The Secret Life of the Universe. Nathalie A. Cabral. 2023. 264 Pages. (Hardcover.)

This is a well-organized esoteric account by the head astrobilogist of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) in California.

I would be lying if I claimed to understand more than a small portion of the details of her quest, as she goes through first the theories of the origin of life on earth, and then expands on it to other solar system planets and moons and then to the whole universe. Along the way, there is discussion of panspermia, i.e. the notion that life on earth arose from primitive forms arriving from elsewhere on meteorites, asteroids or space debris. This is taken seriously here but dismissed by Andrew H. Knoll in his A Brief History of Earth. The conventional explanation of life arising from organic compounds in the primordial soup of oceanic hydrothermal, and terrestrial geothermal vents is also given due consideration.

The planned Dragonfly mission to Titan, with its sophisticated scientific equipment and monitoring systems, along with many other technical accomplishments, reads like pure science fiction, but holds out hope for discovering extraterrestrial life on that moon of Saturn.

I also cannot pretend to understand the Drake equation which purports to calculate the probability of life on extraterrestrial planets, moons and exoplanets. But the number of those exoplanets, with a supposedly habitable environment is astounding, with an estimated 300 billion in our galaxy alone. And the Hubble Deep Field image suggests that there are 125 billion galaxies in the observable universe. This makes the claim that we are alone in the universe a statistical absurdity- unless one invokes a non-scientific and non-testable claim to have a unique relationship with the Creator-who must relish wastefulness.

The long discussion of what life actually is, and what it means to be intelligent comes to no firm conclusion as far as I can tell, and the linguistics become confusing.

In the last part of the book, the author returns to describe the short time in geological terms that we have existed and the ecological challenges we face with climate change. This is important, alarming, and eloquent but wordy.

Perhaps the best quote of the whole dry book is: “In a twisted irony, the most advanced species on this planet is methodically cutting the branch it sits on, and knowingly destroying the environment responsible for its rise and its development.”

I admire the author’s obvious intelligence and perspective, but this is not a book meant to entertain or enjoy. Perhaps some people with a better understanding of astrophysics than I may appreciate this book, but I cannot recommend it.

2.5/5

Thanks, The New Yorker.