A review of the book by Prof. Hagai Netzer from Tel Aviv University and the journalist Ami Ben Best reviews the possibilities of meeting intelligent beings from outer space
By: Avi Blizovsky
Published in "Haaretz", January 25, 1999
Now that it is known that the earth is not at the center of the universe, neither is the sun
More than a distant star on the edge of an ancient galaxy (which is also part of a star cluster
which is a very small comma in the visible universe), it is very difficult to understand why not
To date, signs of life have been found on other planets. is the earth
Really such an unusual case? And if not, where are the other intelligent beings
in the universe?
Prof. Hagai Netzer, head of the institute, is trying to answer these questions
for astronomy at Tel Aviv University, and the journalist Ami Ben-Bast in their book
The new "Masa al HaTbuna", which was published this week by "Yedyot" publishing house
latest". At the conference of the Israeli Science Fiction Association, which took place this week
Passed, Netzer claimed that in order to answer the question of where the aliens are, one must first
All to understand how life was created on Earth. "The first life,
The single cells flourished on the earth already when it started to cool down, before 3.7
A billion years. But first intelligent beings did not appear before
4.5 billion years from Earth. Who knows, maybe the average of
The time needed for the development of intelligence is, for example, 20 billion years, and only
Is it luck that intelligence developed earlier on Earth?"
Netzer insists that if one is looking for a life, one should mainly look for a similar life
To ours - not in terms, but in their chemical composition. According to him, the accepted theory
Today states that the chemical substances (mainly carbon and water compounds) came
From interstellar space, where they were formed from the explosions of stars that released the
The heavy materials for space. Molecules are found in comets and asteroids
Organics of several tens of atoms. These materials were the nucleus for creatures
Life. "If these materials came from space to Earth, most likely
that the same materials also come to other places", he said.
So why aren't the aliens here? Probably because of the strict laws of nature. Part
Much of the book deals with the question of when to embark on an interstellar journey. by means of refueling
Currently, it is impossible to reach even a fraction of a percent of the speed of light, and
A nuclear explosion and nuclear fusion (which is more energetic) will bring us
to a few percent of the speed of light. So is antimatter propulsion, or spaceship
Propulsion sail using the "Sun Wind" (a laser cannon that will be placed in orbit around
The sun will focus its rays and use them to push the sail spacecraft in its orbit),
All these will bring us at best to one tenth of the speed of light, and to the sun
The closest - Alpha Centauri - within 45 years.
To reach higher speeds, complicated technologies are needed
Very, for example, a funnel spacecraft, collecting interstellar material, exploits the
Its energy and emits it back in the opposite direction, or technologies
which use the energy of black holes. According to Netzer, these technologies
will not be practical in the next few hundred years.
Netzer contracts the development of intelligent computers, which can manage forces
themselves on a journey through space and reproduce by collecting the materials they need
at the intermediate stations. In this way it will be possible to fill all the stars and systems
The sun in computers, which will create, among other things, a galactic communication network after a million
up to two million years. Netzer says that intelligent beings may already be
They did a similar thing in the past, although to this day no such computerized viewer has been discovered.
He also estimates that in about 15 years (depending on priorities in the NASA budget)
Satellites will be launched into space to observe nearby solar systems and look for stars
To small sects, in the light that will be absorbed from them will be found the optical stamp of
The ozone. The presence of ozone (O3) will indicate an atmosphere rich in oxygen
free (O2), the only explanation for its existence is the existence of plants that perform
photosynthesis process. The ozone is therefore a direct evidence of the existence of
Haim.
In their book, Netzer and Ben Best devote ample space to the multiple observations on
UFOs. In a sub-chapter, entitled "What you see and what you think you see", they
They write: "An unidentified object, by its very definition, is an object that is unknown to us
the viewers of it. The ability of our mind to recognize a phenomenon of this kind, that is, a phenomenon
that he encountered it for the first time, depends on various factors, among them the neural connection
Between the eye and the brain, the ability to process and decipher, and the essence of understanding the character
absorbed".
There are also two known cases in which the existence of
UFOs and explain what they think really happened there. So, for example, the fragments of the missile
The Russians who launched satellites into space in 1968 entered the atmosphere above the USA
and caused a wave of reports about a UFO that looked like a fat cigar.
Published in "Haaretz" on 01/25/1999
Where are all the aliens?
The book by Hagai Netzer and Ami Ben-Best is one of the most in-depth popular books written about the search for foreign cultures, and is another example of the fact that there is no need to translate in order to publish a top-notch popular science book in Israel.
By Neri Kafkafi Published in "Haaretz"
2.4.99
The question in the title is the main question under discussion in the excellent book of
Hagai Netzer and Ami Ben-Best. As strange as this may seem, it turns out
That this question bothers not only UFOlogists, viewers of "Bags in the Dark" and my friends
the Moshav movement, but also several very serious scientists. She
It even received an official name: "Fermi Paradox", after Enrico Fermi, a scientist
The famous Italian atom, who once casually phrased it during an event
social.
What the possibility of a galaxy teeming with life and alien civilizations might look like
Very likely - much more likely than the opposite possibility according to us
lonely in the environment - in the eyes of respected and careful astronomers like
Hagai Netzer, head of the Institute of Astronomy at Tel Aviv University? this feeling
It relies not only on facts (since the few facts we know are not
are sufficient even for a rough estimate of the number of intelligent civilizations in the galaxy)
but mainly about principles and worldview, it is almost permissible to say -
Scientific ideology.
The ideology in question is one of the dominant worldviews in science
The modern - the anti-centralist view. This view is not the result of
Some inferiority complex. She took Mr. from a long line of discoveries in the hundreds
The last few years, all of which illustrate how accustomed we are
and unspecialized. Since then, Copernicus and Galileo have disproved the claim that we
are at the center of the universe, it turned out to astronomers that we inhabit the crust
The exterior of a tiny planet orbiting a small and unremarkable sun, one of
Billions of stars on the outskirts of one galaxy out of countless galaxies
similar to her. At the same time, biologists discovered that man is nothing more than a side branch
which has now branched off from a mighty evolutionary tree that has been discovered for about three and a half billion years
sleep. Life itself is not the result of a "spirit of life" or some miracle, but
All in all, complex processes that take place in completely inert and ordinary matter.
This long and honorable scientific tradition makes most scientists suspicious
Immediately any claim that there is something special about us. They even formulated a principle
Against me known as the "equality law" (the unsuccessful translation of Netzer and Ben-Best
For an unsuccessful term in the original - "The Mediocrity Principle" translation
The literal "principle of mediocrity" is also flawed. A more accurate name would be
Maybe the "principle of averages") which means: "There is nothing special in place, in time
Or in the situation we are in today in the universe".
Of course, the claim that out of the billions of stars in our galaxy (not to mention
about the billions in each of those countless other galaxies), only here
Intelligent life has evolved, seems like an extremely unusual violation of principle
equality. For most serious astronomers and biologists this claim
Sounds like bigoted madness, more similar to the positions of Christians
The Catholic Inquisition in the famous trial of Galileo Galilei confirms
For a reasonable scientific hypothesis.
The equality principle is one side of Fermi's paradox. The other side is that if
We will accept this principle, because then our galaxy was supposed to roar and sizzle
Radio transmissions from colonies of intelligent civilizations, most of them much more
Veterans of us. So where is everyone? Why aren't they here right now? the writers
The book demonstrates how the human race can, relying on extrapolation
It is entirely possible for modern technology to colonize the entire galaxy
In about two million years - a long time on a human scale, but short
Very compared to the age of the galaxy (about ten billion years). how is it possible
So no intelligent culture preceded us? Why didn't they come?
to us? Why don't we at least pick up their transmissions, or discover evidence
Cutting to the products of a technology that precedes ours by millions of years?
Several possible solutions have been proposed to resolve the paradox. Although my friend
The book takes an incredibly careful and scientific objectivity, it seems they themselves
The solution known as the "zoo hypothesis" is hailed. According to this hypothesis,
The aliens (or at least robotic probes of them) are indeed present
"in the environment" (for example, in the asteroid belt) but for whatever reasons they are
They prefer to watch us from the side and not interfere. The somewhat amusing result of
All this academic discussion is that serious scientists like Hagai Netzer find
They suddenly find themselves in a very undesirable company for their taste - the UFOs
Of all kinds.
Scientists harbor a hidden (and often not hidden) contempt.
to emology, even when they reach remarkably similar conclusions. and again,
The reasons for this are not primarily factual, but values. to their taste,
UFOlogy reeks of the same pseudo-scientific stench that also characterizes
Homeopathy, "crystals", healing with "energy", the emotional life of plants
etc. (and see a detailed discussion of the issue by Carl Sagan, Magdoli
The scientists who support the search for extraterrestrial civilizations, in his book "Olam
Haunted by demons"). The authors devote an entire chapter to the question of UFOs,
Incredibly objective and careful, and as in the other questions they leave the
The judgment is for the reader, but between the lines you can clearly read their position
the negative However, as they point out, even all the evidence on
The various encounters are complete fictions, this does not disqualify (or support)
Such is the possibility that intelligent civilizations are indeed following us in the moment
It.
Netzer and Ben-Best's book is undoubtedly one of the best popular books
and the in-depth ones written in the fascinating field of searching for foreign cultures, and he
Another example that there is no need to translate in order to publish a book in Israel
Top notch popular science. The combination formula between the responsible scientist
to the content (astronomer Hagi Netzer from Tel Aviv University) and a scientific article
The person responsible for the style and editing (Ami Ben-Best from "Masa Achar" and "Globes") is working
Here it is excellent, and only occasionally are sentences mixed in whose style is still academic
And a bit awkward. The book is rich in illustrations and graphs that contribute greatly to the quality
the explanations, and it has a key and a detailed list of sources.
The book covers almost every important aspect of the subject, although I have a few quibbles
on the distribution of resources. For example, it seems to me that something could have been cut in the introduction
The long and detailed one on the history of the universe and the origin of life, for the benefit of a long discussion
more on interesting issues such as methods and results of searches for
Radio transmissions from extraterrestrial civilizations, the possible form of the aliens,
Or the "atrophic principle", which is a complicated subject to understand but very essential
for the purpose of the discussion. In general terms, there is no doubt that this is the best book (in Hebrew).
Much has been written about the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, and certainly not because it is
The almost-only book (in Hebrew) that exists in this field.
Another possibility for resolving Fermi's paradox is the hypothesis that foreign cultures
Countries advanced enough to reach us are necessarily so advanced, until
that communication between them and us is unlikely. The authors cite the analogy
by Carl Sagan on the communication between man and ant: Man does not discover
special interest in what the ant has to say (unless he is an entomologist,
a very rare creature). The ant, for its part, is unable to understand most of his words
of man or even to perceive his mode of existence. We'll even keep her on
Our palm, most likely it perceives us as some kind of natural force, and no
As an entity that can be communicated with. Basically, only when the ant detects somehow
that it is a living creature and bites us, a very limited form is created for a brief moment
of mutual communication. Of course, it is very difficult to imagine a creature more advanced than us
As much as we progress from the ant, but that's exactly the point. all
As long as our radio telescopes haven't picked up any extraterrestrial transmitter, that is
that our knowledge is only sufficient for an academic discussion of this issue, and any preference for a solution
One or the other of the Fermi paradox is a matter of taste. Personally, justice
The poetic in the last option seems appropriate to me. This may be the blow
The final one that will place the principle of equality on our sense of self-importance:
Advanced extraterrestrial civilizations do exist, but they don't really care about us.
