Two Equally Terrifying Possibilities?

It was my book launch this week, and Invisible Rainbows is officially out! One of the audience questions (which I swear I did not plant) was about the famous Arthur C. Clark quote about alien life:

"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

I was asked my opinion of it, and I disagree with Clark's view. I do not know why he finds the first terrifying. Even if we were to find alien civilization, it is unlikely there will be an Independence Day first contact. Interstellar travel doesn't appear to be a quick jaunt according to what we know of physics. I believe that being alone is a lot scarier.

Me and Dr Suze Kundu on stage during my book launch!

The search for alien life, whether simple microorganisms or alien civilizations, is just one aspect of just one specific question of a much wider and much older philosophical discussion.

The "are we alone in the universe?" feeds into the "why are we here?" - it is a search for meaning, even if there is no meaning. As an astrophysicist, my position on the Clark quote comes from the Copernican principle: humans do not occupy a privileged or special place in the universe. This has more often been used with a meaning related to a physical location (the Earth is not the center of the Universe, etc.), but I think we can push it further and consider it a metaphysical location too: humans cannot be special, full stop.

It seems absurd that across all of this enormous universe, our planet is the only place with life.

What do you think? Are the possibilities truly equally terrifying? Here's a little poll, and I'll share the results in the next newsletter:

If you are sad to have missed the book launch, worry not! I will be going across the UK (and a bit farther afield) with the Book tour:

And I will be back in London with a very exciting event at the Royal Institution with some really cool demos (and hopefully a meteorite older than the solar system)

Clear skies to all!