SETI: A Critical History

Opening quote

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

Even if these searches fail, that does not mean that we are alone. The brains and senses of the aliens may be so different from ours that we could not recognize any patterns in their signals ... The only type of intelligence we could detect would be one that led to a technology that we could recognize, and that could be a minor and atypical fraction. Some 'brains' may have a quite different perception of reality.

– Martin Rees

PREVIOUS (Dedication) | NEXT (Important events in history of SETI)

Related category

• SETI

Also on this site:

Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living
Encyclopedia of History

BACK TO TOP