Astronomy 309L -- Scalo
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Spring 1998

CLASSROOM AND TIME:	Welch Hall 3.502, TTh 12:30
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:	Roger Stanley
OFFICE:	RLM 16.310
PHONE:	471-3462
E-MAIL:	stanley@astro.as.utexas.edu
OFFICE HOURS:	TBA

READING:

Required books:
1. Evans, N., Extraterrestrial Life, 4th edition (1996)
2. Casti, J.L., Paradigms Lost (1989)

Four copies of Evans's book are on reserve at the Undergraduate Library.

An outline of the lectures and numerous short articles that are required reading are available as a course packet at IT Copy, at the intersection of M.L. King Boulevard and Lavaca (next to Radio Shack).

A detailed list of the reading assignments will be handed out separately.

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 completely muliple 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.

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. The possibility of machine intelligence and its future, and the numerous recent theories about the nature of consciousness, will also be reviewed critically.

Normally, an outline of each lecture, which you will already have in the course packet (with minor 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.

1. Adds/Drops before the 12th class day: During the first four class days, students may add and drop courses using TEX. During days 5-12, students may drop courses by phone, but must go to the department offering the course to seek permission to add a course.
2. Dropping a course during the open Q-drop period: After the end of the fourth week of class, and until the deadline for dropping a course, a student wishing to drop a course will ask the instructor to complete a drop form that assigns a Q or an F. The symbol Q indicates an average of C or better at the time of the drop, or that no grade has yet been assigned, or that no academic penalty is in order for documented non-academic reasons.
3. Deadline for dropping a course without penalty: This date is March 30, 1998. After this deadline, students are not allowed to drop or to withdraw from school for academic reasons. If there are compelling non-academic reasons to drop or withdraw, a written appeal must be presented to the Student Division of the Dean's Office.