Extraterrestrial intelligence: the debate continues. The readers respond to Tipler

MAR 01, 1982

DOI: 10.1063/1.2914964

L. E. Preuss

F. P. Bolin

Frank D. Drake

John Bart Willburn

Henriette Nadj

John Nadj

Miroslav Nadj

Jonathan Katz

Eric M. Jones

Barham W. Smith

Charles A. Whitney

George Sai‐Halasz

N. L. Cohen

Gregory Benford

John Daugman

Michael Gerverl

We compliment PHYSICS TODAY for its stimulating guest comment in the April ‘81 issue by Frank J. Tipler (“Extraterrestrial beings do not exist,” April, page 9). As research physicists in specialties far removed from astrophysics and extraterrestrial biology, but intrigued by Carl Sagan’s (and others’) unquestioned assertion that numberless intelligent civilizations exist elsewhere in the universe, we have been struck by the paucity of critical response to this hypothesis. This lack being quite an uncharacteristic reaction by the scientific community to what is a controversial proposition. However, with Tipler’s counterpoint, it now appears that an opposite view is alive and well, PHYSICS TODAY and Tipler have provided the required first step for the scientific community’s consideration, and the usual and absolutely necessary polemics may now proceed.

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More about the authors

L. E. Preuss, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michiga.

F. P. Bolin, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michiga.

Frank D. Drake, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

John Bart Willburn, US Army Electronic Proving Ground, Ft. Huachuca, Arizona.

Henriette Nadj, Vista, California.

John Nadj, Vista, California.

Miroslav Nadj, Oceanside, California.

Jonathan Katz, University of California, Los Angeles.

Eric M. Jones, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Barham W. Smith, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Charles A. Whitney, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

George Sai‐Halasz, Mt. Kisco, New York.

N. L. Cohen, Boston, Massachusetts.

Gregory Benford, University of California, Irvine.

John Daugman, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Michael Gerverl, Plasma Fusion Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts.