Chapter proposals are invited for an edited book titled "Cognition and Communication in Extraterrestrial Intelligence." To date, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has emphasized technological aspects, as astronomers use radio and optical telescopes to search for signals from advanced civilizations at interstellar distances. At the same time, biologists have researched the prospects for microbial life on other planets. This book will bridge the gap between the biologists studying microbial life and the astronomers searching for artificial signals from extraterrestrial intelligence by focusing on the likely nature of intelligence on other planets. Contributions are invited from a range of disciplines including but not limited to biology, linguistics, psychology, ethology, artificial intelligence, computer science, cognitive semiotics, philosophy, and communications. Chapters should focus on the possible nature of cognition and/or communication of intelligence – either biological or artificial – that may exist elsewhere in the galaxy.

Interested authors should send a 400-word abstract, 200-word biography, and sample of a previously published chapter or article to Douglas Vakoch at dvakoch@setiinternational.org by January 15, 2016. Proposers will be notified about whether their submissions are accepted for the book by February 1, 2016. For accepted proposals first drafts of full chapters (8,000 – 9,000 words) are due by June 1, 2016, and final versions are due August 1, 2016. Only previously unpublished papers will be considered. Preference will be given to authors who have already earned a doctorate.

Confirmed contributors and their chapter topics include:

"The Evolutionary Psychology of Extraterrestrials"
Jerome H. Barkow, Dalhousie University, Canada

"Aliens Are Likely to Be Intelligent But Not Sentient: What Evolution of Cognition on Earth Tells Us about Extraterrestrial Intelligence"
Anna Dornhaus, University of Arizona, USA

"Cognitive Exaptations for Extraterrestrial Intelligence"
Geoffrey Miller, University of New Mexico, USA and Peter M. Todd, Indiana University, USA

"Comparative Psychobiology Provides the Methods for Discovering Alien Intelligence"
Aaron Blaisdell, UCLA, USA

"Situated and Embodied Cognition and Its Relevance to Extraterrestrial Intelligence"
Pauli Laine, University of Jyväskylä, Finland and David Dunér, Lund University, Sweden

"Anticipating the Conceptual Worlds of Extraterrestrial Intelligence: An Embodied Cognition Approach"
Heath Matheson, University of Pennsylvania, USA

"Cephalopod Behavior and Neurobiology: An Alternative Model for Intelligence"
Dominic Sivitilli and David H. Gire, University of Washington, USA

"Cognition in the Universe: Kinds and Degrees of Intelligence"
David L. Dowe, Monash University, Australia; José Hernández-Orallo, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain; and John Lattanzio, Monash University, Australia

"Alien Perception: What Terrestrial Synesthesia Can Lead Us to Expect"
Richard E. Cytowic, The George Washington University, USA

"Alternative Perceptual Systems and Discovery of Basic Astronomical Phenomena"
Sheri Wells-Jensen, Bowling Green State University, USA

"Intra- and Interspecies Dolphin Communication: Insights from an Aquatic Alien World"
Denise Herzing, The Wild Dolphin Project and Florida Atlantic University, USA

"The Challenges of Understanding Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Lessons from the Study of Non-human Terrestrial Intelligences"
Con Slobodchikoff, Northern Arizona University, USA

"Establishing Communication by Common Conceptual Agency: No Natural Kinds, But 'Sufficient' Overlap of Frameworks"
Joel Parthemore, University of Skövde, Sweden

"Efficient Communication: Getting the Message Across Via Syntax and Pragmatics"
Darcy Sperlich, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan

"Modification as a Universal Property of Intelligent Communication"
Daniel Ross, University of California, Riverside, USA

"There Are More Things in Heaven and Earth: Using Earth-based Languages to Speculate on Alien Languages"
Ariel Cohen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

"From Universal Constraints to Linguistic Universals, or Why Extraterrestrial Intelligences Can Tell Lies and Jokes"
Meir-Simchah Panzer, Bar-Ilan University, Israel and Shlomo Dror, Friedlander Center for Leadership Development, USA

"Do Extraterrestrials Speak of Love?: Basic Concepts, Universals, and Constraints on Emotional Communication by Extraterrestrial Intelligence"
Heike Ortner, University of Innsbruck, Austria

Given that we have no examples of extraterrestrial life to study, and no empirical proof that such life even exists, there are significant methodological constraints on attempting to anticipate the nature of cognition and communication in extraterrestrial intelligence. Chapters that highlight these constraints are especially welcome.

The editor of "Cognition and Communication in Extraterrestrial Intelligence," Douglas Vakoch, is President of SETI International, which has as one of its priorities to "research and communicate to the public the many factors that influence the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe, with a special emphasis on ... (1) the fraction of life-bearing worlds on which intelligence evolves, (2) the fraction of intelligence-bearing worlds with civilizations having the capacity and motivation for interstellar communication, and (3) the longevity of such civilizations" (http://setiinternational.org/). His work in SETI was featured in the October 2015 issues of the American Psychological Association's "Monitor on Psychology" (http://bit.ly/1VRoXb4) and the British Psychological Society's "The Psychologist" (http://bit.ly/1N8BpiB). Vakoch has edited a dozen books, including "Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence" (SUNY Press, 2011), "Astrobiology, History, and Society: Life Beyond Earth and the Impact of Discovery" (Springer, 2013), "Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication" (NASA, 2014), "Extraterrestrial Altruism: Evolution and Ethics in the Cosmos" (Springer, 2014), and "The Drake Equation: Estimating the Prevalence of Extraterrestrial Life Through the Ages" (Cambridge University Press, 2015).