Captured by Aliens: The Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe

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The great minds of our species, employing ever more fabulous technology have peered into the depths & discovered that we exist on a tiny speck in a cosmos vast beyond comprehension. But there's one thing we've yet to discover: extraterrestrial life. We have heard no signals, found no alien picnic trash. Aliens who allegedly abduct people in the night have a strange way of evaporating in the glare of scientific scrutiny. We're in an intellectual fix. We know the universe only thru its structure, physical properties & chemistry. We can only guess its biology. Are there creatures out there like us? Or are we, for all intents & purposes, alone? If aliens exist--if there really are intelligent creatures zooming around--then where are they?
"Washington Post" reporter Achenbach--author of "Why Things Are" & National Public Radio commentator--puts the ET debate into the context of the space program, astronomical discoveries, & the hunger for meaning & spiritual nourishment in an era when science often doesn't provide the answers people desire. He finds that the topic of extraterrestrial life is poisoned by wishful thinking, by the yearning to make contact with our space siblings. Ha also finds some fascinating, admirable & maddening characters who've pursued the truth about extraterrestrial life: Cad Sagan, the astronomer who brought the cosmos to the masses; Dan Goldin the cantankerous head of NASA who still believes in the dream of the Space Age; Henry Harris, a former Las Vegas lounge singer who is assigned the job of figuring out how to get a spaceship to Alpha Centauri; & sundry ufologists, experiencers, spiritualists & channelers for whom the aliens are an ever-present reality.
In this fascinating book, Achenbach discovers that the search for life elsewhere leads us on a looping road back to the fundamental questions about life on Earth. To think coherently about extraterrestrial life, we first must come to terms with who we are, why we exist, & what it means to carry around in our cells an evolutionary history that took 4 billion years to unfold. His message is that it's a wonderful & thrilling thing to be a sentient human--a creature capable of foolish romanticism--in a universe that is mostly rocks, gas, dust & empty space.
1: Adventures in the Unknown
2: Visitors
3: Onward & Inward
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index