Starstruck

by Harrison, Albert A.

• ISBN13: 9781845452865
• ISBN10: 1845452860
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-01
• Publisher: Berghahn Books

Summary

We live in an era of exploding scientific knowledge about the universe, and our place and future within it. Much of this new knowledge conflicts with earlier wisdom, and some has frightening implications. Cosmic evolution, space exploration, the search for extraterrestrial life, and concerns about humanity's future prompt us to seek new answers to old existential questions. Where did we come from? Why are we here? Are we alone? What will become of us? In our search for answers, we turn to science, religion, myth, and varying combinations thereof. Exploring an ambiguous region between recognized findings and unfettered imagination, Starstruck explores the multifaceted, far-reaching, and often contentious attempts of people with contrasting worldviews to develop convincing and satisfying interpretations of rapidly accumulating discoveries in physics, astronomy, and biology. Albert A. Harrisonis Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. He is co-author of Living Aloft, Human Requirements for Extended Spaceflight(1985), From Antarctica to Outer Space: Life in Isolation and Confinement(1991) and author of After Contact: the Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life(1997) and Spacefaring: The Human Dimension(2001). He was a member of the International Academy of Astronautics'SETI Committee, and of NASA's Space Human Factors Engineering Science and Technology Working Group.

Table of Contents

Thinking big	p. 1
Frontier science	p. 21
Eyes on the universe	p. 41
The extraterrestrial hypothesis	p. 59
Of gods and spacemen	p. 81
Visitor experiences	p. 103
Tricksters	p. 123
Matters of life and death	p. 143
Preposterous or prudent?	p. 165
Star wars	p. 185
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