SETI: A Critical History

Some important events in the history of SETI

SETI: A Critical History is a copy of the following PhD thesis, reproduced here with permission:

SETI's Scope
How the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Became Disconnected from New Ideas About Extraterrestrials

by Mark A. Sheridan
Drew University
May 2009

© 2009 by Mark A. Sheridan (email)
All rights reserved

Contents

Cover
Dedication
Opening quote
>> Some important events in the history of SETI

1. Introduction

Part I. Constructing SETI

2. SETI science

Greenbank
Intelligent life in the Universe
Uniformitarianism
The principle of mediocrity
SETI constructed within the boundaries of the traditional ETI discourse

3. SETI as popular science

ETI portraiture as a rhetorical site
SETI-ETI
Popular expositions of ETI science
SETI and the scientific community

Part II. Expanding the ETI discourse

4. The rehabilitation of "mind"

5. The Soviet critique of SETI

Differences in attitudes toward ETIs
Differences in temperament
Differences in intellectual traditions
Byurakan-II

6. The evolutionists' critique of SETI

Dueling improbabilities
"New" evolutionists
Eiseley: the possibility of non-humanoid ETIs
Simpson: making SETI's assumptions overt
Talking the talk
Byurakan-II: deepening the evolutionists' critique and expanding SETI's response
Dobzhansky: deterministic thinking

7. The philosophers' critique of SETI

8. Plausible non-humanoid ETIs

ETIs with non-humanoid sensorial
Superorganisms
Neutron star beings
Superconductor ETIs

Part III. Implications of the expanded ETI discourse for SETI

9. Reactions to the "nature"-based critiques

Project Cyclops
The Morrison workshops
Congress
Name change

10. Inflection

SETI's standing in the scientific community
Pascal's wager
Signs of wearying
Commission 51
The inflection point in popular culture
Giving up the ghost

11. Evanescence

1993: annus horribilis
Today
SETI in the popular culture

12. Conclusion

Bibliographical essay

Bibliography

SETI: Primary and secondary sources
ETI discourse: Secondary sources
ETI discourse: Primary sources
Texts that directly discuss ETIs
Popular expositions of ETI science
Hard science fiction featuring ETIs
ETI portraiture in American film and television

1959	Cocconi & Morrison's paper on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)
1960	Frank Drake conducts the first SETI search
1961	Byurakan-I, the Soviet Union's first SETI conference
1966	Shklovskii's and Sagan's Intelligent Life in the Universe
1969	Kaplan's Byurakan-I follow-up text
1970	National Aeronautic and Space Administration's (NASA) first SETI conference
1971	Project Cyclops Byurakan-II, the first international SETI conference
1974	NASA approves its first SETI funding
1975	The "Morrison workshops" The Library of Congress report on SETI submitted to Congress
1976	NASA establishes a SETI Program Office under Billingham Shklovskii publishes his skepticism about SETI
1978	Congress approves its first SETI funding
1979	NASA holds Life in the Universe conference Proxmire awards a "Golden Fleece" to SETI Congress fails to appropriate approved funding for SETI
1982	Proxmire succeeds in eliminating all SETI funding The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommends a modest SETI program
1983	NASA begins the "R&D" phase of its SETI program
1984	The International Astronomical Union's (IAU) first Commission 51 conference
1990	NASA's SETI program approved
1992	NASA's SETI program begins searching
1993	Funding for NASA's SETI program cancelled
1995	SETI Institute's Project Phoenix continues part of NASA program
2007	Allen Telescope Array begins SETI-style searches

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