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Articles

The Astrobiological Cat

Predrag Slijepcevic questions standard views of intelligence by thinking on an evolutionary scale.

In one of its 1995 issues a little-known newsletter, Bioastronomy News, published a memorable debate between two famous scientists. The echos of that debate still reverberate, in places from the New York Times to modern scientific journals and books. On one side of the argument was celebrated astrophysicist Carl Sagan (1934-1996); on the other, respected biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005). The topic of the debate was the validity of the research programme known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI.

According to Sagan, nature rewards smartness.

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