Take Me to Your Leader takes a scientific approach

 Neil deGrasse Tyson confesses he has always been interested in aliens.  At the same time he has become a scientist who believes facts and the search for them should rule.  Dissecting many popular efforts to support aliens are really illusionary.

After the Dark Ages, some Europeans speculated that ancient civilizations such as found in Egypt could not have been done by Africans and must have been done by aliens.  It was difficult to conceive that the primitive people had the intelligence they did in fact have. 

In 1972 and 1973 we launched space ship to escape gravitational forces and signify to any potential aliens that we exist and are friendly.  Among many details we indicated our location in relation to our sun.  We displayed anatomically correct drawings of male and female, but both white.  The author points out that today we would not give out email addresses to strangers, but here we were letting potential enemy aliens how to reach us.

Throughout the book are references to popular culture indicating our fascination with aliens.  In most references aliens have a crude similarity to humans or familiar animals.  One deviation was provided by "The Blob"(1958) where the alien was more like jelly.  Another variation, from "The Invasion of The Body Snatchers" (1978) was aliens who took on human form as a means of hiding themselves from potential enemies while they developed their own strategies. 

 In "Contact" (1997) with Carl Sagan checking for accuracy it was speculated that the means of communication would be mathematical using the universal pi formula. See   http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2012/10/carl-sagan-and-our-future.html

UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are claimed by many.  Neil does analysis pointing out there is an explanation for pretty much all of them.  He points out that flying saucers are not practical for inter galactic travel.  

The mathematics of infinity have convince many that we are not alone in the universe.  Scientists speculate that some far away planets have intelligent beings with a high enough level civilization to communicate across the universe.  Carl Sagan suggested that it was thought any civilization smart enough might self-destruct before communication efforts went far enough.  However Neil points out the nearest likely advanced civilizations are light years away, meaning any message we receive would have been sent light years ago and any response we send would take light years to reach back.  

Although he hopes to contact aliens he demonstrates how distorted our views have been.  Although you too may be hopeful (or fearful) you will learn some practical scientific facts.  There is lots of humour and references to popular culture.

A concern Neil raises is to do with government funding of basic research.  He contends that commercial interests feel some research is too risky and expensive.  Although complaining about waste of tax payer money they use a lot of commercial enterprises are based on government financed research.  Our society advances as we gain new information.