Seti Pioneers: Scientists Talk about Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

by David W. Swift

Book Overview

"Are there beings in some sense like you, elsewhere in the universe, or are we the only ones around? It's one of the most basic questions there is." --Carl Sagan Carl Sagan, when asked his assessment... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816514089
• ISBN13: 9780816514083
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Length: 434 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Unedited interviews of varying interest

This book is a collection of interviews Swift conducted with sixteen scientists and engineers who played significant roles in starting a scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (a seventeenth interview of a younger researcher is tacked on at the end). The interviews vary widely in substantive interest. Unfortunately, Swift gives us the full contents of each interview, including what he said himself. This forces the reader to wade through a lot of marginal verbiage to get to the nuggets of thought-provoking material. The book would be far more readable, and shorter, if Swift had been tougher about editing his own work. The concluding chapter provides some interesting sociological analysis.