Lonely Planets

From The Red Pill

'Lonely Planets' is the second book written by planetary scientist Dr David Grinspoon. It is an easy to read look at the way that humans have thought about the possibility of alien life, from centuries ago to the latest thoughts in the field of astrobiology.

Synopsis

Grinspoon brings the search for alien life to a new generation of readers with his reflections on the most recent developments in astrobiology, including NASA's search for life on Mars. He investigates the big questions: How widespread are life and intelligence in the cosmos? Is life on Earth an accident or in some sense the "purpose" of this universe? And how can we, working from the Earth-centric definition of "life," even begin to think about the varieties of life-forms on other planets?

Using the topic of extraterrestrial life as a mirror with which to view human beliefs, evolution, history, and aspirations, Grinspoon provides an authoritative scientific narrative of cosmic evolution, along with provocative ruminations on how we fit into the story of the universe, and how we ourselves have thought about everything beyond our pale blue dot.

Topics

Lonely Planets is distinguished by its open intellectual discussion of just what alien life could be, including super-ancient extraterrestrial civilisations which might appear as 'gods' to us due to their advanced technological (and possibly spiritual) capabilities.

External Links

• Daily Grail book review of Lonely Planets
• Lonely Planets on Amazon US
• Lonely Planets on Amazon UK
• The Lonely Planets section on Funky Science, the official website of Dr David Grinspoon