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Isaac Asimov concludes that we are not alone! Using the most up-to-date astronomical research as the backdrop for speculation, Asimov confronts the possibilities of other-worldly life head-on in Extraterrestrial Civilizations.
In what will surely become one of the most provocative books ever written on the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe, the incomparable Isaac Asimov provides chilling, hopeful, and exciting new insights. Here is astounding speculation about where the next giant step for mankind will take us. . . .
Praise for Extraterrestrial Civilizations
“[Isaac] Asimov holds our attention as he builds a meticulous case. We are not alone. It’s just a matter of time until we know for sure.”—Miami Herald
"Intriguing"—Publishers Weekly
Isaac Asimov concludes that we are not alone! Using the most up-to-date astronomical research as the backdrop for speculation, Asimov confronts the possibilities of other-worldly life head-on in Extraterrestrial Civilizations.
In what will surely become one of the most provocative books ever written on the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe, the incomparable Isaac Asimov provides chilling, hopeful, and exciting new insights. Here is astounding speculation about where the next giant step for mankind will take us. . . .
Praise for Extraterrestrial Civilizations
“[Isaac] Asimov holds our attention as he builds a meticulous case. We are not alone. It’s just a matter of time until we know for sure.”—Miami Herald
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the book
CHAPTER 1
The Earth
The question is: Are we alone?
Are human beings the only possessors of eyes that probe the depths of the Universe? The only builders of devices to extend the natural senses? The only owners of minds that strive to understand and interpret what is seen and sensed?
And the answer is, just possibly: We are not alone! There are other kinds that seek and wonder, and do so perhaps even more effectively than we.
Many astronomers believe this is so, and I believe this is so.
We don’t know where those other minds are, but they are somewhere. We don’t know what they do, but they do much. We don’t know what they’re like, but they are intelligent.
Will they find us if they are somewhere out there? Or have they found us already?
If they have not found us, can we find them? Better yet, should we find them? Is it safe?
These are the questions that must be asked once we agree that we are not alone, and astronomers are asking them.
The whole matter of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has now become so common, in fact, that it has been abbreviated to save trouble in referring to it. Astronomers now refer to it as SETI, from the initials of the phrase “the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.”
The first scientific discussion of SETI that offered a hope of carrying through the search successfully came only in 1959. It is natural to suppose, then, that the question of intelligence other than our own is of recent vintage. It would seem to be entirely a twentieth-century phenomenon arising out of the advance of astronomy in recent decades. It would seem to be the child of rocketry and of manned flight in outer space.
Perhaps you may feel that prior to the last few decades, human beings took it for granted that we were alone, and that the new view of other-intelligence is coming as a great shock to people and is forcing them willy-nilly to undergo an internal revolution of outlook.
Nothing could be farther from the truth!
It has been taken for granted by almost all people through almost all of history that we are not alone. The existence of other intelligences has been accepted as a matter of course.
Such beliefs have not arisen through the advance of science. Quite the contrary. What science has done has been to remove the supports from under the early casual assumptions as to the existence of other-intelligence. Science has created a new view of the world around us in which, by the old standards, humanity stands alone.
Let us start with that establishment of aloneness before we can go on to a new view of a new kind of other-intelligence.
SPIRITS
To go back to the beginning, we will have to recognize that the phrase extraterrestrial intelligence is already sophisticated. It refers, after all, to intelligence found on worlds other than Earth and for it to have meaning there must be some recognition that worlds other than Earth exist.
To the vast majority of human beings, however, through almost all of history, there were no worlds other than Earth. Earth was the world, the home of living things. The sky, to early observers, was exactly what it appeared to be: a canopy overhanging the world, blue by day and punctuated by the round glare of the Sun; black by night and pin-pricked with the brightness of the stars.
Under those conditions, the phrase extraterrestrial intelligence has no significance. Let us talk, instead, of...
About the Author-
Isaac Asimov began his Foundation series at the age of 21, not realizing that it would one day be considered a cornerstone of science fiction. During his legendary career, Asimov penned over 470 books on subjects ranging from science to Shakespeare to history, though he was most loved for his award-winning science fiction sagas, which include the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series. Named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Asimov entertained and educated readers of all ages for close to five decades. He died, at the age 72, in April 1992.
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Random House Publishing Group
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