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Imagined Life: A Speculative Scientific Journey among the Exoplanets in Search of Intelligent Aliens, Ice Creatures, and Supergravity Animals
The captivating possibilities of extraterrestrial life on exoplanets, based on current scientific knowledge of existing worlds and forms of life
It is now known that we live in a galaxy with more planets than stars. The Milky Way alone encompasses 30 trillion potential home planets. Scientists Trefil and Summers bring readers on a marvelous experimental voyage through the possibilities of life--unlike anything we have experienced so far--that could exist on planets outside our own solar system.
Life could be out there in many forms: on frozen worlds, living in liquid oceans beneath ice and communicating (and even battling) with bubbles; on super-dense planets, where they would have evolved body types capable of dealing with extreme gravity; on tidally locked planets with one side turned eternally toward a star; and even on "rogue worlds," which have no star at all. Yet this is no fictional flight of fancy: the authors take what we know about exoplanets and life on our own world and use that data to hypothesize about how, where, and which sorts of life might develop. Imagined Life is a must-have for anyone wanting to learn how the realities of our universe may turn out to be far stranger than fiction.
It is now known that we live in a galaxy with more planets than stars. The Milky Way alone encompasses 30 trillion potential home planets. Scientists Trefil and Summers bring readers on a marvelous experimental voyage through the possibilities of life--unlike anything we have experienced so far--that could exist on planets outside our own solar system.
Life could be out there in many forms: on frozen worlds, living in liquid oceans beneath ice and communicating (and even battling) with bubbles; on super-dense planets, where they would have evolved body types capable of dealing with extreme gravity; on tidally locked planets with one side turned eternally toward a star; and even on "rogue worlds," which have no star at all. Yet this is no fictional flight of fancy: the authors take what we know about exoplanets and life on our own world and use that data to hypothesize about how, where, and which sorts of life might develop. Imagined Life is a must-have for anyone wanting to learn how the realities of our universe may turn out to be far stranger than fiction.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published September 17, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
December 8, 2019
UK’s Alien Worlds is still one of my favourite documentaries. Speculation based on science in general is something that I’ve always found fascinating. So It’s no surprise that Imagined Life jumped high on the list of my priorities the moment it was released.
Just like the aforementioned programme, this book is a greatly entertaining and informative tour around the universe in search of life. The book starts off with solid base in physics, chemistry, and biology laws to explain the more outlandish ideas explored in the rest of the text, so you don’t have have to have a doctorate in astrobiology to get a good grasp on the material. Lots of good bits to think about on your own. Prepare to actively use your imagination to follow the narrative.
Just like the aforementioned programme, this book is a greatly entertaining and informative tour around the universe in search of life. The book starts off with solid base in physics, chemistry, and biology laws to explain the more outlandish ideas explored in the rest of the text, so you don’t have have to have a doctorate in astrobiology to get a good grasp on the material. Lots of good bits to think about on your own. Prepare to actively use your imagination to follow the narrative.
July 25, 2022
Dla mnie 3,5, ale podciągam pod 4, bo tematycznie to coś nowego wśród kosmicznych książek dla mnie. 3,5 dlatego, że to jednak wciąż popularnonaukowa książka, ma w sobie niewiele z fantastyki, dlatego trzeba się mocno skupić przy lekturze, kiedy autorzy wyjaśniają różne chemiczne i fizyczne zagadnienia. Bardzo często odpływały mi wtedy myśli, bo to jednak było dla mnie zbyt skomplikowane.
September 4, 2020
Kind of disappointed in this one, but that's more on me than the authors. Both are professors of astronomy and physics, not xenobiologists - but still, where are the aliens?
The book focuses on the types of potentially habitable planets out there (a more narrow focus than their earlier, better book Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life beyond Our Solar System), and then how life could potentially evolve there and what type of technology it might develop. So for example, on a planet tidally locked to its star - i.e., same side always facing the star, like the moon faces earth - you'd have a narrow habitable "halo" circling the planet where the sunlit side met the dark side. You'd also have very strong, hot, high-altitude winds blowing from hot to cold side, and very strong surface winds blowing back from cold to hot; and so you'd have creatures that were low to the ground with stronger skeletons or exoskeletons, and technology based on wind power. And that's about it.
Most of the book discusses "life like us," i.e., carbon-based lifeforms. There is then an all-too-brief chapter on "life not like us" - based on silicon, say, or evolving in a liquid other than water, (neither of which the authors believe in, BTW). And then there's a final chapter on "life really not like us," which covers non-organic life (metal- or mineral-based), and artificial intelligent life (either self-evolving or man-made).
So some interesting premises here, but kind of a slog and just none of the way-cool hypothetical alien nonsense I was hoping for.
Final conclusion, for those few people who read my description of the authors' earlier book: Stormy ultimately never pays for the pizza.
The book focuses on the types of potentially habitable planets out there (a more narrow focus than their earlier, better book Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life beyond Our Solar System), and then how life could potentially evolve there and what type of technology it might develop. So for example, on a planet tidally locked to its star - i.e., same side always facing the star, like the moon faces earth - you'd have a narrow habitable "halo" circling the planet where the sunlit side met the dark side. You'd also have very strong, hot, high-altitude winds blowing from hot to cold side, and very strong surface winds blowing back from cold to hot; and so you'd have creatures that were low to the ground with stronger skeletons or exoskeletons, and technology based on wind power. And that's about it.
Most of the book discusses "life like us," i.e., carbon-based lifeforms. There is then an all-too-brief chapter on "life not like us" - based on silicon, say, or evolving in a liquid other than water, (neither of which the authors believe in, BTW). And then there's a final chapter on "life really not like us," which covers non-organic life (metal- or mineral-based), and artificial intelligent life (either self-evolving or man-made).
So some interesting premises here, but kind of a slog and just none of the way-cool hypothetical alien nonsense I was hoping for.
Final conclusion, for those few people who read my description of the authors' earlier book: Stormy ultimately never pays for the pizza.
November 28, 2023
The possibilities of life explained
Authors James Terfill and Michael Summers guide us through a fascinating exploration of how, where, and what forms life might take in the vast expanse of the universe. From waterworlds to tidally locked planets, ice worlds, and even rogue planets — wandering the universe without a sun to orbit. Each scenario unfolds with details on the emergence of how life could have formed, how it will look like and whether these creatures could develop interplanetary space travel.
There are a few complex scientific concepts, such as the possibility of life being carbon or silicon-based, but in general the narrative maintains an accessible tone. The scenarios painted by the authors are immensely helpful in understanding the mysteries of how life could have been formed on these peculiar planets.
The introduction sets the stage by emphasizing the sheer abundance of stars and, by extension, the multitude of planets orbiting them. Ecery conceivable scenario, including life on Earth, could and should have been formed mulitple times in the universe. However, for me it was hard to understand how beings that evolved under an ice cap or on a high-gravity planet, could develop the capability for space travel. Perhaps life is abundant, but intelligent life capable of space travel is not - an intriguing notion that might offer insights into the Fermi paradox.
But these reflections are personal musings inspired by the thought-provoking content of the book, underscoring its exceptional writing and the clarity with which it explores the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. It significantly expanded my understanding and perspectives, making it a highly recommended read for anyone with an interest in astronomy.
Authors James Terfill and Michael Summers guide us through a fascinating exploration of how, where, and what forms life might take in the vast expanse of the universe. From waterworlds to tidally locked planets, ice worlds, and even rogue planets — wandering the universe without a sun to orbit. Each scenario unfolds with details on the emergence of how life could have formed, how it will look like and whether these creatures could develop interplanetary space travel.
There are a few complex scientific concepts, such as the possibility of life being carbon or silicon-based, but in general the narrative maintains an accessible tone. The scenarios painted by the authors are immensely helpful in understanding the mysteries of how life could have been formed on these peculiar planets.
The introduction sets the stage by emphasizing the sheer abundance of stars and, by extension, the multitude of planets orbiting them. Ecery conceivable scenario, including life on Earth, could and should have been formed mulitple times in the universe. However, for me it was hard to understand how beings that evolved under an ice cap or on a high-gravity planet, could develop the capability for space travel. Perhaps life is abundant, but intelligent life capable of space travel is not - an intriguing notion that might offer insights into the Fermi paradox.
But these reflections are personal musings inspired by the thought-provoking content of the book, underscoring its exceptional writing and the clarity with which it explores the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. It significantly expanded my understanding and perspectives, making it a highly recommended read for anyone with an interest in astronomy.
February 3, 2020
Off to a weak start (for me). The science is at (pretty much) YA-level, and there's a lot of repetition between topics (water world, Europa analog, etc). On the plus side, lots of good info if you are at YA level on planetary/exoplanet science. And the (purely decorative) illustrations are nicely done. I haven't quite given up.... (yet).
Well, I did give up. DNF, not recommended.
August 18, 2022
Fascinating predictions for what might be discovered and how life might take shape on exoplanets, particularly the Trappist system 40 light years away.
June 9, 2021
This one was a bit disappointing. The authors approach the subject rather lightly, and it's clear this is an introductory book on astrobiology for less advanced readers, which is one thing, but doesn't excuse a few pervasive misrepresentations of developmental processes when they do go on to imagine life.
In particular, they repeatedly describe hypothetical worlds developing advanced intelligent organisms under ecological conditions that would likely preclude the production of sufficient oxygen to support such energy-demanding lifeforms. Oxygen itself is rarely discussed, and generally only in passing, completely failing to address its very likely critical importance to life approaching that of carbon and water. The authors go on to suggest through how they present their examples that intelligence will quite naturally develop technologically, to the point that they frequently imagine multiple technological species evolving and developing within the same system or even on the same planet essentially simultaneously, without any reference to why such a scenario is unlikely (for why, look up "Apes and Angels".) Another glaring oversight that particularly bothered me, especially given their apparent specializations in planetary sciences, was their failure to consider the impact of variations in the characteristics of a tidally locked world's atmosphere on its overall temperature distribution, or likewise the possible atmospheric conditions of superearth waterworlds.
Imagined Life stands out from other popsci books on astrobiology in that it actively considers a variety of conditions as they might occur on worlds different from earth. What they don't do much of is imagine the life that could evolve on those planets, short of speculating that it could evolve at all, what senses it might use, that organisms will be stocky on high-G worlds (what book doesn't mention that?) and clumsily taking for granted that it might develop into a technological civilization.
In the end, some aspects of the exoplanetology related are interesting, and the authors make some salient points here and there, but if what you're interested in is the subject suggested by the title itself, you'll be disappointed.
Oh, and one last gripe, at the end of every chapter about a hypothetical world, they end with a little skit imagining themselves as aliens from the world in question discussing their species' astronomers reporting the discovery of planets like our own, prompting Alien Jim and Alien Mike to smugly declare why life or intelligence or energy technology could only ever evolve on worlds like their own. It's trite and shallow and annoying as hell and just thinking about it I'm considering dropping another star off my review.
In particular, they repeatedly describe hypothetical worlds developing advanced intelligent organisms under ecological conditions that would likely preclude the production of sufficient oxygen to support such energy-demanding lifeforms. Oxygen itself is rarely discussed, and generally only in passing, completely failing to address its very likely critical importance to life approaching that of carbon and water. The authors go on to suggest through how they present their examples that intelligence will quite naturally develop technologically, to the point that they frequently imagine multiple technological species evolving and developing within the same system or even on the same planet essentially simultaneously, without any reference to why such a scenario is unlikely (for why, look up "Apes and Angels".) Another glaring oversight that particularly bothered me, especially given their apparent specializations in planetary sciences, was their failure to consider the impact of variations in the characteristics of a tidally locked world's atmosphere on its overall temperature distribution, or likewise the possible atmospheric conditions of superearth waterworlds.
Imagined Life stands out from other popsci books on astrobiology in that it actively considers a variety of conditions as they might occur on worlds different from earth. What they don't do much of is imagine the life that could evolve on those planets, short of speculating that it could evolve at all, what senses it might use, that organisms will be stocky on high-G worlds (what book doesn't mention that?) and clumsily taking for granted that it might develop into a technological civilization.
In the end, some aspects of the exoplanetology related are interesting, and the authors make some salient points here and there, but if what you're interested in is the subject suggested by the title itself, you'll be disappointed.
Oh, and one last gripe, at the end of every chapter about a hypothetical world, they end with a little skit imagining themselves as aliens from the world in question discussing their species' astronomers reporting the discovery of planets like our own, prompting Alien Jim and Alien Mike to smugly declare why life or intelligence or energy technology could only ever evolve on worlds like their own. It's trite and shallow and annoying as hell and just thinking about it I'm considering dropping another star off my review.
August 21, 2023
Bardzo ciekawy koncept na książkę. Jestem naprawdę miło zaskoczona.
Dla tych co się obawiają - na początku dostajemy wiedzę w pigułce głównie z fizyki, ale tez chemii i biologii, która umożliwia spokojne zrozumienie treści. Pozwala to odnaleźć się na każdej z planet przedstawionych przez autorów i pojąć, jak życie mogłoby na nich powstać.
Doceniam przemyślane ułożenie podrozdziałów, który ułatwia czytanie.
Niestety minusem są częste powtórzenia informacji na początku nowych rozdziałów.
I jeśli mam być całkowicie szczera - najbardziej podobały mi się trzy ostatnie rozdziały, które nie były aż tak mocno związane z tematem książki (ale dalej bardzo spójne!).
Dla tych co się obawiają - na początku dostajemy wiedzę w pigułce głównie z fizyki, ale tez chemii i biologii, która umożliwia spokojne zrozumienie treści. Pozwala to odnaleźć się na każdej z planet przedstawionych przez autorów i pojąć, jak życie mogłoby na nich powstać.
Doceniam przemyślane ułożenie podrozdziałów, który ułatwia czytanie.
Niestety minusem są częste powtórzenia informacji na początku nowych rozdziałów.
I jeśli mam być całkowicie szczera - najbardziej podobały mi się trzy ostatnie rozdziały, które nie były aż tak mocno związane z tematem książki (ale dalej bardzo spójne!).
October 22, 2019
Repetitive
It is hard to make et life boring, and this book isn't quite that bad. But there's only about half a book of content, which means lots of filler and repetition.
It is hard to make et life boring, and this book isn't quite that bad. But there's only about half a book of content, which means lots of filler and repetition.
August 7, 2020
Imagined Life by James Trefil & Michael Summers has the extended title of A Speculative Scientific Journey Among the Exoplanets in Search of Intelligent Aliens, Ice Creatures and Supergravity Animals
Let me start with my interest in buying this book. I’m a big science fiction fan but also a fan of the science community, in particular astronomy. I love hearing the discoveries of those who are doing the wonderful work of discovering extrasolar planets, those planets around stars other than our own sun, Sol.
I do have an imagination that will run wild, wondering what could be out there. While I don’t mind letting my thoughts off leash, I appreciate the bounds that our physical laws corral us into. While many things are possible, I also appreciate pondering the more probable. That too can be exciting because “it really could be!”
The authors are professors of physics and astronomy, and start by reviewing some laws of science they will hold themselves to. It creates a nice foundation to build their speculation upon.
Then the fun begins, where could life form? In oceans beneath an ice-covered world, ocean spanning worlds with no land, planets tidally locked to their stars, planets around dim red stars? If life did arise there, what would it need to survive? If intelligent, what challenges would it face?
They are willing to get a little playful in their musings of the cultures that could arise in those species. Would a civilization trapped under ice and never seeing the stars in the sky come up with astronomy? Or would their view of the universe be, it’s ice all the way up.
Near the end of the book they loosen their restrictions even more to go from the probable to what could be possible. They don’t quite break the rules of redefining life, but they are willing to admit that maybe there are things we don’t understand enough that would allow silicon-based life for example, or planets with organisms that cover the globe to create one large planetary spanning creature. It’s all very fun to play with in our mind’s eye and the authors do a great job setting the stage.
I really enjoyed this book. The explanations are clear, and the ideas sound so realistic that at times I could see these worlds in my mind, out there waiting for us to discover them.
If the topic interests you, this book is a great example that stepping away from science fiction to the world of science doesn’t mean we can’t let our minds be awed with the possibilities of the incredible nature of our universe. Let this book take you there.
Let me start with my interest in buying this book. I’m a big science fiction fan but also a fan of the science community, in particular astronomy. I love hearing the discoveries of those who are doing the wonderful work of discovering extrasolar planets, those planets around stars other than our own sun, Sol.
I do have an imagination that will run wild, wondering what could be out there. While I don’t mind letting my thoughts off leash, I appreciate the bounds that our physical laws corral us into. While many things are possible, I also appreciate pondering the more probable. That too can be exciting because “it really could be!”
The authors are professors of physics and astronomy, and start by reviewing some laws of science they will hold themselves to. It creates a nice foundation to build their speculation upon.
Then the fun begins, where could life form? In oceans beneath an ice-covered world, ocean spanning worlds with no land, planets tidally locked to their stars, planets around dim red stars? If life did arise there, what would it need to survive? If intelligent, what challenges would it face?
They are willing to get a little playful in their musings of the cultures that could arise in those species. Would a civilization trapped under ice and never seeing the stars in the sky come up with astronomy? Or would their view of the universe be, it’s ice all the way up.
Near the end of the book they loosen their restrictions even more to go from the probable to what could be possible. They don’t quite break the rules of redefining life, but they are willing to admit that maybe there are things we don’t understand enough that would allow silicon-based life for example, or planets with organisms that cover the globe to create one large planetary spanning creature. It’s all very fun to play with in our mind’s eye and the authors do a great job setting the stage.
I really enjoyed this book. The explanations are clear, and the ideas sound so realistic that at times I could see these worlds in my mind, out there waiting for us to discover them.
If the topic interests you, this book is a great example that stepping away from science fiction to the world of science doesn’t mean we can’t let our minds be awed with the possibilities of the incredible nature of our universe. Let this book take you there.
February 3, 2022
Some of the science went over my head but ultimately a really interesting book. It's really great for people who are interested in book space and biology since the authors explain a lot of Earth's biology and evolution to prediction how life might form on different exoplanets
May 5, 2023
One of a kind for sure. The book categorically goes through different possible worlds out there and how life would evolve on those if it ever did. While I enjoyed the speculation and imagination, I did find myself craving for a deeper analysis. A good read for everyone and a must for extraterrestrial life lovers.
January 5, 2021
Bardzo przyjemne i serdecznie polecam, szczególnie fanom Pale Blue Dot C. Sagana.
February 29, 2020
This is a little wacky, but entertaining and thought-provoking.
I have a poster in my house from a science fiction magazine in the 1940s, depicting an imaginary scene on Pluto. The text reads, “This world of cold and eternal twilight would most likely be inhabited by winged bat-people with heavy protecting fur.”
Of course, the science in this book is updated, and Trefil and Summers talk like scientists, not poster-writers, but some passages in the book sound just a little bit like that poster. The tone of course is intentionally speculative, even a little light-hearted, but I wouldn’t want a naive reader to get the impression that the universe must be overflowing with intelligent, technological species on one exoplanet after another, whether they are ice worlds, super-Earths, rogue planets, or any of the other types of planets that the authors discuss.
The plan of the book is pretty straightforward. The first few chapters concern the ground rules of speculation — the laws of nature and biology, primarily. Then the authors take us through the relevant categories of exoplanets: solidly frozen planets (christened Iceheim), planets with frozen surfaces over liquid oceans (Nova Europa), water planets (Neptunia), Earth-like planets (Goldilocks), planets in tidally locked orbits around their stars (Halo), rogue planets that orbit no central star (Lonesome), and super-Earths (Big Boy).
For each, the authors describe the planet's likely environmental conditions, how life might get started, what life might be like there, and what sort of technology development might take place. Each chapter in the book ends with a short, imaginary dialogue between “Mike and Jim,” inhabitants of the type of planet being discussed (and analogs to the authors), which kind of nicely demonstrates the Earth-chauvinism of some skeptics about extraterrestrial life and intelligence — “Mike and Jim” typically conclude that their own type of planet is the only one on which intelligent life could develop.
The discussions are quick and make fantastic leaps, e.g., that where microbial, single-celled life emerges, it will develop into multi-cellular, more complex life, or that the kinds of reasoning and motivations that drive technological development on Earth will also be at work to drive analogous technological development where intelligence emerges elsewhere. And that’s fine, so long as we keep in mind that the discussion is propelled by leaps of imagination and unbounded optimism about the evolution of intelligent, technological life. It’s a bit fanciful.
If you want more sober (and scientifically tight) but still speculative discussions of some of the same topics, have a look at The Astrobiological Landscape (Milan Cirkovic) or Aliens: The World’s Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (Jim Al-Khalili (ed.)).
After this kind of tour through categories of exoplanets, the authors zero in for specific, although brief, looks at some particular exoplanets — those in the TRAPPIST-1 system and some others chosen as instantiations of the types discussed previously. Some of these exoplanets have been discussed often in news and speculative discussions elsewhere, so it is nice to be able to relate them back into the authors’ own context.
Finally they go on to a couple of even more speculative discussions. First is “life not like us” — e.g., life based on silicon in place of carbon or another liquid medium in place of water. And then “life that is really not like us” — e.g., life based on electric currents and magnetic fields, or artificial life (robotic life, in some sense of “robot”).
These discussions are also very brief and sketchy, but they do serve to emphasize the importance of letting our imaginations roam freely. The authors, if they make no other point in the book, take great pains to make this one point — that we cannot limit our thinking by the one example we have of life and intelligent life, ourselves. What we find out there may be truly alien — something even beyond the bounds of the kind of liberated imagination they practice here.
All in all, I’ll have to admit that the fanciful tone of the book didn’t really hit my sweet spot. I’m not objecting to speculation — in fact, the books I mentioned above are highly speculative, just a bit more chastened by some of the problems and open questions that plague the topic.
This book is fun, it’s even a breezy read. Just don’t take it for anything other that what it is -- kind of like a stretching routine for people who want to think about the possibilities of extraterrestrial life.
I have a poster in my house from a science fiction magazine in the 1940s, depicting an imaginary scene on Pluto. The text reads, “This world of cold and eternal twilight would most likely be inhabited by winged bat-people with heavy protecting fur.”
Of course, the science in this book is updated, and Trefil and Summers talk like scientists, not poster-writers, but some passages in the book sound just a little bit like that poster. The tone of course is intentionally speculative, even a little light-hearted, but I wouldn’t want a naive reader to get the impression that the universe must be overflowing with intelligent, technological species on one exoplanet after another, whether they are ice worlds, super-Earths, rogue planets, or any of the other types of planets that the authors discuss.
The plan of the book is pretty straightforward. The first few chapters concern the ground rules of speculation — the laws of nature and biology, primarily. Then the authors take us through the relevant categories of exoplanets: solidly frozen planets (christened Iceheim), planets with frozen surfaces over liquid oceans (Nova Europa), water planets (Neptunia), Earth-like planets (Goldilocks), planets in tidally locked orbits around their stars (Halo), rogue planets that orbit no central star (Lonesome), and super-Earths (Big Boy).
For each, the authors describe the planet's likely environmental conditions, how life might get started, what life might be like there, and what sort of technology development might take place. Each chapter in the book ends with a short, imaginary dialogue between “Mike and Jim,” inhabitants of the type of planet being discussed (and analogs to the authors), which kind of nicely demonstrates the Earth-chauvinism of some skeptics about extraterrestrial life and intelligence — “Mike and Jim” typically conclude that their own type of planet is the only one on which intelligent life could develop.
The discussions are quick and make fantastic leaps, e.g., that where microbial, single-celled life emerges, it will develop into multi-cellular, more complex life, or that the kinds of reasoning and motivations that drive technological development on Earth will also be at work to drive analogous technological development where intelligence emerges elsewhere. And that’s fine, so long as we keep in mind that the discussion is propelled by leaps of imagination and unbounded optimism about the evolution of intelligent, technological life. It’s a bit fanciful.
If you want more sober (and scientifically tight) but still speculative discussions of some of the same topics, have a look at The Astrobiological Landscape (Milan Cirkovic) or Aliens: The World’s Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (Jim Al-Khalili (ed.)).
After this kind of tour through categories of exoplanets, the authors zero in for specific, although brief, looks at some particular exoplanets — those in the TRAPPIST-1 system and some others chosen as instantiations of the types discussed previously. Some of these exoplanets have been discussed often in news and speculative discussions elsewhere, so it is nice to be able to relate them back into the authors’ own context.
Finally they go on to a couple of even more speculative discussions. First is “life not like us” — e.g., life based on silicon in place of carbon or another liquid medium in place of water. And then “life that is really not like us” — e.g., life based on electric currents and magnetic fields, or artificial life (robotic life, in some sense of “robot”).
These discussions are also very brief and sketchy, but they do serve to emphasize the importance of letting our imaginations roam freely. The authors, if they make no other point in the book, take great pains to make this one point — that we cannot limit our thinking by the one example we have of life and intelligent life, ourselves. What we find out there may be truly alien — something even beyond the bounds of the kind of liberated imagination they practice here.
All in all, I’ll have to admit that the fanciful tone of the book didn’t really hit my sweet spot. I’m not objecting to speculation — in fact, the books I mentioned above are highly speculative, just a bit more chastened by some of the problems and open questions that plague the topic.
This book is fun, it’s even a breezy read. Just don’t take it for anything other that what it is -- kind of like a stretching routine for people who want to think about the possibilities of extraterrestrial life.
September 12, 2022
Ultimately, the marketing for this book is in direct conflict with the contents. It’s clear that the authors set out to write one book, and then some publishing executive got ahold of it and decided that it should have mass-market appeal, causing the project became a confusing, muddled mess.
When the speculation about the types of life that could develop on these exoplanets was getting interesting, the chapter abruptly ended. The introductory fictional paragraphs were interesting, but they were rarely, if ever, returned to later. Not much, if any, thought went into the characteristics of these “intelligent aliens, ice creatures, and supergravity animals,” so if you’re looking for a book that actually talks about things that are listed in the title, look elsewhere.
This work could have benefitted from the involvement of a biologist, as the emphasis here was much on the physics and chemistry of exoplanets; certainly, these topics are relevant here, but for a book that is promoted as being about “life,” discussion of such was significantly lacking.
The chapters that were ostensibly there to consider the possibility of like this “isn’t like us” mostly just consisted of the authors explaining why that probably wasn’t possible. Valid arguments were made, but again, that’s not what the reader was told was going to happen.
Beyond that, the writing style was awkward. Much of it read as an introductory textbook about the topics at hand, with random “asides” shoehorned into the text, as if some editor somewhere told the authors that the book needed to be more “accessible,” and this was the solution they settled on. And much of this (already short) book was repetitive, going over concepts that had already been introduced. The imagined dialogue at the end of each chapter was terrible, and I found myself skipping over it as a habit.
Finally, the latter half of the final chapter specifically focused on asteroids and whether or not humans were “safe” from them. Time was spent cataloguing major asteroid impacts on Earth, as well as discussing detection methods and possible ways to protect Earth from impacts. Interesting and important, surely, but no effort was made to tie this discussion back to the topics at hand. If this occurred elsewhere in the book, it would have been easy to overlook, but ending this book on this discussion was a strange decision, one that left a bad taste in my mouth.
When the speculation about the types of life that could develop on these exoplanets was getting interesting, the chapter abruptly ended. The introductory fictional paragraphs were interesting, but they were rarely, if ever, returned to later. Not much, if any, thought went into the characteristics of these “intelligent aliens, ice creatures, and supergravity animals,” so if you’re looking for a book that actually talks about things that are listed in the title, look elsewhere.
This work could have benefitted from the involvement of a biologist, as the emphasis here was much on the physics and chemistry of exoplanets; certainly, these topics are relevant here, but for a book that is promoted as being about “life,” discussion of such was significantly lacking.
The chapters that were ostensibly there to consider the possibility of like this “isn’t like us” mostly just consisted of the authors explaining why that probably wasn’t possible. Valid arguments were made, but again, that’s not what the reader was told was going to happen.
Beyond that, the writing style was awkward. Much of it read as an introductory textbook about the topics at hand, with random “asides” shoehorned into the text, as if some editor somewhere told the authors that the book needed to be more “accessible,” and this was the solution they settled on. And much of this (already short) book was repetitive, going over concepts that had already been introduced. The imagined dialogue at the end of each chapter was terrible, and I found myself skipping over it as a habit.
Finally, the latter half of the final chapter specifically focused on asteroids and whether or not humans were “safe” from them. Time was spent cataloguing major asteroid impacts on Earth, as well as discussing detection methods and possible ways to protect Earth from impacts. Interesting and important, surely, but no effort was made to tie this discussion back to the topics at hand. If this occurred elsewhere in the book, it would have been easy to overlook, but ending this book on this discussion was a strange decision, one that left a bad taste in my mouth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2023
✨3,5 ✨
February 5, 2020
An amazing book that makes you look at the possible planets and life that could exist on them. I had a lot of fun reading it. It is definitely able to ground your thoughts on what is likely and what isn't. If you are writing a sci-fy novel, this book will help with the science part and the rest you can distort at your leisure. I had a fantastic time, and I'm sure you will too!
March 25, 2023
This may be thought provoking for somebody who is just getting started in arm-chair astrobiology or alien life but it's nothing groundbreaking. It doesn't really go into detail of how life would emerge or evolve beyond "some life is here and here is an obvious core tech it would need to cope with it's planet". The content felt light and more of a light read at bedtime than something to really get you thinking.
October 30, 2024
The way that planetary science was explained is phenomenal. One of the best science books I’ve ever read. There wasn’t one page that left me confused and there was so much information to gain from reading this.
April 30, 2022
3.5/5
November 13, 2022
Did not go into nearly as much detail as I was hoping for.
August 15, 2021
The authors use this text to expand upon the possibilities of life on the exoplanets they study. Their focus is on forms of life already known to exist: carbon-based and dependent on liquid water. They also speculate about several other possibilities, giving us a run through on the basic types of exo-planets discovered in recent years and some local moons and planets of interest, as well as rogue planets ejected from their natal systems to roam the universe without a star to call their own. I found the lay-out easy to follow, with cogent descriptions of what conditions could be expected on mini-Neptunes or planets tidally locked to their stars, and many more. I found their conclusions logical and well-reasoned, but the overall impression was of an almost painful brevity where I had hoped for greater detail. In some cases, such as their explanation of the Trappist I system and the perils of life in orbit around a red dwarf prone to solar flares, the text was well-served by this approach. In other cases, however, there were curious lapses. A discussion of possible life forms on Titan, for example, made no mention whatsoever of the theoretical cryogenic life form astrobiologist Chris McKay has suggested as a not-life-as-we-know-it possibility. There is a fair amount of data now available that can be fitted to that framework, but the authors considered only the slowing down of reaction times brought about by the extreme cold there. In another case, ammonia as a possible medium for life was raised, and swiftly dashed, with no mention made of water/ammonia mixtures, such as might be lurking under the ice on Enceladus. There was also a peculiar focus on photosynthesis alone as the basis of biomes in or on many many of these worlds, despite the known existence of a wide range of other possibilities on -this- planet. There was no real consideration of complex anaerobic biomes, and chemosynthesis was barely mentioned. There was no hint of extremophiles that can not only survive exposure to high levels of radiation, but actually eat it. This struck me as such a limited viewpoint as to make me doubt their other conclusions. In particular, the possibilities of 'life REALLY not as we know it' were limited to machines, with no consideration of hybrid possibilities such as humans with cybernetic implants or full-on cyborgs. As to the question of what kinds of technology might be developed in these imagined environments, there were similar oversights regarding organic glasses, and metal-doped polymers, and the like, with whole categories of planets casually dismissed without any real discussion. On the whole, then, I was pleased with much of the book, which is quite readable, but I was ultimately somewhat disappointed. It needs to be about twice as long if it's really going to cover the territory. Sadly, it is instead more a case of Science Lite.
May 8, 2023
Fun but slight, Imagined Life is ostensibly a book about exobiology, but spends most of its time on exoplanets instead. And even there, most of what’s explored isn’t explored in any detail, and had been rehashed a million times in SF, even before we started seeing exoplanets. After carbon, silicon is very likely to form a solid basic scaffold for life, similar to our own, for instance. Ditto for sulfur or ammonia being a likely alternative to water when it comes to fusing proteins, taking us from the prebiotic to the living.
Very basic details are provided about the various kinds of other worlds we might encounter, including water worlds and mostly gaseous planets. Those planets in our own solar system are used as reference points, as are some of those planets’ satellites. Life emerging from thermal vents and even hardier kinds of extremophiles surviving subzero temperatures are mentioned, but only in passing. There’s also the most thumbnail description of AI’s potential to go rogue (or at least sentient) that I’ve ever read, and I include HuffPo articles in that assessment.
Ditto discussions of SETI and telescoped-based attempts to establish contact with other species in far-flung worlds. A sidebar or two about Fermi’s paradox is included, though nothing on the Drake equation (unless I missed it.)
I hate to keep beating up on the book, and I suppose if you’re coming to the subject cold, it does a good enough job of providing an overview. You’re better off starting elsewhere, though, like the Smithsonian’s other offerings, which are much more reader-friendly and visually enchanting.
It may yet be awhile until we have to consider any hypothetical contact between homo sap and aliens, or it may never happen. And it goes without saying, of course, if that you are of the Marrs persuasion (that’s theorist Jim Marrs, not the planet), you may believe the aliens already walk among us. Ditto for those adherents of David Icke’s Anunnaki theory who spend time watching videos of politicians speaking on YouTube in hopes of catching the eyes nictitating or the forked tongue darting out to catch a fly.
But a few episodes of X-Files, a binge block of Ancient Aliens, and a few documentaries and a handful of popular science articles would give you the same undergirding Imagined Life offers, though.
With a handful of illustrations, along with some glossy retro-futuristic travel posters, which are gorgeous in their own right, but not enough to merit purchasing the book.
Very basic details are provided about the various kinds of other worlds we might encounter, including water worlds and mostly gaseous planets. Those planets in our own solar system are used as reference points, as are some of those planets’ satellites. Life emerging from thermal vents and even hardier kinds of extremophiles surviving subzero temperatures are mentioned, but only in passing. There’s also the most thumbnail description of AI’s potential to go rogue (or at least sentient) that I’ve ever read, and I include HuffPo articles in that assessment.
Ditto discussions of SETI and telescoped-based attempts to establish contact with other species in far-flung worlds. A sidebar or two about Fermi’s paradox is included, though nothing on the Drake equation (unless I missed it.)
I hate to keep beating up on the book, and I suppose if you’re coming to the subject cold, it does a good enough job of providing an overview. You’re better off starting elsewhere, though, like the Smithsonian’s other offerings, which are much more reader-friendly and visually enchanting.
It may yet be awhile until we have to consider any hypothetical contact between homo sap and aliens, or it may never happen. And it goes without saying, of course, if that you are of the Marrs persuasion (that’s theorist Jim Marrs, not the planet), you may believe the aliens already walk among us. Ditto for those adherents of David Icke’s Anunnaki theory who spend time watching videos of politicians speaking on YouTube in hopes of catching the eyes nictitating or the forked tongue darting out to catch a fly.
But a few episodes of X-Files, a binge block of Ancient Aliens, and a few documentaries and a handful of popular science articles would give you the same undergirding Imagined Life offers, though.
With a handful of illustrations, along with some glossy retro-futuristic travel posters, which are gorgeous in their own right, but not enough to merit purchasing the book.
July 3, 2024
This was quite disappointing. I generally love works on speculative biology and was very excited when I first came across this title. I tamped down that excitement when I realized these were the same authors as Exoplanets (which I felt to be serviceable but not especially engaging or informative) but persisted in giving it a read. This probably deserves 3-stars by my (wildly inconsistent) rating standards, but I feel like I've been giving 3-stars to lots of things lately and the disappointment factor really pulls it down. My problem with the book mostly comes down to how little attention is given to actually imagining alien life; there is minor attention given to the challenges to life in the various speculative environments, but it is generally hand-waved with "well, life could evolve there" before skipping on to the authors' true interest, technological development, though admittedly even that is given fairly cursory examination. I think the problem is that the authors do not have a background in biology, but rather in physics, astronomy, planetary science.
I felt there were other, more specific problems with the work as well. The first several worlds they examine all feel kind of the same, being focused on variations of worlds with a majority/entirety of the surface being dominated by water and/or ice with the speculative life mostly developing around deep sea vents and possibly expanding outwards. Beyond the weirdness of how they chop this concept up into 3 or 4 slightly different scenarios, they strangely ignore the possibility that the life developing in these situations might be able to swim, as almost all aquatic life on Earth can to an extent. They also gloss over the fact that though it is speculated that life on Earth may have first evolved around deep ocean vents, this life was only microbial and the various worms, crabs, fish, etc. that now are found there are a recolonization after multicellular life developed elsewhere.
They also really like the idea of rogue planets and the idea of advanced civilizations developing on them; it was a prominent part of they previous book as well. I admit it is a neat idea, but I just don't buy it, especially as it contradicts some of the other constraints they recognize. Like at one point they examine different stars and note that large ones burn out too fast, existing for maybe only tens or hundreds of millions of years, too short a time for life to really develop and flourish; likewise, a planets core may hold on to heat for a longer time, but I would imagine that without a sun to add energy to the system the viable time period for such planets would likewise be too short. And if persistent heat in the core and mantel equivalent were enough to maintain life, it would almost certainly be the sort of simple, single-cellular life that they are otherwise so dismissive of.
I felt there were other, more specific problems with the work as well. The first several worlds they examine all feel kind of the same, being focused on variations of worlds with a majority/entirety of the surface being dominated by water and/or ice with the speculative life mostly developing around deep sea vents and possibly expanding outwards. Beyond the weirdness of how they chop this concept up into 3 or 4 slightly different scenarios, they strangely ignore the possibility that the life developing in these situations might be able to swim, as almost all aquatic life on Earth can to an extent. They also gloss over the fact that though it is speculated that life on Earth may have first evolved around deep ocean vents, this life was only microbial and the various worms, crabs, fish, etc. that now are found there are a recolonization after multicellular life developed elsewhere.
They also really like the idea of rogue planets and the idea of advanced civilizations developing on them; it was a prominent part of they previous book as well. I admit it is a neat idea, but I just don't buy it, especially as it contradicts some of the other constraints they recognize. Like at one point they examine different stars and note that large ones burn out too fast, existing for maybe only tens or hundreds of millions of years, too short a time for life to really develop and flourish; likewise, a planets core may hold on to heat for a longer time, but I would imagine that without a sun to add energy to the system the viable time period for such planets would likewise be too short. And if persistent heat in the core and mantel equivalent were enough to maintain life, it would almost certainly be the sort of simple, single-cellular life that they are otherwise so dismissive of.
April 21, 2023
Nieco odjechane w kosmos spekulacje. Niby to o tym właśnie jest ta książka, ale czasami jakieś to mało spójne rozważania. Np. życie na skutej lodem Iceheim toczyłoby się w wodnych kopułach i dalej w tunelach powstałych wokół kominów hydrotermalnych. No, ale dalej dowiadujemy się, że lód 10 już się nie topi pod wpływem ciepła. To kiepsko rokuje dla powstania wodnych kopuł i tuneli wokół tych kominów… Albo planety z rotacją synchroniczną o wąskiej strefie przejściowej, na której wieją wiatry 9 Mach. „Na Ziemi roznoszenie pyłku roślinnego przez wiatr jest powszechne. W analogiczny sposób życie powierzchniowe na Halo mogłoby wykorzystywać wiatr do roznoszenia materiału reprodukcyjnego". A „inżynierowie na Halo wynajdą wiatraki wcześniej niż maszynę parową”. Nie wiem jak to mogły robić mikroorganizmy, z których wyewoluowali ci dzielni inżynierowie, ale ja np. czułbym pewien dyskomfort uprawiając seks w tak wietrznym miejscu.
December 4, 2019
This book is one part classical sciences, one part astronomy and one part thought exercise. The authors tightly lay out the physical laws of the universe, and how these laws can enable life in the distant cosmos. Readers are taken through ice worlds, water planets, tidally locked planets and rogue planets and the likelihood of life among them. Imagined Life is written for the lay reader, and serves as thought fuel for amateur astronomers. The text begins and ends with the difficulties in defining life, how artificial intelligence will make us reconsider life itself, and upcoming astronomical tools that will further our frontiers of knowledge. Read this if you want to see other worlds differently.
November 14, 2020
Autorzy, astrofizycy puszczają wodze fantazji i przewidują jak mogłoby wyglądać życie na innych planetach. Wcześniej jednak zadają sporo pytań o to czym właściwie jest życie, dlaczego obce cywilizacje jeszcze sie do nas nie "odezwały", jakie warunki powinna spełniać planeta żeby narodziło sie na niej życie. To jedna z lżejszych popularnonaukowych książek jakie czytałem. Więcej tutaj miejsca na wyobraźnię, domysły, które jednak autorzy popieraja współczesną fizyką i chemią. Fajnie sie bawiłem przy czytaniu o możliwych światach i cywilizacjach zupełnie niepodobnych do naszej. Lektura do polecenia dla osób zaczynających patrzeć w gwiazdy, bez zbędnych wzorów fizycznych czy teorii.
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