Skip to main content
  • 1072 Accesses

Abstract

Could contact with a more powerful civilization endanger our safety, even our survival? This is the question that most sharply divides the optimists from the pessimists.

If there are globes in the heaven similar to our Earth, do we vie with them over who occupies the better portion of the universe? —Johannes Kepler, 16101

Should we ever hear the space-phone ringing, for God’s sake let us not answer, but rather make ourselves as inconspicuous as possible to avoid attracting attention! —Astronomer Zdenek Kopal, 19722

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Quoted by Dick, The Biological Universe, 515, and by Billingham, et al., 53.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Zdenek Kopal, Man and His Universe, London, New York, William Morrow, 1972, 306. Also quoted in MacVey, Interstellar Travel, 226, and in Sullivan, 297.

    Google Scholar 

  3. As quoted by Nigel Calder in oSpaceships of the Mind, New York, Viking, 1978, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Purcell, in Goldsmith, editor, 188–196; Morrison in Sagan, editor, CETI, 337; Drake, “On Hands and Knees.”

    Google Scholar 

  5. Sagan, The Cosmic Connection, 179–180, 215.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Joseph F. Goodavage, “An Interview with Carl Sagan,” Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, August 1976, 92–101; Sagan, Cosmos, 311; Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 394, 398.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Sagan, editor, CETI, 347–348.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Harrison, “Slow Track, Fast Track.”

    Google Scholar 

  9. MacGowan and Ordway, 330.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Asimov, Catastrophes, 265.

    Google Scholar 

  11. MacGowan and Ordway, 243, 268, 271, 366; Cade, Other Worlds than Ours, 224–225.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Project Cyclops, 31.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Donald Tarter, “Security Considerations in Signal Detection.”

    Google Scholar 

  14. Republished as “Advice for Astronomers,” International Herald Tribune, 30 December 1982; Clark and Clark, 106.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Swift, 166.

    Google Scholar 

  16. “Possibility of Intelligent Life Elsewhere in the Universe” (report prepared by the Congressional Research Service for the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives), Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977, 68.

    Google Scholar 

  17. William R. Polk, Neighbors and Strangers: The Fundamentals of Foreign Affairs, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Shostak, Sharing the Universe, 123; Clark and Clark, 107.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Ronald Bracewell, “Man’s Role in The Galaxy,” Cosmic Search, Vol. 1, Number 2 (March, 1979), 48–51; Sullivan, 295.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Rood and Trefil, 241.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Brin, “A Contrarian Perspective.”

    Google Scholar 

  22. C.M. Cade, “Communicating with Life in Space,” Discovery, April 1963, 26–41; MacVey, Interstellar Travel, 228; Grinspoon, 290.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Jared Diamond, “To Whom It May Concern,” The New York Times Magazine, 5 December 1999, 68–69; Jared Diamond, The Third Chimpanzee, New York, Harper Collins, 1992, 214.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Sullivan, 295–296; Fitzgerald, 350.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Fred Hoyle, A for Andromeda, New York, Avon, 1975, originally published in 1962; Carl Sagan, Contact, New York, Pocket, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Michaud, M.A.G. (2007). Dangers. In: Contact with Alien Civilizations. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68618-9_24

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics