Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? It seems unlikely that Earth's inhabitants are the only ones. Those who claim to have witnessed UFOs and alien life are often dismissed as crackpots, yet the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has been conducted by scientists ever since technological advancements allowed for it. The viewpoints in this resource explore what it would mean on a practical level to find other intelligent life forms, how important space exploration is in general, whether governments or private enterprise should fund such searches, and other relevant issues.

The ingredients for earthly life appear to be almost everywhere we've looked /Pat Brennan -- We might not recognize alien life even if it's right under our feet / Samantha Rolfe -- Aliens may have already visited / Jasper Hamill -- The most likely number of contactable alien civilization is 36 / Nicola Davis -- We're probably alone / Matt Williams -- Aliens may already be out there, but scientists are waiting for better evidence / Chris Impey -- Extraordinary claims from experienced scientists are disliked by the scientific community / Simon Goodwin -- The UFO craze may be a problem of intelligence failings / Kyle Cunliffe -- The Office of the Director of National Intelligence's preliminary assessment on unidentified aerial phenomena / Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- If they're out there, they already know about us / Sean Webby -- If aliens are watching us, they may not like what they see / Michael P. Oman-Reagan -- Trying to hide from aliens would do more harm than good / Seth Shostak -- For safety's sake, we should bring quantum science to the search for ET / Matt Williams -- What will we do if we actually make contact? / Fraser Cain -- Private money makes the search for ET a better bargain / Daniel Clery -- SETI-style searches are a waste of time and money / Andrew Norton -- The new era of space exploration is only concerned with commercialization / Victor L. Shammas and Tomas B. Holen -- Looking for aliens is good for society (even if there aren't any) / Ian Crawford.