Category:

 

seti_1
Fermi Paradox

During a lunch at Los Alamos in the summer of 1950, Enrico Fermi reputedly asked colleagues “If there are extraterrestrials, where are they?”. (The precise quotation and date varies from source to source.)

(Commonly referred to as “the Fermi Paradox”).

 

 

Sections below

1. Web Resources

2. Book References

3. Other material

 

Web Resources

Links to various relevant online documents and articles provided by Robert Bradbury:

http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/ETI/FermiParadox/index.html

There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...

 

The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.

 

 

 

Book References

The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.

Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.

For discussion of the date of the relevant lunch see the following:

 

Year

Discussion by:

 

No. of Pages

2002

Horowitz, Paul in “SETI 2020 : A Roadmap for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (2002) (edited by Elkers, Ronald D and Cullers, Kent D and Billingham, John and Scheffer, Louis K) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 373-374 (in Appendix J) of the SETI Press softcover edition.

2

1985

Jones, Eric in his article entitled “ ‘Where is Everybody?’: An Account of Fermi's Question," Los Alamos National Laboratory report number LA-10311-MS, March 1985. Available online at:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/la-10311-ms.pdf

17

2002

Webb, Stephen in his “Where is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 17-18 (in Chapter 2), 245 (in the Notes and Further Reading) of the Copernicus hardback edition.

3

 

For discussion of the Fermi Paradox see the following:

 

Year

Discussion by:

 

No. of Pages

1999

Achenbach, Joel in his “Captured by Aliens” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 16-17, 23 (in Chapter 1), 61 (in Chapter 5), 158 (in Chapter 14), 356-357 (in Chapter 36) of the Simon and Schuster hardback edition.

7

1998

Aczel, Amir in his “Probability 1” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 8-9 (in Chapter 1), 193 (in Chapter 9) of the Little Brown hardback edition.

3

1985

Angelo, Joseph A in his “The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia: Man’s Search for Life in Outer Space” (1985) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 51-52 (in the entry entitled “Fermi paradox – ‘where are they?’ ”), 77-78 (in the entry entitled “Laboratory hypothesis”) of the revised 1991 Fact on File hardback edition.

2

1989

Ashpole, Edward in his “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”(1989) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 7, 14 (in Chapter 1) of the Blandford softcover edition.

2

1997

Ashpole, Edward in his “Where is Everybody?” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 7, 15 (in Chapter 2) of the Sigma Press softcover edition.

2

1999

Asimov, Isaac in “Are We Alone in the Cosmos” (1999) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 45 (in Chapter 1) of the ibooks softcover edition.

1

1990

Asimov, Isaac in “First Contact” (1990) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 29 (in Chapter 1) of the NAL Books hardback edition, at pages 38-39 of the Headline paperback edition.

1

2001

Baxter, Stephen in his “Deep Future” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 176-177 (in Chapter 21), 179-189 (in Chapter 22) of the Gollancz paperback edition.

13

1999

Berry, Adrian in his “The Giant Leap” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 61 (in Chapter 4) of the revised Headline softcover edition.

1

1997

Bizony, Piers in his “The Exploration of Mars: Searching for the Cosmic Origins of Life” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 170-171, 174-175 (in Chapter 8) of the Aurum softcover edition.

 

1979

Boyce, Chris in his Extraterrestrial Encounter (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 141 (in Chapter 11) of the David & Charles hardback edition, at page 131 of the 1980 revised NEL paperback edition.

1

1999

Brin, David in “Are We Alone in the Cosmos” (1999) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 137, 143-159 (in Chapter 3, essay entitled “Mystery of the Great Silence”) of the ibooks softcover edition.

18

1990

Brin, David in “First Contact” (1990) (edited by Ben Bova and Byron Preiss) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 118, 123-139 (in Chapter 3, essay entitled “Mystery of the Great Silence”) of the NAL Books hardback edition, at pages 154-155, 161-183 of the Headline paperback edition.

18

1997

Brin, David in “Making Contact” (1997) (edited by Bill Fawcett) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 240-242 (in Section 3), 276-287 (in Section 4) of the Morrow hardback edition.

15

1995

Bryan, C D B in his “Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at MIT” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 155 (in Chapter 5) of the Weidenfeld & Nicolson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Knopf hardback edition and the Penguin Arkana softcover edition) at page 207 of the Orion paperback edition.

1

1988

Carlson, John B in Richard Hall’s “Uninvited Guests” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 17-20 (in the Foreword) of the Aurora Press paperback edition.

4

1999

Clark, Andrew J H and Clark, David H in their “Aliens“ (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 8-9, 10 (in the Prologue), 90-91 (in Chapter 3), 209-222 (in Chapter 6) of the Fromm hardback edition.

19

2000

Clark, Stuart in his “Life on Other Worlds and How to Find It” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 155-156 (in Chapter 11) of the Springer hardback edition.

2

2002

Cohen, Jack and Stewart, Ian in their “Evolving the Alien” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 311 (in Chapter 13) of the Ebury Press hardback edition.

1

1999

Coomer, David in his “The UFO Investigator’s Guide” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 58-59 (in Chapter 5) of the Blandford softback edition.

2

2000

Darling, David in his “The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 153 (in the entry entitled “Fermi, Enrico (1901-54)”), 153-154 (in the entry entitled “Fermi Paradox) of the Three Rivers softcover edition.

2

2003

Darling, David in his online encyclopedia, “The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy and Spaceflight” (2003) in the entries entitled “Fermi, Enrico (1901-1954)” and “Fermi Paradox”. The relevant entries are available online respectively at:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/F/Fermi.html

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/F/FermiPar.html

2

1997

Darlington, David in his “The Dreamland Chronicles” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 174-175 (in Chapter 7) of the LB hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Warner Books softcover edition).

2

1995

Davies, Paul in his “Are we Alone?“ (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 45 (in Chapter 4) of the Penguin paperback edition.

1

1998

Dick, Steven J in his “Life on Other Worlds“ (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 218-220 (in Chapter 7) of the Cambridge hardback edition.

3

1996

Dick, Steven J in his “The Biological Universe” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 443-448, 450 (in Chapter 8) of the Cambridge hardback edition.

7

1991

Drake, Frank and Dava Sobel in their “Is Anyone Out There?“ (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 130-131 (in Chapter 6), 203 (in Chapter 9) of the Pocket Books paperback edition.

3

1978

Edelson, Edward in his “Who Goes There?” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 74-75 (in Chapter 6) of the NEL paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the NEL paperback edition combining this book and Chris Boyce’s “Extraterrestrial Encounter).

2

1997

Emmons, Charles F in his “At The Threshold: UFOs, Science and the New Age” (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 43-44 (in Chapter 4), 125 (in Chapter 7) of the Wild Flower Press softcover edition.

3

1997

Fawcett, Bill in “Making Contact” (1997) (edited by Bill Fawcett) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 185 (in Section 3) of the Morrow hardback edition.

1

2008

Friedman, Stanton in his “Flying Saucers and Science : A Scientist Investigates the Mysteries of UFOs” (2008) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 141, 145-147 (in Chapter 5) of the New Page softcover edition.

4

1980

Goldsmith, Donald and Tobias Owen in their “The Search for Life in the Universe” (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 427-432 (in Chapter 22) of the Benjamin Cummings softcover edition, at pages 505-517 (in Chapter 21) of the 1992 Addison Wesley softcover revised second edition.

6

2001

Goodwin, Simon with John Gribbin in their “XTL” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 144-147 (in Chapter 4) of the Weidenfeld & Nicolson softcover edition.

4

1990

Guthke, Karl S in his “The Last Frontier : Imagining Other Worlds From the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction: Imagining Other Worlds From the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 14 (in Chapter 1.1) of the Cornell University softcover edition.

1

1997

Halpern, Paul in his “The Quest For Alien Planets” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 250-258 (in Chapter 8) of the Plenum Trade hardback edition.

9

1997

Harrison, Albert A in his “After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 187-188 (in Chapter 7), 304-305 (in Chapter 12) of the Plenum Trade hardback edition.

4

1992

Hart, Michael in “Extraterrestrials: Where are they?” (1982) (edited by Michael Hart and Ben Zuckerman) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 1-8 (in Chapter 1) of the Cambridge softcover second edition. (The relevant chapter is a reprint of Hart, Michael “An Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth”, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 16 (1975), pages 128-135).

8

1999

Hennessey, Roger in his “Worlds Without End : The Historic Search for Extraterrestrial Life” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 126-127, 133 (in Chapter 12) of the Tempus hardback edition.

3

1994

Horowitz, Paul in “Alien Discussions: Abduction Study Conference Held at M. I. T.” (1994) (edited by Andrea Pritchard et al.) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 425 (in Chapter 5, unnumbered sub-chapter entitled “Terrestrial Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”) of the North Cambridge Press hardback edition.

1

2002

Horowitz, Paul in “SETI 2020 : A Roadmap for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (2002) (edited by Elkers, Ronald D and Cullers, Kent D and Billingham, John and Scheffer, Louis K) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 373-374 (in Appendix J) of the SETI Press softcover edition.

2

1998

Jakosky, Bruce in his “The Search for Life on Other Planets” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 285-286 (in Chapter 17) of the Cambridge University softcover edition.

2

1997

Kanon, Gregory M in his “The Great UFO Hoax” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 1 (in Chapter 1) of the Galde Press softcover edition.

1

2000

Koerner, David & LeVay, Simon in their “Here Be Dragons” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 176-177, 181 (in Chapter 7), 212 (in Chapter 9) of the Oxford softcover edition.

4

1999

Kurland, Michael in his “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 233-236 (in Chapter 23) of the Alpha Books softcover edition.

4

2001

Lamb, David in his “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence : A Philosophical Inquiry” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 4 (in the Introduction), 157-181 (in Chapter 6) of the Routledge softcover edition.

26

1998

Lemonick, Michael in his “Other Worlds“ (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 243-244 (in Chapter 13) of the Simon & Schuster hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Simon & Schuster softcover edition).

2

2000

Leslie, John in “Many Worlds” (2000) (edited by Stephen J Dick) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 120, 122-123 (in Part 2, in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Intelligent Life in the Universe”) of the Templeton Foundation softcover edition.

3

1998

Mannion, Michael in his “Project Mindshift” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 148 (in Chapter 5) of the Evans hardback edition.

1

2001

McConnell, Brian in his “Beyond Contact : A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 63-68 (in Chapter 5) of the O’Reilly hardback edition.

6

1987

McDonough, Thomas R in his “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - Listening for Life in the Cosmos” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 191, 202-204 (in Chapter 15) of the Wiley softcover edition.

4

1988

Nicolson, Iain in his “The Road to the Stars” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 204-209 (in Chapter 11) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition.

6

1998

Parker, Barry in his “Alien Life” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 185 (in Chapter 11) of the Plenum Trade hardback edition.

1

1993

Phillips, Ken in “UFOs: The Final Answer?” (1993) (edited by David Barclay and Therese Marie Barclay) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 61-62 (in Chapter 3) of the Blandford softcover edition.

2

1999

Poundstone, William in his “Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 21-23 (in the chapter entitled “Chicago 1951-60”), 276-278 (in the chapter entitled “Los Angeles 1978-81”), 393 (in the Notes) of the Owl Books softcover edition.

7

1991

Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “Looking for the Aliens” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 201, 202-206 (in Chapter 22) of the Blandford softcover edition.

6

1985

Rescher, Nicholas in “Extraterrestrials: Science and alien intelligence” (1985) (edited by Edward Regis) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 96-102, 106-109 (in Part 4) of the Cambridge University Press softcover edition.

11

1983

Ridpath, Ian in his “Life Off Earth” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 96-97 (in Chapter 8) of the Granada hardback edition.

2

1978

Ridpath, Ian in his “Messages from the Stars” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 172-177 (in Chapter 11) of the Fontana paperback edition.

6

1980

Rood, Robert and Trefil, James in their “Are We Alone?“ (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 217-219 (in Chapter 14), 240-242 (in Chapter 16), 245-249 (in Chapter 17) of the Scribners hardback edition.

11

1975

Sagan, Carl in his “Other Worlds“ (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 16 of the Bantam paperback edition.

1

1973

Sagan, Carl in his “The Cosmic Connection” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 228, 232 (in Chapter 33) of the Double Day hardcover edition, with the same page numbering in the Coronet softcover edition.

2

1999

Shapiro, Robert in his “Planetary Dreams” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 251 (in Chapter 11) of the Wiley hardback edition.

1

1998

Shostak, Seth in his “Sharing the Universe” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 126-129 (in Chapter 6), 131, 137, 138 (in Chapter 7) of the Berkeley Hills softcover edition.

7

1982

Singer, Cliff in “Extraterrestrials: Where are they?” (1982) (edited by Michael Hart and Ben Zuckerman) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 70, 79 (in Chapter 9) of the Cambridge softcover second edition.

2

1980

Stephenson, David G in “The Quest For Extraterrestrial Life : A Book of Readings” (1980) (edited by Donald Goldsmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 246 (in Chapter 47) of the University Science Books hardback edition. The relevant chapter is a reprint of “Extraterrestrial Cultures within the Solar System?” in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 20, pages 422ff (1979).

1

1998

Swords, Michael D in Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 1:A-K at pages 370-371 (in an entry entitled “Extraterrestrial Hypthothesis and Science”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition.

2

1996

Swords, Michael in Jerome Clark’s “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 3 – High Strangeness” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 186-187 (in an entry entitled “Extraterrestrial Hypothesis and Science”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition.

2

1985

Tipler, Frank in “Extraterrestrials: Science and alien intelligence” (1985) (edited by Edward Regis) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 133-134 (in Part 4) of the Cambridge University Press softcover edition. The relevant chapter is a reprint of Frank Tipler’s article “Extraterrestrial Intelligent Beings do not Exist” (1980), Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 21, pages 267-281.

2

2004

Tonnies, Mac in his “After the Martian Apocalypse” (2004) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 196-197 (in Chapter 9) of the Paraview Pocket Books softcover edition.

2

1982

Von Hoerner, Sebastian in “Extraterrestrials: Where are they?” (1982) (edited by Michael Hart and Ben Zuckerman) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 29-33 (in Chapter 4) of the Cambridge softcover second edition.

5

2002

Webb, Stephen in his “Where is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox” (2002) generally, particularly at pages 1-274 of the Copernicus hardback edition. The “fifty solutions” are summarised in the chapter headings, available online at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0387955011/ref=pm_dp_ln_b_2/103-1697382-7631037?v=glance&s=books&vi=contents

274

1990

White, Frank in his “The SETI Factor” (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 28-34 (in Chapter 3), 96-100 (in Chapter 7) of the Walker hardback edition.

12

1998

White, Michael in his “Life Out There” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages x-xi (in the Introduction), 185-187 (in Chapter 10) of the Little, Brown & Co hardback edition.

5

1997

Wilkinson, David in his “Alone in the Universe?” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 75-76, 84 (in Chapter 5) of the Monarch softcover edition.

3

1999

Zubrin, Robert in his “Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 248, 258 (in Chapter 11) of the Tarcher Putnam hardback edition.

2

1982

Zuckerman, Ben in “Extraterrestrials: Where are they?” (1982) (edited by Michael Hart and Ben Zuckerman) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page ix (in the Preface to the Second Edition) of the Cambridge softcover second edition.

1

1982

Zuckerman, Ben in “Extraterrestrials: Where are they?” (1982) (edited by Michael Hart and Ben Zuckerman) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page xi (in the Preface to the First Edition) of the Cambridge softcover second edition.

1

Other Material

Please use the comments section below to share references to any particularly interesting relevant articles.