July 28, 2009
Week 9: The 20th Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate
Topics covered: Canals on Mars; Alien Beings in Literature; UFOs and the “Extraterrestrial Hypothesis;” The Physical Universe, the Biological Universe, and Cosmic Evolution
Synopsis: Week 9 presents several developments contributing to, and reinforcing the idea of, an evolving universe teeming with life – a view widely accepted today by the public at large though proof of life beyond Earth has yet to be discovered. These include the Mars canal controversy, principally involving the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835-1910) and orientalist Percival Lowell (1855-1916); the creation of alien beings in literature by Kurd Lasswitz (1848-1910), Jules Verne (1828-1905), and H.G. Wells (1866-1946), which later influenced film; and the hypothesis that extraterrestrials are behind more than six decades of UFO sightings. The importance of Lasswitz, Verne, Wells, and the “extraterrestrial hypothesis” are discussed from the perspective of Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian and author of The Biological Universe: The Twentieth Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science (1996). Like Crowe, Dick is an internationally known scholar of the debate. Concluding remarks will address the two world views resulting from cosmic evolution: that the process “commonly ends in planets, stars, and galaxies, or that it commonly ends in life, mind, and intelligence.” Assigned readings: “ Extraterrestrial Life and Our World View at the Turn of the Millennium” (Dick 2000:1-45); Chapter 14, “The Controversy Over the Canals of Mars” (Crowe 2008:470-492). Crowe’s text includes primary source excerpts from these works: Giovanni Schiaparelli, “The Planet Mars,” trans. W. H. Pickering, Astronomy and Astrophysics 13 (1894). Percival Lowell, Mars (Boston and New York: Houhton Mifflin, 1895).
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