Steven J. Dick

A belated follow-up read to Dick's own Plurality of Worlds, covering the same debate up to about the mid-18C, which I read in '21, and to Crowe's The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900, which I read all the way back in '14.

This is mostly a history of science, about scientists who have held that extraterrestrial life is common, rare, or even non-existent, and their sometimes less-than-scientific grounds for their views, but it also deals with the use of extraterrestrials in literature and cinema, and how the discovery of extraterrestrial life might affect religion and philosophy.

The book is fairly short and eminently readable, but there is nothing lightweight about it. I liked it a lot.

(I read this book from the library in April '23, but didn't get my own copy until now. The above are my impressions from 2023-04-29, lightly edited for grammar.)… (meer)

This is a belated follow-up to Crowe's The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900 which I read back in '14. Compared to that massive tome, this is a brief and breezy work; I finished it in a couple of days. Perhaps one day I'll get around to also reading Dick's book about the twentieth century debate.

Chronologically, this book may be considered a bit loopsided; the ancient and medieval periods get one chapter each, while the remaining four chapters and the bulk of the conclusion are dedicated to the period from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth.

In its original, ancient form, the question about whether there is a "plurality of worlds" meant whether there are, somewhere far beyond the starry heavens, other Ptolemaic cosmoses, or whether ours is the only one. The period from Copernicus to Kant may be loosely characterized as that when it morphed into what we consider the question of extraterrestrial life - is there life on other planets within the visible universe, or is Earth unique?

Well worth a read if one is interested in intellectual and scientific history. That it's nearing forty years old makes little difference except that Dick's statement that we still don't know for sure whether there are planets orbiting other suns is of course outdated.… (meer)

Target audience: Ages 14-18

Are we alone in the unviverse? the author asks. He recounts the Percival Lowell's claim of canals on Mars, the controversial rock from Mars, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETTI), the prospect of life on other plantet has intrigued our Earthly beings. Human beings are endlessly searching for planetary systems, the quest to explain UFOs, and the originality of life has lead to popular and scientific literature. In addition, Hollywood is flooded with movies, such as Independence Day, ET, Aliens, and Contact in response to thsi furor over other lifes outside of Earth.

The book is wonderfully comprehensive and highly entertaining. In addition, the author provides acute clarity, accuracy, and thoroughness of the information that he presents. I highly suggest the book to anyone who is interested in over the edge of scientific discovery of life. It compels me to ponder if there really is extraterrestrial life. I have always been fascinated with this topic. The book fulfills my curiosity.… (meer)