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Chaos in nature, 2nd edition

touted as a radio-emitting extra-terrestrial space craft. (The SETI Allen Telescope Array later detected nothing.) With the detection of the many extrasolar planets, it is only natural to include the type of life form and the evidence of life in validating any discoveries of extra-terrestrial species. And this is what LSI is, an RSI with astrobiology by any other name. After discussing 66 different solutions to Fermi paradox, the book in the end admits that there are no solutions to the ‘Where is everybody?’ question. Just as the readers have already had it figured. The entire premise is that Fermi paradox is true, that there is no such thing as extra-terrestrial society. N of the Galaxy is 1, i.e. ours is the one and only signal-emitting civilisation about. Only we go around the houses to say it, coming up with all kind of excuses – not solutions – to justify the Billy-no-mates-ness of our existence. But coming clean aside, somewhat without candour, the book goes on about the new-fangled developments that will help in furthering our comprehension of Fermi paradox, specifically, the Breakthrough Initiatives exploration and the mixed bag of the present and future SETI programmes. News flash: Breakthrough Listen had just recently announced its failure on 18 June 2019.1 Three years after 1327 nearest stars were observed and with almost a million billion bytes of data now released to the public, Breakthrough Listen tells us that the radio signals detected are not from other technologically advanced civilisations (this would be the ones of thousands of years old; recall the Drake equation with Fermi paradox earlier), that they are all ours. The book finally closes by (still) asking whether or not Fermi paradox can be solved. This is in every respect hypothetical as is the yes or no answer. Maybe there is nothing to be solved because for all we know Fermi was asking why everybody was not there yet for lunch! (See page 3 of [2].) Hoping that a detection of extra-terrestrial species would clarify which class or combination of classes gives the correct solution or solutions to Fermi paradox is a non-starter. In any event, let us for a moment contemplate one of the SETI projects. In Transit SETI we will be using transit of extrasolar planet to communicate with extra-terrestrial species. It is as thought-provoking as they come but it is also a two-way street: if we can see them, they can see us. Any intelligent extra-terrestrial societies residing in the thin strip around the ecliptic called the Earth Transit Zone could discover Earth either by accident or by design. And what do we do about it – cloak ourselves? Is it not ironic that when it comes to this, we prefer to be unseen? The cloaking is an actual no-joke suggestion, one of the counter arguments of METI. While acknowledging that intelligent extra-terrestrial species might be communicating differently, using gravitational waves, say, we also want to block their messages before conceding at last that we have no expertise to receive them in the first place. Ha! So much for wanting desperately to meet beings from outer space! Fermi paradox will continue to be an enigma even if we do detect extra-terrestrial species or they us since the reciprocity rule would send us into hiding. If we fail, the book – wanting it both ways, it seems – advises that it only means that all the classic SETI techniques employed have not managed to detect other signal-emitting civilisation(s) in this galaxy. It is a big ask to get readers to embrace this book. Anyone and everyone can come up with the solution(s) to the ‘Where is everybody?’ question. They need not be scientists. Solving Fermi paradox is nothing more than an exercise in sophistry. It is part of the fun, philosophising in a cod manner. That is why it is popular science. (Nature once published an amusing article on a possible solution; do pay special attention to the year of publication and the years of the references.2) Despite the popular science feel to it, though, the chapter on the rarity of habitable worlds in Part II puts the book – but only just – in astrobiology category (or it would not have been published as part of Cambridge Astrobiology Series, surely). But it is already too late for it to recover at the ancient astronaut hypothesis. What is meant to be a scholarly exposition has become just like the rest that carry the words ‘Fermi paradox’. It would have been better if the whole conspiracy subclass were jettisoned. In fact, save for the rare Earth, all the other solutions are of the conspiracy kind.