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"Hello, Star Vega" is a review of Intelligent Life in the Universe, a translation of the 1962 Russian book Вселенная, жизнь, разум (Universe, Life, Intelligence) by astrophysicist Iosif Shklovsky, expanded upon by the author and the American astronomer Carl Sagan. It was published in the book review section of Life magazine on December 9, 1966 as "Hello, Star Vega, Do You Read Our Gomer Pyle?" and later reprinted in Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons in 1974.

Summary[]

I. S

Iosef Shklovsky, 1977

Calling this collaboration two scientists who have never met, "[a] comedy of the most pleasant sort", the book is both authoritative and accessible. It indicates that there may be enough intelligent life in the universe that Earth could be visited every millennium, although they agree that it's not happening right now. Sagan especially, having served on a committee on the handling by the United States Air Force of UFO reports, states his opinion that these sightings are the result of mixing "a traditional need for a paternal God" and modern discoveries of science, and that such an extraordinary claim would require significant evidence.

However, the authors "virtually promise" that humanity will be a spacefaring species one day, explaining theoretical advanced propulsion systems and the theory of relativity to the common reader. Vonnegut believes all that the book has told him, but is left with "a sort of intellectual seasickness". Sagan is the "more humane writer", keeping friendly a topic that has the potential to be terrifying. At one point, he explains that television transmissions have made the Earth "a powerful source of radio energy", meaning humanity's first interstellar emissaries may well be "Gomer Pyle and the Beverly Hillbillies".[1]

  1. "Hello, Star Vega", Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons, pp. 21-24.
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