Are We Alone? Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life.

Are We Alone? Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life by Paul Davies (1995), offers three alternative positions on the issue of life in our universe: (1) it is miraculous, which supports the notion that we are alone; (2) it is virtually impossible, which allows the possibility we are alone; or (3) it is perfectly "natural," which essentially guarantees we have company. Each carries a further implication: (1) there is (or was) a creator God; (2) we are the custodians of all the life there is in the universe; and (3) the universe is teeming with life, but since the universe is so large, the density of life is so low that we haven't found any life beyond the earth. Davies opts for the third (3).

Davies's concern is for "the philosophical assumptions that underlie belief in, and the search for, life beyond the Earth, and the impact that the discovery of alien life forms would imply for our science, religion and beliefs about mankind [sic]" (xi-xii). Most of the explicitly religious and theological reflections occur in his discussion of the "miraculous" (position 1 above, which he rejects). While he does review authors on both sides of the "multiple incarnations" issue, his book is oddly devoid of philosophical argument. Furthermore, extraterrestrial life is an enormously broad category that includes everything from a simple fungus to a human being. Davies, however, claims (36-37) that the discovery of any form of life would imply the existence of all forms.

Davies's chapter, "The Nature of Consciousness," is both well written and well argued. It provides the basis for his most important thesis:

One of the depressing things about the last three hundred years of science is the way it has tended to marginalize, even trivialize, human beings and thus alienate them from the universe in which they live. I think we do have a place in the universe-not a central place but a significant place nevertheless.... If this view is correct, if consciousness is a basic phenomenon that is part of the natural outworking of the laws of the universe, then we can expect it to have emerged elsewhere. (128)

Here Davies provides an alternative to conventional positions which hold either or both of the following: that consciousness is not a basic phenomenon that is part of the natural outworking of the laws of the universe or that even if it is a natural outworking, we cannot expect it to have emerged elsewhere.

We agree, on the basis of current evidence, that we don't know if extraterrestrial intelligence has emerged elsewhere. But we can say more than that. We can say that, given what we do know about the universe and the status of the longevity of planet Earth, it is highly probable that consciousness will emerge elsewhere. Indeed, we think a case can be made that consciousness must emerge or migrate elsewhere if the human species is to survive.

MARY GERHART and ALLAN MELVILLE RUSSELL