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23 Conditions on the other planets of our solar system proved to be even harsher than on Mars. The attractive vision of Venus as a younger, more tropical Earth faded away as that planet’s blistering heat was revealed; by 1958, observers were reporting a surface temperature of 600 degrees. Thwarted hopes for finding intelligence beyond Earth were kept alive in science fiction. The transformation of extraterrestrial life into one of the universal themes of literature, Dick observed, “is some measure of how deeply felt and firmly ingrained was the alien concept in the human mind.” Guthke saw the encounter with the alien, as either an enemy or a guardian, as the philosophical and imaginative adventure of modern times.” Skeptics had their say. “It is to be regretted,” said astronomer James Keeler, “that the habitability of the planets, a subject of which astronomers profess to know little, has been a chosen theme for exploitation by the romancer....The result of his ingenuity is that fact and fiction become inextricably intertwined in the mind of the layman.” Lowellism It tells us something that popular interest in life beyond the Earth remained high even after Lowell’s ideas had been discredited scientifi- cally. He had evoked not only an intellectual response, but an emotional one as well. Lowellism inspired many of those who pioneered the Space Age, especially the modern search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence. Without Lowell and those he provoked, there might have been no Viking missions to Mars. As Edward Edelson put it, the Viking spacecraft went to Mars because of a human vision of what Mars is like. This grand speculation set us up for a great disappointment when modern science found that Mars and the other worlds of our solar system were uninhabited. However, Lowellism also showed how big ideas can stimulate thinking for generations, even when the immediate example is proven wrong. They change people’s conceptions of what may be possible. Some who rejected Lowell’s theories kept open the possibility of extra- terrestrial intelligence, but displaced it to interstellar distances. Astrono- mer W.W. Campbell spoke in 1920 of “other stellar systems . . . with degrees of intelligence and civilization from which we could learn much, and with which we could sympathize.” Meanwhile, another profound change in our view of the universe was taking place. The ancient conception of the celestial sphere as a region of tranquility and harmony was giving way to a dynamic universe dominated by violent events.“ The cosmos was not just a neutral background; it was potentially threatening. Expansion and Skepticism