Some loved the idea of scouring the skies for other galactic civilizations, while others thought it the worst form of pseudoscience. In SETI’s defense, Otto Struve drafted an influential letter circulated among the upper echelons of the global astronomy community.In the letter, Struve emphasized that planets were probably common around other stars, and that, while the likelihood of life or intelligence emerging on any particular world was unknown, “an intrinsically improbable single event may become highly probable if the number of events is very great. . . . There is every reason to believe that the Ozma experiment will ultimately yield positive results when the accessible sample of solar-type stars is sufficiently large.” Humanity, he reasoned, could no longer consider itself alone and anonymous on the cosmic stage.Astronomy was at a turning point, Struve wrote. The Space Age had thrust the field into “a state of turbulence, uncertainty, and chaotic expansion unknown in the history of mankind,”
What do You think about Five Billion Years Of Solitude?
