Two days after the United States announced its intention to launch an artificial satellite, on July 31, 1956, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people all over the world. According to Carl L. Devito’s Science, SETI, and Mathematics, we have come a long way since then. Following is the author’s reflection on his volume.

 

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Mathematics is as much a part of our humanity as music and art.

And it is our mathematics that might be understandable, even familiar, to a distant race and might provide the basis for mutual communication. This book discusses, in a conversational way, the role of mathematics in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The author explores the science behind that search, its history, and the many questions associated with it, including those regarding the nature of language and the philosophical/psychological motivation behind this search.

 

This is a book about humanity’s responses to the “great silence”—the fact that no sign of intelligent life beyond earth has yet been found. The history of these responses, the science on which some of them are based, and the relevant mathematics are all discussed in a relaxed, conversational way. No prior knowledge of science or mathematics is assumed. The book is peppered with interesting stories, the scientific explanations are clear, and the text is organized so that the mathematics, which is given in a series of “remarks,” can be skipped without any loss of continuity.

 

Among the many responses to the great silence perhaps the best known is the scientific search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, or SETI.

 

Since this subject literally exploded into being around 1959 a great deal of the work done in the area was carried out by physical scientists. As the subject became better known, however, and the depth of the questions that it leads to became better understood, the field attracted scholars from a remarkably wide variety of disciplines; e.g., philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists, archaeologists and even artists and religious scholars.

 

These scholars bring valuable insight into the many problems posed by SETI. One of the purposes of the book is to provide an introduction to the work already done in this area, and to discuss the physical science on which this work is based, to those new to the field. Since the book is intended for a very wide audience, an audience of people with very diverse backgrounds, the material is presented in a conversational way, avoiding technical jargon and mathematical symbolism.

 

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Carl L. DeVito is a member of the emeritus faculty at the University of Arizona. He has been active in SETI for many years and is the co-author of one of the most widely quoted languages for possible extra-terrestrial communication based on plausibly universal scientific facts. His other scientific work has been in pure and applied mathematics and includes three books: Harmonic Analysis- A gentle introduction (2006), Functional Analysis (1978), and Functional Analysis and Linear Operator Theory (1990).