My 3,200 word, 8 page article, “Are We Alone in the
Universe?” is available on the DESIP
website.
My article comprises an introduction to and summary of a
1985 article on “Intelligent Life in Space” by Edward Olson, in Astronomy Magazine. Olson’s article
radically overturned my earlier views on the likelihood that alien intelligence
might exist elsewhere in our universe. Later I also became reconciled to the
notion that human travel will never extend beyond our own solar system.
Four paragraphs
selected from “Are We Alone in the Universe?” follow.
From “Are We Alone in the
Universe?”
by Ronald Bleier
As a high school student, when I learned that our universe
was populated by billions of galaxies, many of which are similar to our own Milky
Way Galaxy, it seemed logical to suppose that the laws of chance alone would be
sufficient to produce perhaps a large number of examples of alien intelligence.
In those heady post WWII years, I had little doubt that human destiny
incorporated and was given purpose by inter-stellar and perhaps also
inter-galactic travel. By no means, I believed, were our frontiers restricted
to our own solar system.
…
The possibility of the
existence of extra-terrestrial intelligent life may be of more than academic
importance in that it helps to focus attention on critical issues concerning
the survivability of our civilization. As we move past the first decade of the
21st century, it's becoming clearer that limits to resources, the
deterioration of our environment, and the unpredictable political effects of
rising per capita scarcity seriously threaten the long term and even short term
existence of our modern technological civilization.
…
The bulk of Professor Olson’s
article is devoted to critically examining the famous Drake equation, a
formulation based on the theory that alien intelligence is likely to be a
common occurrence. The key point underlying Olson’s article is that we need to
take seriously the alternative possibility that we are indeed alone in the
universe. Two critical themes in Professor Olson’s article, summarized
below, deserve special emphasis:
1. Intelligent life in the
universe is not as prevalent as we might think.
2. Cognitive intelligence is
not a necessary or even a desirable survival trait.
…
Olson reminds us that if we are indeed alone in the
universe, "such an outcome could carry far deeper implications for us than
would a galaxy full of other chattering civilizations." He quotes
James Trefil who wrote that "[I]f we succeed in destroying ourselves, it
will be a tragedy not only for the human race but for the entire Galaxy, which
will have lost the fruit of a 15-billion year experiment in the formation of
sentient life."
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