Table of Contents

Where Are They?
        Fermi’s Provocative Question
        Maybe the Question is Moot
        Belief Systems and Conspiracies
        The Absence of Space Tourists
        Opening Pandora’s Box
Cosmic Coincidences
        Fine-Tuning in Nature
        Is Life Surprising?
        Enter the Multiverse
The Drake Equation
        Motivating the Search
        The Boy or Girl of Your Dreams
        The Optimists Weigh In
        Lost in Space
Potentially Living World
        Counting Stars with Planet Stuff
        Potentially Life-Bearing Rocks
Intelligence and Technology
        Defining Intelligence
        How We Got So Smart
        Is Intelligence Inevitable?
        The Aliens Among Us
        The Role of Technology
Timing is Everything
        The Doomsday Hypothesis
        Room at the Bottom
        The Number of Companions
Communicating in the Cosmos
        SETI Pioneers
        Beating the Odds
        Current Searches
        The Medium is the Message
Why Are We So Lonely?
        Our Post-Biological Future
        Super Civilizations
        Reality and Simulation
        At One With the Cosmos
        Companionship or Loneliness?
        The Search for Meaning