Life and Language Beyond Earth

Could we communicate with lifeforms on exoplanets? This thought-provoking book explores the likelihood of life and language beyond Earth.

Raymond Hickey (Author)

9781009226417, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 September 2023

695 pages
23.6 x 16 x 4.2 cm, 1.11 kg

'Hickey's thought-provoking book … is an original, visionary description of the (admittedly limited) knowledge we have so far about the birth and development of the universe and the rise and evolution of life on Earth. It also discusses humanity's search for life on other Earth-like planets and ponders about the possible existence of languages used by intelligent beings living on a remote Earth-like planet. Although this is a lengthy book, comprising 694 pages, it is written in an engaging way, using relatively simple vocabulary and guiding the audience through detailed descriptions of more technical aspects.' Marco Condorelli, Journal of Linguistics

Have you ever wondered whether we are alone in the universe, or if life forms on other planets might exist? If they do exist, how might their languages have evolved? Could we ever understand them, and indeed learn to communicate with them? This highly original, thought-provoking book takes us on a fascinating journey over billions of years, from the formation of galaxies and solar systems, to the appearance of planets in the habitable zones of their parent stars, and then to how biology and, ultimately, human life arose on our own planet. It delves into how our brains and our language developed, in order to explore the likelihood of communication beyond Earth and whether it would evolve along similar lines. In the process, fascinating insights from the fields of astronomy, evolutionary biology, palaeoanthropology, neuroscience and linguistics are uncovered, shedding new light on life as we know it on Earth, and beyond.

How to use this book
Part I. Introduction: 1. Approaching the topic
2. Looking beyond Earth
3. Striving to understand
Part II. The Universe We Live In: 4. Trying to grasp size
5. Star formation and planets
6. The likelihood of life
7. Possible conditions on an exoplanet?
8. How and where to look for exolife
9. The limits of exploration
10. Assessing probabilities
Part III. Our Story on Earth: 11. The slow path of evolution
12. How does the whole work?
13. The road to Homo sapiens
14. The rise of human societies
Part IV. The Runaway Brain: 15. The brain-to-body ratio
16. How brains develop
17. Our cognition
18. Consciousness
19. Artificial intelligence
Part V. Language, our Greatest Gift: 20. Looking at language
21. Talking about language
22. The view from linguistics
23. The language faculty and languages
24. Language and the brain
25. Acquiring language
26. Humans and animals
Part VI. Life and Language, Here and Beyond: 27. Preconditions for life
28. What might exolife be like?
29. Looking for signs of life
30. The issue of first contact
31. Language beyond Earth
32. How human language arose
33. The language of exobeings
34. Looking forward: the basic questions again
35. Some final thoughts
Appendixes
Glossaries
Timelines.

Subject Areas: Linguistics [CF]