Are We Alone PB

I, like so many people, like to think there is something else out there. But as Paul Davies looks at, what would be the implications if we actually found life, to religion and people as a whole. Plus, what I like is how he explores the many possibilities of how life can be formed in other systems, and the chance of us making any contact.

Great book, and great ideas to think about. Recommend it.

Interesting book!

生命の起源は宇宙から？地球に生命が誕生したのは、奇跡の偶然なのか、必然なのか？さまざまな角度から「生命の謎」に迫る１冊。Paul Davisの本はどの本もとても知的な文章で、読んでいて気分が良い。「Fifth Miracle」、「The Mind of God」もお勧めです。

This book is a discussion of the search for extraterrestrial life, nothing more, nothing less. This book is based on four lectures Davies gave at Milan University. While this book contains an excellent discussion about the search for extraterrestrial life on other planets, it offers precious little on the real philosophical implications of that search or of the nature of the aliens Earthlings are attempting to make contact. The underlying philosophical assumption which pervades the discussion is that extraterrestrial life must consist of aliens who look like us and which may or not be more technologically advanced as we are. Despite the historical and scientific overview, the discussion in Davies’ book misses the mark. Granted, taking the underlying philosophical rationale for the existence of life in places other than Earth, Davies fails to address the real questions in this area: • What IS life? • What is the definition of “life”? • Is other life forms limited to the paradigm here on Earth? • Isn’t is possible that this planet has unwittingly received communications from other worlds because of the limitations on human communication and we simply are not aware these communications have been sent? • Who is to say that all life is carbon-based as Davies acknowledges? • If other worlds are philosophically possible, could aliens live and communicate in dimensions other than that in which humans live? Fine, you might be saying, aren’t these questions simply related to the nature of life, alien or otherwise? Yes, that might be true. But a pertinent issue not discussed by Davies and totally on topic to his book: • Isn’t the search for extraterrestrial life inherently human-based and any effort to search for extraterrestrial presence doomed to fail? It would have been good if Davies discussed these issues in the book, and the book would have been a better book had these issues been discussed. These and other questions are the real philosophical implications of extraterrestrial life. Though barely mentioned, these questions were not raised or discussed by Davies. While these issues were touched upon in the chapter concerning consciousness, but on the whole the discussion was facile and inadequate.