The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Is alien life out there? No one knows for sure. But if it is, that gives us another important question to ask: should we attempt to contact it or not?

That question is at the heart of The Contact Paradox, a fascinating scientific exploration of the possibility of alien life, the history of human attempts to detect it, and the question of what to do in the event we do find something.

Cooper crams a lot into this book, exploring all of the conditions that made life possible on Earth, and then delving into all of the assumptions and conclusions we’ve drawn from the only verified example of life in the universe: our own planet. As he debunks notions of why aliens might visit (punching holes in the concepts of both resource-hunting aliens and friendly extraterrestrials), he also ponders the many ways first contact might go wrong… or right.

There’s so much to unpack here, but Cooper makes it all easy to digest, even as he’s blowing your mind with the sheer immensity of the universe and the incredible distances and challenges involved in locating, let alone communicating with, an alien species.

The Contact Paradox is the best of scientific writing: it’s engaging, informative, full of wonder, heartbreakingly honest, and presents all sides fairly. Everything you need to know on the subject is right here.