| CLASSROOM AND TIME: |
Welch Hall 3.502, 11 TTh |
| PROFESSOR: | John Scalo |
| OFFICE: | R.L. Moore 17.220 |
| PHONE: | 471-6446 (office), or 478-2748 (home) |
| E-MAIL: | parrot@astro.as.utexas.edu |
| OFFICE HOURS: | Will be announced in class. Meetings can also be arranged by appointment. However I urge you to feel free to call me at my home or office, or to talk to me after class (outside the classroom, if necessary); for short questions there is usually no need for you to walk all the way to my office. |
| TEACHING ASSISTANT: | Christine Pulliam |
| OFFICE: | R.L. Moore 16.307 |
| PHONE: | 471-7640 |
| E-MAIL: | pulliam@astro.as.utexas.edu |
| OFFICE HOURS: | to be announced |
READING:
Required books:
1. Evans, N., Extraterrestrial Life, 4th edition (1996)
2. Casti, J.L., Paradigms Lost (1989; we'll read part of this book)
An outline of the lectures and numerous articles that are required reading are available as a course packet at I.T. Copy, at the intersection of M.L. King Boulevard and Lavaca (next to Radio Shack).
GRADING:
There will be three exams, the percentage grades on which will determine 40, 30, and 30 percent of your final grade, with the 40% weight being given to your highest exam score. There will be no homework other than the assigned reading, nor will there be a final, comprehensive exam. The exam questions will be a combination of muliple choice and short answer-type, but mostly multiple choice. I will try to prepare you for the exams by occasionally giving sample questions during lectures, by trying to point out the types of information that will likely arise on exams, and by a review sheet handed out at least a couple of days before each exam.
I generally adjust the percentage scores on each exam (e.g.,
by adding a constant to each score) so that the average and/or
maximum scores are reasonable. Final grades are usually assigned
on the basis of A=90-100, B=80-89.9, etc., although I may make
some of these cutoffs a little lower (never higher) at the time
final grades are assigned.
DESCRIPTION:
This course is generally concerned with interdisciplinary issues surrounding the possibilities and implications of extraterrestrial life and intelligence. These issues include whether habitable planets around other stars are commonplace; how likely or unlikely life is elsewhere (based on theories about the origin of life on earth and on studies of artificial life); whether we should expect life to commonly evolve toward creatures possessing "intelligence," language, technology, "the urge to explore," etc. (and whether we actually understand these terms); speculations concerning the nature and lifetimes of alien civilizations; strategies for communication with extraterrestrials; interstellar travel; and the question of whether we have been visited by extraterrestrials. Please note from the outset that the course is highly interdisciplinary by nature, and that only a fraction of the material (maybe a quarter) is directly astronomical.
At one level, the subject of extraterrestrial life can be discussed in terms having to do with the physical and biological sciences. For example, the question of which stars are most likely to have planets bearing life will involve discussions of the origin of planetary systems, current searches for planets around other stars, and theories and evidence related to the origin of life on earth. Questions concerning how we should "listen" for alien signals involve consideration of light propagation, spectral lines [just barely: don't let this frighten you], and sources of interference. Whether or not you think creatures even remotely like us will develop elsewhere depends on your view of terrestrial biological evolution, so we will discuss current points of view on that subject. As we proceed into the course, the subject matter will gradually shift away from the physical sciences as we inquire into the nature of "intelligence", language, culture, cognition, and how they might differ (or not exist, or be replaced by alternative concepts) in extraterrestrial lifeforms. More importantly, we will be questioning the nature and construction of our own human consciousness, the possibility that it was significantly different in the past, that it may differ in other cultures, and that it may further change in the future. The possibility of machine intelligence and its future will also be reviewed critically. Finally, we will discuss the strategies that are being used, or might be used, to search for signals indicating the existence of extraterrestrials and the subject of direct evidence for extraterrestrials, in the form of UFO interpretations, abduction reports, and related phenomena, and speculations concerning the intervention of aliens in human history.
FORMAT:
Normally, an outline of each lecture, which you will already have in the course packet (although there will be occasional revisions), will be displayed using an overhead projector during class. The lectures will often fill in considerable detail, which you should take notes on, using the blank facing page of the course packet. I was reluctant to make these outlines available, since I have found, for this class, that this practice has the effect of encouraging an outline-level understanding of the material (which in many cases is equivalent to no understanding) and a corresponding decrease in test scores, although it is admittedly convenient for students who have to miss class occasionally. However, having the lecture outlines already printed for you has the huge advantage that you can actually listen (or something else) in class, rather than spend your class time madly copying what you can from the board or from transparencies. You will still need to take notes, but only to fill in the outline. My recommendation is to use the class outline notes as you see fit, but to remember that if you only have those notes on some particular lecture, you will very likely not understand much of anything about that topic. You'll just have to take my word on the fact that this way of "learning" the material has consistently led to truly disastrous exam scores in this class. The lectures will generally track the assigned readings (listed in the order you will read them below) in terms of topics, but will tend to present the material from a different perspective than the texts, and will include some ideas and subjects not in the texts. You are urged to keep up with the reading assignments that are relevant to the topic being discussed in class; otherwise, the lectures and/or the readings may seem somewhat difficult, or opaque, or incomprehensible, or something.
When studying the course material, I urge you to do more than simply read assignments, underline or highlight, review lecture notes, etc. Useful strategies for better understanding include paraphrasing, summarizing, quizzing yourself, and explaining the ideas to others. I will also suggest relevant review questions in class.
Besides readings and lectures, you may also be viewing about
three videos on various subjects (such as animal communication,
artificial intelligence, and UFOs). This audio-visual component
of the course is meant to enhance and clarify the readings and
lectures, besides whatever entertainment you find in them. It
should not be necessary to take notes, but try to pay close attention;
while I will not test you on any details of these videos,
I do expect you to know what the major points were. As you probably
know, parts of science-related films can be extremely slow and
boring, especially the interviews with scientists, but try to
view the videos as a way to get an overall feel for the subject;
e.g., what are the main problems and points of contention? Usually
the films help enormously with the readings.
READING ASSIGNMENTS:
The following list gives the subjects and reading assignments, in the order that we will discuss them. "E" and "C" stand for the books by Evans and Casti, respectively. "E14-23", for example, means: "Read the section in Evans' book that begins on p.14 and ends on p. 23." (Note that the number of words per page is large in Evans; i.e., 10 pages of reading in Evans might be equivalent to 20 or 30 pages in Casti's book.)
Make sure you have the new (4th) edition of Evans' book, or the pages listed below won't match those in your book.
SAVE THIS LIST OF READING ASSIGNMENTS AND BRING IT TO EACH CLASS
Read "Afterword," E152.