Meister says: Fascinating reading, and will give you hours of contemplation - especially when you read the last chapter. I would want this on a deserted island.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #210610 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

New Scientist, April 2003
"Highly entertaining and thought-provoking"

Science, Vol. 299, 3 January 2003
"everyone who has ever considered the possibility that other civilizations exist elsewhere within our galaxy will enjoy Where Is Everybody?"

Synopsis
Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 million stars in our Galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 million galaxies in the Universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the 14-billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at least as advanced as our own. The sheer enormities of the numbers almost demand that we accept the truth of this hypothesis. Why, then, have we encountered no evidence, no messages, no artifacts of these extraterrestrials? Webb discusses in detail the 50 most cogent and intriguing solutions to Fermi's famous paradox: If the numbers strongly point to the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, why have we found no evidence of them?

---

Customer Reviews

50 answers to a very good question
This fine book by Stephen Webb offers fifty different solutions for the Fermi paradox. In short, Enrico Fermi wondered that since universe is so big and should contain lots of life, where are they? Why haven't we seen any evidence at all of extraterrestrial intelligence?

Well, there are plenty of good explanations, as this book proves. The solutions are divided in three categories: "they're already here," "they exist but we can't communicate with them," and "we're alone". Since there's a real lack of proper knowledge about these things, reader will find plenty of educated guesses, hazy probabilities and that sort of thinking, but that's the nature of the whole question.

I'd definitely recommend this book to anybody who's interested in the existence or non-existence of extraterrestrial life. While there are no set answers, this book will give the reader a lot of material to chew on. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

Pleasantly surprised
Not being a science fiction fan, initially I doubted the scientific value of the book as the author includes some rather sci-fi solutions to the Fermi paradox early in the book. Presumably they have to be included for completeness. But he presents some very sensible, interesting solutions with his own as the last one, No. 50. I was particularly interested in the solutions dealing with the evolution of human characteristics, such as language and the probability of an extraterrestrial civilisation developing it. These factors are also treated like terms in the Drake equation.

I can recommend it to anyone wondering if there really is intelligent life in space. A less scientific, but worthwhile companion to "Rare Earth" which to me still represents the "bible" on planetary evolution.