Word: hoerner
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Time was when all talk of communication between earthbound man and creatures on other planets seemed like a product of far-out science fiction. Today radio astronomers discuss such interplanetary conversation as a distinct possibility. In the magazine Science, German Astronomer Sebastian von Hoerner demonstrates with intricate mathematical logic that planets suitable for life may be fairly common among the stars. On some of those planets, says Von Hoerner, there may well be creatures intelligent enough to transmit radio messages across the enormous distances of interstellar space. But for all this skill, he says, such highly developed civilizations will rarely...
According to Von Hoerner's calculators, there are perhaps only ten civilized communities within 1,000 light-years of the earth. But Von Hoerner is convinced (hat if some highly cultured creatures are actually trying to communicate across interstellar space, earth's astronomers could, by concerted effort, detect and interpret the incoming messages...
Other planets, reasons Von Hoerner, almost certainly have been through cycles of self-destruction, and would have some thing to say about their experience. On such planets, science and technology were probably encouraged by a fight for supremacy and a desire for an easy life. In many cases, says the astronomer, scientific warfare surely brought destruction, or the soft life made possible by technology led to physical or mental degeneration. As a result, some extraterrestrial civilizations may have destroyed themselves completely, while others killed off only the higher types of life, permitting new and later civilizations to evolve from...
...aside for home shelters. But by last week, the Berlin crisis and the Kennedy address combined to make more Americans than ever consider building their own. Day after the President spoke, civil defense offices across the country were flooded with demands for shelter information. In Denver, Home Builder Jack Hoerner quickly sold three new houses containing built-in shelters. A Virginia realtor put ads in Washington newspapers plugging "life and peace of mind outside the Washington target area" at Bull Run. In Chicago, Leo Hoegh, Eisenhower's civil defense director and now executive vice president of Chicago...