Extraterrestrial intelligence: the debate continues. the author comments

MAR 01, 1982

Frank J. Tipler

The above criticisms of my views can be divided into two classes: (1) those of a technical nature, and (2) those which deal with the sociology of possible extraterrestrial intelligent beings. Most of these criticisms I have discussed in the three Quarterly Journal articles of which the PHYSICS TODAY paper was but a précis. Here I will reply briefly to those criticisms that were answered in the Quarterly Journal; my critics are referred to those papers for more detail on the points in question.

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References

1. F. J. Tipler, Q. J. R. Astron. Soc. 21, 267 (1980).https://doi.org/QJRAAK
2. F. J. Tipler, Q. J. R. Astron. Soc. 22, 133 (1981).https://doi.org/QJRAAK
3. F. J. Tipler, Q. J. R. Astron. Soc. 22, 279 (1981).https://doi.org/QJRAAK
4. A. Bond et al., Project Daedulus, Special suppl. J. Br. Interplanet. Soc. (1978).
5. F. Dyson, Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 163, 347 (1969).https://doi.org/ANYAA9
6. J. L. Simon, The Ultimate Resource, Princeton U.P., Princeton, N.J. (1981).
7. J. L. Simon, The Economics of Population Growth, Princeton U.P., Princeton, N.J. (1977).
8. F. J. Tipler, Observatory (to be published).
9. G. F. R. Ellis, G. B. Brundrit, Q. J. R. Astron. Soc. 20, 37 (1979).https://doi.org/QJRAAK
10. J. von Neumann, Theory of Self‐Reproducing Automata, edited and completed by A. W. Burks (Illinois U.P., Urbana, Ill. (1966).
11. A. Turing, reprinted in The World of Mathematics, J. R. Newman, Simon and Schuster, New York (1956); Volume 4, page 2099.
12. E. Mayr, Populations, Species, and Evolution (Harvard U.P., Cambridge, Mass. (1970).
13. I. S. Shklovskii, C. Sagan, Intelligent Life in the Universe, Dell, New York (1966).
14. F. A. Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order, Chicago U.P., Chicago (1948) page 222;
F. A. Hayek, The Pure Theory of Capital, Chicago U.P. (1935), page 47;
L. M. Lachmann, Capital and Its Structure, London School of Economics, London, (1956) (I am grateful to Professor Hayek for this reference).
15. P. A. Samuelson, Economics, sixth edition, McGraw‐Hill, New York (1964).
16. Drake is quoted by T. Ferris in The New York Times Magazine, 23 October 1977, page 30. I am grateful to L. Ornstein for this reference.
17. F. A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society” reprinted in Individualism and Economic Order, reference 14.
18. T. Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions, Basic, New York (1980).
19. H. G. Alexander, The Leibniz‐Clarke Correspondence (Manchester U.P., Manchester (1956);
A. R. Hall, Philosophers at War: The Quarrel between Newton and Leibniz, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge (1980).
20. C. Sagan, in Scientists Confront Velikovsky, D. Goldsmith, ed., Cornell U.P., Ithaca, N.Y. (1977), page 43;
reprinted in C. Sagan, Broca’s Brain, Random House, New York, 1979), page 81.

More about the authors

Frank J. Tipler, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.