"If weÕre ever suddenly confronted by evidence of alien intelligence, Paul Davies will be one of the first to know. Davies, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist at Arizona State University, is chairman of the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, a volunteer committee whose mission is to Òprepare, manage, advise and consult in preparation for the discovery of a putative signal of extraterrestrial intelligent (ETI) origin.Ó Never mind that the chance of humankind being contacted by aliens is remote, Òit makes sense to think through some of the implications should it happen,Ó he says. While the group is a think tank (it has no legal status and no authority to impose or enforce its recommendations), it has reflected on all manner of post-detection issues and made preparations to counsel all parties concerned.

Earlier this year I sat down with Davies in his office at the Beyond Center in Tempe, Arizona, to discuss the themes of his mind-bending new book ÒThe Eerie SilenceÓ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), in which he suggests reorienting and expanding the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). ÒTraditional SETI is stuck in a conceptual rut,Ó he maintains, and fails to account for the possibility that an alien species may not look, think, or behave like us. In part one of this Failure InterviewÑwhich coincides with SETIÕs 50th anniversary next monthÑDavies addressed issues like: What has SETI accomplished in its first 50 years? And have scientists been looking for ET Òin the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in the wrong way?Ó..."


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