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A review by danielles_reads
The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos by Jaime Green
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
In this way science fiction is more than entertainment, it’s a generative act that creates new possibilities of life beyond Earth, as valid and potent as anything we might conjure up in the lab. Through fiction we can move beyond likelihoods and binary outcomes to look instead at what our imaginations do with the limitless possibilities of outer space and, crucially, ask what that might mean.
My brain has been feeling a bit too fried lately to write a proper review for this, but I overall enjoyed it. I love that the author is a huge Trekkie, especially since she's a TNG fan. I loved all the references to Star Trek and many other popular sci-fi media (though she pretty much spoils everything and I wish she would at least provide a warning!). I love that she talked about how Renaissance-era scientists all wrote their own science fiction (as an exercise in science!), cause I did not know that!
This book ended up focusing a lot more on Earth than I was expecting, but I really liked the ruminations on the concept of life (we can't even define what makes life on Earth, so how can we expect to find life on other planets? and the entire concept of convergent evolution is so interesting to me) and how the weirdness of life on Earth lends itself to the weird possibilities for alien life. The book is organized by topic but it does still feel a little scattered, as I'm finding it hard to explain what the overall focus of this book was lol. It pretty much covered all areas of science and science fiction.
Sometimes the author went on really long tangents on topics she didn't even seem to agree with, like about artificial intelligence and "universal" grammar. I wish she would have given less page time to these white dudes' thoughts (saying AIs will inevitably take over humanity is such an inane tech bro take) and shared more of her opinion. And there were a few times where she really got into the weeds of some alien possibilities and I couldn't really follow, like when she was talking about linguistics.
Ultimately I love how this is so hopeful and really pushes the reader to consider what may be out there and how cool it could be. Perfect Star Trek (TNG) vibes. I think this book pairs really well with Ed Yong's An Immense World since both talk about how it's impossible to really understand what another non-human's perception is like, and I'd highly recommend both!
This book ended up focusing a lot more on Earth than I was expecting, but I really liked the ruminations on the concept of life (we can't even define what makes life on Earth, so how can we expect to find life on other planets? and the entire concept of convergent evolution is so interesting to me) and how the weirdness of life on Earth lends itself to the weird possibilities for alien life. The book is organized by topic but it does still feel a little scattered, as I'm finding it hard to explain what the overall focus of this book was lol. It pretty much covered all areas of science and science fiction.
Sometimes the author went on really long tangents on topics she didn't even seem to agree with, like about artificial intelligence and "universal" grammar. I wish she would have given less page time to these white dudes' thoughts (saying AIs will inevitably take over humanity is such an inane tech bro take) and shared more of her opinion. And there were a few times where she really got into the weeds of some alien possibilities and I couldn't really follow, like when she was talking about linguistics.
Ultimately I love how this is so hopeful and really pushes the reader to consider what may be out there and how cool it could be. Perfect Star Trek (TNG) vibes. I think this book pairs really well with Ed Yong's An Immense World since both talk about how it's impossible to really understand what another non-human's perception is like, and I'd highly recommend both!
Sagan was a fabulist, if not as a scientist, then as a steward of our imaginations. He wanted us to imagine weird aliens, to shatter our anthropocentric habits. If not for scientific reasons, then for spiritual ones. There’s a cosmic humility to be found in understanding that we’re just one of life’s infinitely diverse expressions. Even if we can’t imagine truly strange, truly different life, we push against the inherent xenophobia of our imaginations when we try, while what we know pulls us back like gravity.