"Civilized Life in the Universe". George Basalla.

A study of the history of the idea of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and how our [the European diaspora's] thoughts of it have never had much to do with extraterrestrials and instead have everything to do with ourselves. The notion is dissected for all its parts to be seen.

In the 1500s, the notion that the Earth and other planets were made of similar stuff lead to the supposition that if that is the case, perhaps they were inhabited too. The hot question was if Jesus also saved them or if we needed to send missionaries.

Percival Lowell at the turn of the 20th century thought he saw canals all over mars, and talked about how this indicated they had reached a socialist utopia.

Carl Sagan, perhaps steeped in the Barsoom books in his youth, held onto the notion of macroscopic living things on mars for quite some time. He also expounded on the idea that old civilizations might teach us how to avoid nuclear war.

These days, we talk about technological progress, the questionable assumption that it continues without bound in all cases but extinction, and 'where are they?"

It's never been about them. It's always about us - what we care about at that particular moment.

"The science of evil" by Simon Baron-Cohen.

A social, neurophysiological and psychological exploration of tabooing "evil" and substituting it with "empathy erosion".

Intriguing, disturbing, eye-opening, depressing. This book is kicking me in the guts pretty hard and I'm loving every minute of it. You'll start to see mild psychopaths everywhere ;)

• The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays, Simon Leys