Introduction: The search for extraterrestrial intelligence as an interdisciplinary effort / Albert A. Harrison and Douglas A. Vakoch -- Does extraterrestrial life exist? Are we alone? Estimating the prevalence of extraterrestrial intelligence / Seth Shostak ; Encountering alternative intelligences : cognitive archaeology and SETI / Paul K. Wason ; The lifetimes of scientific civilizations and the genetic evolution of the brain / Alan Penny ; "L" on Earth / Kathryn Denning -- Reactions to discovering life beyond Earth. Can SETI fulfill the value agenda of cultural anthropology? / Donald E. Tarter ; American attitudes about life beyond Earth : beliefs, concerns, and the role of education and religion in shaping public perceptions / George Pettinico ; Cultural beliefs about extraterrestrials : a questionnaire study / William Sims Bainbridge ; The science and politics of SETI : how to succeed in an era of make-believe history and pseudoscience / Albert A. Harrison -- Communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. Cultural aspects of interstellar communication / Carl L. DeVito ; Cosmic storytelling : primitive observables as Rosetta analogies / Harry Letaw, Jr. ; Direct contact with exterrestrials via computer emulation / William Sims Bainbridge ; The inscrutable names of God : the Jesuit missions of New France as a model for SETI-related spiritual questions / Jason T. Kuznicki ; ET phone Darwin : what can an evolutionary understanding of animal communication and art contribute to our understanding of methods for interstellar communication? / Kathryn Coe, Craig T. Palmer, and Christina Pomianek ; A journalistic perspective on SETI-related message composition / Morris Jones.