First published 2015. Springer paperback, 2015, pp 434, c.140,000 words (main text).
The subtitle of this book is ‘Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life’; which just about encapsulates what it is all about. ‘Seventy-Five Solutions’ rather suggests a rather dull and dry academic exercise with a laundry list of answers to some obscure philosophical problem, However, Webb has a thoroughly engaging style and has organised his solutions into a well-structured order so that one naturally leads to the next. Aided by a little dry humour, this is a remarkably readable catalogue of possible answers to why humanity has so far failed to detect any signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, despite many decades of reasoned thought into how we might detect such life and many serious efforts to apply those ideas.
The question of the existence of intelligent aliens (or indeed of any extraterrestrial origin life) is of significant importance because its discovery would have a profound impact on how we consider ourselves and our place in the scheme of things. Such a discovery would have major repercussions on philosophy, religion, politics, and military planning as well as science.
Webb seems to have been considering this question for a long time, around 1985 according to a preface [p xi]. The first edition of this book was published in 2005 and contained fifty solutions, so seemingly he has come across many more since then. They vary from the fanciful, e.g. ‘They are here and call themselves Hungarians’, to the straight forward, e.g. ‘Conscience is not Inevitable’.
Webb is a serious scientist and he dismisses all the wacky claims of flying saucers, UFOs, crop-circles and the like. As he says: ‘Science is not a democratic process. Hypotheses are not proved right or wrong through a ballot. No matter how many people believe in the truth of a particular hypothesis, scientists will only accept the hypothesis (and then just provisionally) only if it explains facts with a minimum of assumptions, if it can withstand vigorous criticism, and if it does not run counter to what is already known.’ [p37].
Nearly all the solutions are easily understandable to a non-specialist. They encompass many fields including physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, and many more. One solution I found inaccessible at first reading, which seems to straddle philosophy and mathematics, concerns ‘the canonical artifact.’
Gradually Webb piles up all the unlikely story of life on Earth. How ‘lucky’ we have been! But, of course: we have had to have that luck, or we wouldn’t be around to contemplate the paradox.
Webb gives his tentative answer to the paradox at the end, and I couldn’t help but agree with him. I am also with Martin Reese in his foreword: ‘I won’t hold my breath, but the SETI programme is a worthwhile gamble – because success in the search would carry the momentous message that concepts of logic and physics (if not consciousness) aren’t limited to the hardware in human skulls’ [p viii].
The main text is followed by sixty-three pages of notes – what might have been usefully formatted as footnotes – twenty-one pages of references and a ten-page index. There are rather pointless quotations at the start of each Solution.
Webb’s writing style makes for easy and engaging reading. It could almost be a thriller or who-done-it: what ever is going to be proposed next? I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in one of the most profound questions related to our existence.
Wikipedia biography of Webb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Webb_(scientist)
Webb’s own website: https://www.stephenswebb.com/my-books.html
Others’ reviews of the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61833715-if-the-universe-is-teeming-with-aliens-where-is-everybody-second-ed?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=1G69vfy14g&rank=2
…and of the first edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/180506.If_the_Universe_Is_Teeming_with_Aliens_WHERE_IS_EVERYBODY_?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_18
© William John Graham, January 2024