E.T. Talk

Will it be possible to communicate with intelligent extraterrestrial life forms if we find them? How could we establish this communication, where would we begin? What does it mean to say that mathematics is a universal language? How could math be used to communicate with ETs? E.T. Talk summarizes the work of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and other search programs and considers the implications of, and concerns about, their possible success. Surely the next step after finding life elsewhere would be to try to communicate with it.

The author of E.T. Talk suggests concrete ways to approach this problem. This book, published in Spanish first, tells us what scientists currently know about the origin of life and its possible presence in the rest of the universe. It also describes the various methods used today to search for life in the universe. But the major focus of E.T. Talk is on communicating with ET and, using animals on Earth as an example, why we should feel encouraged that we will be able to do just that. The author even provides step by step instructions in a kind of language that could be used to converse with intelligent alien beings.

Foreword
Preface

Part I: With Whom? Finding Life in the Universe
Chapter 1: A Place for Life
Chapter 2: The Miracle of Life
Chapter 3: Life in the Solar System?

Part II: With What?: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Chapter 4: The Search Starts
Chapter 5: Where to Look
Chapter 6: The Searching Strategies

Part III: How?: The Language of Communication
Chapter 7: Different Languages
Chapter 8: Different World Views
Chapter 9: How Do We Know If There's a Message?
Chapter 10: Searching for a Common Language
Chapter 11: Is Anybody Out There?

Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Index