Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: SETI Past, Present, and Future [Hardcover]

This book is a collection of essays written by the very scientists and engineers who have led, and continue to lead, the scientific quest known as SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Divided into three parts, the first section, The Spirit of SETI Past, written by the surviving pioneers of this then emerging discipline, reviews the major projects undertaken during the first 50 years of SETI science and the results of that research.

In the second section, The Spirit of SETI Present, the present-day science and technology is discussed in detail, providing the technical background to contemporary SETI instruments, experiments, and analytical techniques, including the processing of the received signals to extract potential alien communications.

In the third and final section, The Spirit of SETI Future, the book looks ahead to the possible directions that SETI will take in the next 50 years, addressing such important topics as interstellar message construction, the risks and assumptions of interstellar communications, when we might make contact, what aliens might look like and what is likely to happen in the aftermath of such a contact.

This book is a collection of essays written by those who have led, and continue to lead, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It reviews the history of the subject, details present-day science and technology, and looks ahead to the future.

Dedication.- Foreword: Looking Back.- Preface.- Part I: The Spirit of SETI Past.- 1 A half-century of SETI science.- 2 Project Ozma: The birth of observational SETI.- 3 Project Cyclops: The greatest radio telescope never built.- 4?Wow!,? A tantalizing candidate.- 5 SETI: The NASA years.- 6 From HRMS to Phoenix: Up from the ashes.- 7 Seeking SERENDIP: The Berkeley SETI Program.- 8 Millions and billions of channels.- lsĒ