Civilized Life in the Universe —— Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials

----- 宇宙中的文明生命：科学家论智力型星外人

ISBN: 9780195171815 出版年：2007 页码：248 Basalla, George Oxford University Press

From Plutarch and Kepler to Stephen Hawkings and Carl Sagan, this book offers a fascinating history of scientific speculation about life in outer space. Basalla traces an unbroken but twisting chain of ideas passed from one scientist to the next, and from science to popular culture. He even examines the influence of popular culture on science--Sagan always admitted how much Burroughs' Martian novels influenced his speculations about Mars. Throughout, Basalla shows that scientific belief in and search for extraterrestrial civilizations is a complex impulse, part secularized-religious, and part anthropomorphic.