of what you ask for! The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Excellent book. This could be the very best book on the search of extraterrestrial intelligence out there. One of the few books that really puts the difficulty in finding/contacting in perspective. While the author could have turned this into a SETI fan-book, he didn't. Everything is well researched, with a wide base of knowledge outlined before tackling the problem at hand. Worth reading. The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Presented in an as accessible way as possible, essays for a general audience, this is the book of an academic scientist who has gathered everything he has learned that might be relevant to the subject of contact with an intelligent species that has evolved outside the goldfish bowl of Earth. He cites academic papers and sources of influence but spares us the mathematics of encryption-reducing algorithms, if you see what I mean. The book draws upon the work of other thinkers in the field and, you have to understand, much of this premeditation on contact only be theoretical because that’s all you can play with until the parameters are quickly narrowed by the event actually happening (…waiting, waiting).
Apart from being a sensible repository of scientific knowledge, the author frequently quotes science fiction, which has always served us by predicting developments and scenarios we might encounter in the future. I think this is therefore a valuable research tool for science fiction writers to help them get their imagined realities straight. For example, I gave a favourable review to a novel a few years ago which included an idea about space transmission archaeology (catching up with broadcast signals hundreds of years later and either recording them or taking tourists who wanted to experience human history ‘live’). Having read The Contact Paradox, I’m not gong to have to write to that author and pass on the downer that the signal would have faded by degradation due to electron loss, in obeyance of the inverse square law, if you’re trying to sample it as it sweeps past. However, this book also suggests that by keeping pace with the signal (almost impossible), you could form its energy in the detector crucible for longer, which could allow lossy capture after all. It would take an enormous expenditure of energy to go fast enough to record an old broadcast hundreds of light years out though, so don’t expect any aliens to be trying this.
Sometimes this book shows us that human budget holders’ stubborn prejudices or preferences for less effective technologies in the field of contact may be holding us back, e.g. communication of information across large-scale distances is proven to be clearer using lasers, in comparison to sending the same data using radio waves. It also examines ‘cost’ in the resources of time and energy that another civilisation would need to expend to contact us, i.e. the other side could conclude that attempting to identify themselves to anyone far away is too wasteful.
It brings us up to date with news of the mini-light sails that private enterprise intends to send to our nearest planetary systems, the upscaling of detection and data processing capacity, then speculates on whether Moore’s Law will hold true for long or how artificial intelligence and quantum processing speeds could lead to a merging between the biological and the machine. This is slowly happening with pacemakers, hearing aids etc., so why not amplify the brain too? Maybe because it’s creepy? Hang on – wasn’t there some old warning about hubris?
Some voices in the text don’t want humans to make contact because that would invite threats, then others point out that the enormous distances involved probably mean contact would be an information only exchange, so the prospect of a dangerous physical visit becomes vanishingly unrealistic. Personally, I would go for it because the next stage of our development is surely the expansion of our perception to a galactic scale and successful (repeated, verified) contact would make us perform that leap overnight.
In short, the book is a good primer for anyone who would like to learn about the previous seven decades of history in exploring this topic: the discovery of pulsars, then Drake, the formation of SETI, ‘the Wow! Signal’, Planet Hunters (detecting dimming) and then through to what we could do in the near future, such as looking for life in the oceans of moons within the Sol system. Trying to steer a good line in common sense, The Contact Paradox stays realistic and reminds its audience that nothing has been discovered conclusively yet, the distances and energies required are obstacles and that civilisations and species do burn out, suggesting maybe we’ve already missed the party. Contact would be the greatest thing to happen in billions of people’s lives, but a realistic prospect exists that we may be fated to stay alone in an unimaginably large, cold universe. Let’s hope not. Anyway, there’s Alone and alone. Has anyone asked the dolphins? The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence A very interesting, very well researched book about the possibility of making contact with an intelligent alien civilization. The author not only takes us down the path of what humans would need to do scientifically to try and make contact (it's a lot) but he also spends a good portion of the book walking us through the broader issue of Is it even a good idea?
He discusses what exactly does intelligence encompass and is altruism solely a human trait- kind of an important topic wouldn't you say. Cooper delves into the sociological and ethical issues of this as well as how risk assessment needs to be huge part of it. We learn about SETI, METI, Dyson spheres, the Tall Tower concept, self replicating probes, and of course, the Fermi Paradox........If they are indeed out there, then why haven't they made contact ?
The bottom line is that scientists have discovered thousands of exoplanets in our galaxy with more being discovered every day. If contact is coming any time soon, we as a species, need to be totally prepared. A fascinating read.
Thanks to Keith Cooper, Bloomsburg Sigma and Net galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence The Contact Paradox was a somewhat interesting read.
Author Keith Cooper is a science journalist and editor specializing in astrophysics, cosmology, astrobiology, SETI, and planetary science.
Keith Cooper:
I am admittedly a life-long sci-fi fan, and a fan of books about extraterrestrials, alien life, and interstellar exploration. This one seemed to tick those boxes, so I put it on my list as soon as I came across it.
The topics Cooper covers make for interesting subject matter. He mentions the altruism assumption early on here; cautioning the reader on the potential motivation of extraterrestrial visitors.
The book is presented as a long-form series of musings on extraterrestrial life, colonization, and space travel. Cooper takes a few tangents into conventional psychics, astronomy, and other related fields here.
There is a good foreword; written by Stephen Baxter.
Sadly, despite fielding some very interesting subject matter, I found much of the writing here to be on the side of long-winded and verbose... I am big on how readable a book is, and this will sadly see Cooper's writing penalized a bit here.
Cooper seems to be excited about interstellar travel and colonizing other worlds. It is an exciting concept, to be sure. However, unless humanity makes some monumental scientific innovations or inventions, it will likely remain a pipe dream for quite a long time...
Human interstellar travel will be unlikely/extremely challenging for a few reasons. Namely; large amounts of biologically damaging cosmic radiation, the harmful effects of zero-g on the body, and the logistical challenges associated with life support systems for any potential space traveler.
Some more of what is covered here includes:
• The intelligence of dolphins
• Theory of mind.
• The Drake Equation
• Ray Kurzweil's Singularity
• The Kardashev Scale
• Dyson spheres
• The Fermi paradox
• The Doomsday Clock
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Although the writing here covers an interesting topic, I found Cooper's telling of it to be fairly dry...
3 stars for this one. The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence