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First contact: The search for extraterrestrial intelligence
Scientists and scientific writers come together in this book to confront the challenge of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
- GenresScience
343 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
48 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
694 books1,045 followersBen Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 30, 2019
Aunque no aparece aquí hay una edición en castellano. A pesar del tiempo transcurrido continúa siendo uno de los mejores libros sobre el tema. Especialmente recomendado para las personas aficionadas a la ciencia ficción.
July 12, 2020
Veo años después el plantel de escritores de esta recopilación y me sorprende no recordar cuántos escritores reconocidos había en ella. Asimov y Arthur C. Clarke, por supuesto, pero David Brin, de fama por sus novelas, Frank Drake, el de la ecuación de Drake, Gregory Benford, el de la Ley de Benford...
El libro es una mirada seria, escéptica y fundamentada al tema OVNI, que ha dejado de dar por saco en cuando todos los seres humanos del planeta han empezado a llevar móviles con cámaras de alta definición en el bolsillo.
El libro está muy bien y estoy seguro de que seguiría resistiendo en lo fundamental, aunque la evolución de la tecnología no hace sino acrecentar lo acertado de sus razonamientos. Una lectura muy recomendable.
El libro es una mirada seria, escéptica y fundamentada al tema OVNI, que ha dejado de dar por saco en cuando todos los seres humanos del planeta han empezado a llevar móviles con cámaras de alta definición en el bolsillo.
El libro está muy bien y estoy seguro de que seguiría resistiendo en lo fundamental, aunque la evolución de la tecnología no hace sino acrecentar lo acertado de sus razonamientos. Una lectura muy recomendable.
January 7, 2018
GREAT BOOK. While this book is already dated, the concepts it lays out are as current today as when it was published 27 years ago. This book is broken down into several sections: Life in the Universe, SETI through the Ages, Searching the Cosmic Haystack for ETI, Tuning In - Where to Look and Listen, MEGA-SETI, SETI on Campus, The Politics of SETI, First Contact - Seizing the Moment, How to Participate in SETI (subsequently superseded by https://setiathome.berkeley.edu), and The Need to Know. I've been interested in the topic of First Contact most of my life, yet many of the ideas and issues raised in the book I had never thought of or run into before. Throughout history politics and religion have interfered with scientific research and understanding. This is especially true when it comes to SETI research. And if that isn't enough to make you unhappy, ponder the question raised in the book of "who will speak for earth" when we do make contact. Remember, these are the same people that designed the Pioneer Space Probe plaque and prohibited the image from showing female genitals. This book will make you think about science, the universe, and human nature. Remember Carl Sagan's famous line: “The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.”
September 7, 2024
Very good and very cool, if repetitive. Covers the philosophical underpinnings of the assumption of ETI (very cool, the Frank Drake and Drake's equation chapters probably my favorites) historical accounts of the development of SETI studies and organizations AND technical expositions of the satellite/radio communication methods not to mention instructions for amateur astronomers to join in. SETI bros are serious operators and do NOT want to be associated to UFOlogists which I get - for their being actual working scientists and basically allergic to circumstantial evidence or anything associated with backwards thinking - but am also a little saddened by it. There's room for rational skeptic analyses of ufo phenomenon. To call it all incredulous hocus feels small minded. I think Ufologists like Dolan and (at least early career) Vallee are good representatives of the rational skeptic strain of Ufology. There ought to be unity SETI bros. Nonetheless, probably the best non fiction book on the subject of extraterrestrial life out there.
January 27, 2012
Obviously this book is a bit dated. No exoplanets were known to exist at the time of publishing, now we're pushing close to one thousand I think.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews