Professor Allen Tough: SETI

Professor Allen Tough
Futurist, Scientist, Author
Main Navigation Banner - Galaxy painting courtesy of Jon Lomberg

The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

Prof. Allen Tough's Introduction to the SETI Portal Page

Hello, and welcome!

I want to introduce you to this gateway page to a wide range of ideas about the scientific Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). There are two items in particular that I want to be sure you do not miss:

I hope you will read my 1986 paper, "What Role will Extraterrestrials Play in Humanity's Future?" (available in either HTML or PDF formats), even though it is old. It presents the results of a long, intense effort to understand extraterrestrial intelligence, and I feel it still stands up amazingly well.

The other especially important item is my 1999 paper titled "How to achieve Contact: Five promising strategies." It presents a comprehensive overview of strategies already being used, and possible future strategies.

Allen Tough

Visit the Invitation to ETI Website

A Sampling of Prof. Tough's SETI Articles:

What Role will Extraterrestrials Play in Humanity's Future? (© 1986, HTML, PDF)
The Next Steps: 20 Possibilities (© 1988, PDF)
A Critical Examination of Factors that Might Encourage Secrecy (© 1990, PDF)
Intelligent Life in the Universe: What Role Will It Play in Our Future? (© 1991, HTML)
Positive Consequences of SETI Before Detection (© 1998, PDF)
Small Smart Interstellar Probes (© 1998, PDF)
How Can We Achieve Contact? (© 1998, HTML)
How to achieve Contact: Five promising strategies (© 1999, HTML)
An Extraordinary Event (© 1999, HTML)
What People Hope to Learn from Other Civilizations (© 2000, PDF)
Security During the First Thirty Days (© 2001, HTML)
Post-biological Implications of SETI (© 2002, HTML)
Communicating with ETI (© 2004, PDF)
Testing a Claim of Extraterrestrial Technology (with H. Paul Shuch, © 2007, PDF)

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