| Summary: | The Evolutionary Science of Extraterrestrial Life approaches the evolution of simple, complex and intelligent life forms and technological cultures, anywhere in the universe, from a perspective that is independent of any particular environment, whether that environment is the rocky surface of inner planets like Earth or Mars, the atmosphere of a giant gas planet like Jupiter, moons like our own, or Saturn's Titan, or a gaseous nebula.<p>A series of questions must here be asked. What could such a science tell us about simple life forms, about complex, about intelligent life forms and technological civilizations? What physical, social and psychological characteristics would an intelligent life form have irregardless of how or where it evolved? What are the choke points any environment must challenge and defeat if simple life forms are to evolve into complex forms or complex into intelligent forms? Once intelligent life evolves, how inevitable is its rise to technology? What lies beyond technology as genetic and cyborg frontiers are invaded?<p>Most approaches to these questions involve probabilities in the spirit of the Drake equation or get tangled in the specifics of Earthlike environments, the search for water or the specifics of human evolution. Evolutionary Science simply bypasses such discussions. It is a science one applies to an environment - any environment.<p>Evolutionary Science proposes a series of nine, fundamental scientific principles, based solidly on physics, biological evolution and a precise definition of intelligence. Four new Imperatives are proposed that not only discipline but revolutionize any approach to defining the psychological profile of intelligent life. Thebook concludes with the implications this new science has for a number of critical issues - the nature of Life, Artificial Intelligence, biochemistries, the potential for contact, a Galactic Society - and the God factor.
|
|---|
