The Science of Aliens
📖 The Science of Aliens
What would aliens look like? An intelligent creature something like an octopus sounds entirely reasonable. But what if they had an odd number of limbs—three legs, three arms, and three eyes? Could there be a whole planet of silicon-based, immobile “trees” that communicate with one another by electrical signals? The Science of Aliens goes further into the strange. Could a vast interstellar cloud be “alive” and possess intelligence? Could organisms survive extreme heat and pressure? Would they be interested in abducting humans? Would they want to have sex with us?
“Aliens and Humans”—a reviewer
We usually focus on the assumption that alien technology far surpasses our own, and we rarely discuss the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations whose technology is less advanced than ours. That may be why they have not answered our SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) radio signals—because some alien civilizations may not yet have entered their version of an “industrial age.” Why is this kind of theory so seldom mentioned? Could it hold? Second, if advanced alien civilizations do exist, why have our scientific experts not considered the disaster that might befall humanity if we keep trying to contact a species so far above us? A look back at our own history shows that less developed peoples are often at a disadvantage when they meet highly developed ones. Take the relationship between Native Americans and the first European colonists of the New World—and they were even the same species. Can you imagine something similar between two different species? If, one day, an alien civilization far ahead of us answered our signal, would we be in immediate danger? I hope this possibility is discussed more often. At some future moment, when we ourselves have become a spacefaring civilization, with colonies and fleets spread across the galaxy, and we make contact with a less developed alien civilization, I can only feel sorry for that civilization—because humans seem born with a desire to conquer. Why, then, should we think that aliens who have reached the peak of technology would be any different?
Amazon review: The scientist and writer Clifford Pickover poses a question: “Can a living thing dream of what lies beyond the reach of its senses?” Pickover clearly thinks that humans can—at least to some extent. To that end he wrote The Science of Aliens, a fascinating book whose chapters include “What Aliens Look Like,” “The Origin of Alien Life,” and “Alien Abduction”—and, of course, “Alien Sex” (don’t say you aren’t curious). To spark the reader’s imagination, Pickover focuses on the traits of life on Earth—appearance, senses, environment, sexual behavior—and argues that, by comparison, this diversity falls far short of the much broader possibilities of alien worlds.
Whether or not you believe that life exists on other planets, the artist’s depictions of science-fiction creatures such as Cheelas, Mesklinites, and Radiates, together with mathematical “alien messages” that need decoding, are a genuine gift. (Here is a simple example: “The aliens are waiting for humans to replace the question mark with the next value in the sequence before they will consider us worth further communication: 77, 49, 36, 18, ?”) He also raises interesting questions; for example, what form would art take for beings sensitive to smell or heat rather than to light? Best of all, Pickover…
Publication details:The Science of Aliens, by Clifford Pickover, a distinctive work that blends science, imagination, and speculation.
📚 Source:UFO Evidence Bookstore
