Amazon.com
Whether or not you believe in life on other planets, the artist's renditions of creatures such as Cheelas, Mesklinites, and Radiates from SF novels, as well as mathematical "alien messages" to decipher, are a real treat. (Here's an easy one: "Aliens are waiting for humanity to replace the question mark with the next value in the sequence before they will consider us worthy for further communication: 77, 49, 36, 18, ?") He also raises interesting issues; for example, what form would art take for creatures sensitive to smells or heat rather than light? To top it off, Pickover includes examples of potential interplanetary humor taboos: "Don't make puns around Scolexes because it outrages their sense of linguistic symmetry, which they've fought holy wars over." SF fans will enjoy this entertaining and thought-provoking book. --C.B. Delaney --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Book Description
"Run, leap, scurry and scoot to your nearest bookstore and get [Pickover's] books." -Byte
"Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." -WIRED
"Pickover inspires a new generation of Da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." -Christian Science Monitor
If extraterrestrials ever landed on earth, they would find us extremely strange. Their first intimation of our existence might well be a presidential speech or the Olympic Games, a mud-wrestling match or Third Rock from the Sun.
What would aliens look like? An intelligent octopus-like creature is certainly plausible. What about odd numbers of limbs-a three-legged alien with three arms and three eyes? Could creatures live at extremely high pressures and temperatures? Would they have any interest in abducting us? Would they want to have sex with us?
In classic Pickover style, here is scientifically based speculation at the far edge of knowledge-and beyond.
