June 05, 2011
Xenology
It is fun to discover an old book that remains relevant.
Today's find is Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization by Robert A. Freitas Jr (1979). Fulltext online.
It is fun to see the early Freitas (a fellow reference-maniac) take a look at extraterrestrial life, planetology as it was back then, xenobiology, alien intelligence, megascale engineering (and beyond!), interstellar economics, how to deal with civilizations many orders of magnitude more advanced than us, thermoethics and much, much else. Some parts have not aged well (science, even social science, marches on), others remain fresh and worth checking by current investigators.
Especially fun (and good instructions for UFO abductees) is Appendix A. What To Do If You Encounter Alien Beings or Their Craft (Surprise Contact Scenario)
Posted by Anders3 at June 5, 2011 07:23 PM