The Biological Universe: The Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science

by Steven J. Dick

Book Overview

Throughout the twentieth century, from the furor over Percival Lowell's claim of canals on Mars to the sophisticated Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, otherworldly life has often intrigued and occasionally consumed science and the public. The Biological Universe provides a rich and colorful history of the attempts during the twentieth century to answer questions such as whether biological law reigns throughout the universe and whether there...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 052166361X
• ISBN13: 9780521663618
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 600 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A paradigm-setting study

This book is subtitled "the twentieth century extraterrestrial life debate and the limits of science." In fact, it is more than that. Science historian Stephen Dick describes a new paradigm of the universe that integrates biology. Where once we seemed lost in a vast and empty Cosmos, now we can credibly argue that we may be part of a living universe. Dick sets the stage by surveying the debates over the existence of life and intelligence beyond the Earth up to the beginning of the 20th century, seeing the extraterrestrial life debate as a struggle for a world view that has advanced in stages. He connects the plurality of worlds with the decline of anthropocentrism, describing the latter as one of the major intellectual changes of the past century. He then describes how Percival Lowell's theories about Mars demonstrated the limits of astronomical observation. He goes into scientific theories about the origins of planets before discussing images of extraterrestrials in literature and the arts. Dick takes on the UFO controversy in an admirably objective way. He reviews scientific theories about the origin and evolution of life before describing the modern search for radio signals known as SETI. Dick argues convincingly that we have seen the birth of a new science: astrobiology. He concludes by discussing some of the implications of possible future contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. In his summary, he describes the triumph of an evolutionary view of the Cosmos, and the emergence of the biological universe as a worldview. This is a basic work for any serious student of the extraterrestrial life issue.

Very good history, very good science

Steven J. Dick is an historian with a broad academic background both in the humanities and in the sciences. The present book of nearly 600 pages will establish his reputation even more. Its sub-title, "the Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science" reveals what is the book's focus, and also gives a hint of its broad philosophical scope. For though Dick's main theme is the astronomers' efforts to find out whether there is life on other heavenly bodies than our own earth, he is careful to relate it to the astronomical world-picture of the time. He sets forth in sufficient detail the arguments used to support or reject the idea of extra-terrestrial life. His presentation is clear and informative, with a minimum of technical jargon. Readers of this book will get a good grasp of the development of astronomical practice and theory after Copernicus and Newton, both in the scientific community and among the general public.Of course the main meat of the book is the tremendous rise of interest in matters of outer space. On the unsophisticated popular level, this means mainly "little green men from Mars", fanciful accounts of Star Wars, eked lout by UFOs -- Flying Saucers. Dick's perspective includes these: he notes that many future scientists, including Carl Sagan and several future Nobel laureates, devoured science fiction of this kind in their early teens. As a serious historian, Dick tries to account for how popular culture and the scientific elite influenced each other. Positively, since public interest made it possible to raise money for building ever more sophisticated and expensive astronomical instruments and space probes, including the Hubble space telescope. Negatively, since the sensationalism of the popular press, radio and television (including Orson Welles's extraordinary radio broadcast in 1938, "War of the Worlds", and later TV dramas about space adventures such as "Star Trek", tended to hurt the reputation of scientists who participated in space projects. Dick consistently takes the view that scientific research cannot progress without the trial and error of creative hypotheses: the very essence of hypothesis testing. True, we still do not have any proof of life or conscious intelligence on other planets than the earth, nor around other stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, nor in the billions upon billions of galaxies around us. But thanks to the adventurous research projects of the latter half of the 20th century, with radio telescopes and the Hubble space telescope, and also the landings on the Moon , Mars and Venus, and finally the grand, Government-supported project of SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence), where Carl Sagan was an important actor, we now know much more than we did around 1900. The quest will go on, strengthened by the arguments elaborated in the lively 20th century debates.To complement Dick's historian's perspective, I strongly recommend "Our Cosmic Origin" by A. Delsemme, a

A Detailed and colorful insight on Human thinking protocols.

The Book is certainly one of a kind, in that it even when it was not the original goal of the author to follow a very detailed evolution in human thought processes throughout time..one can certainly take this aspect as a very interesting and outstanding one. By exposing the evolution of the formulation of the necessary premises upon which an extraterrestrial life was/is supposed to exist, it is showing the evolutionary steps taken by human logic until today's scientific method. Thus, starting from the "known" existing historical records of the discussions around the possibility of an exterrestrial intelligence, one can track this evolution as well as view the slow drift from a dictatorial role played by the Church and religion in philosophical/scientific debates to a totally religiously independent scientific debate held nowadays.

A sweeping history of a new worldview

In recent years, science has given us a new worldview. The universe now seems much friendlier to life than it was in the old cosmology of lifeless rocks and stars. Steven Dick captures this new worldview in THE BIOLOGICAL UNIVERSE. It is easy to understand, breathtaking in its broad sweep of decades of debate and progress, and highly relevant for understanding today's science.

Outstanding book on extraterrestrial intelligence

This book was incredibly good; in fact, surprisingly good. It's got all the trappings of an academic book--numerous footnotes, a university press publisher--but the writing style is lively and engaging. The author goes through developments in the field of ETI during the twentieth century--life on Mars, UFOs, SETI, extrasolar planets, etc--presenting the different sides of the various controversies. This may be the best book ever written on the subject. Readers should also check out Ken Croswell's book PLANET QUEST, about the discovery of extrasolar planets, a likely prerequisite for extraterrestrial intelligence.