PANELPICKER VOTING LAUNCH
PanelPicker voting is now live! This gives the online community an opportunity to vote (and comment) on the ideas they believe are the most creative, innovative, and relevant for the 2023 event.
The SETI Institute has submitted a proposal for a special panel:
Life on Earth and Beyond
Session Description: With recent and anticipated advances in technology and our understanding of the universe, we're closer than ever to being able to answer one of the most profound of human questions: "are we alone?" Paradoxically as humanity pursues such a lofty goal, our home planet is facing unprecedented threats regarding its ability to sustain life as we know it. How does our understanding of habitability on Earth inform our understanding of habitability elsewhere in cosmos? What would the discovery of life beyond Earth mean for humanity? What does it say about humanity as explorer and destroyer? Hear from leaders in science and the intersection of science and art about what it means for a planet (or moon!) to be habitable, how we’re exploring on Earth and beyond to uncover clues about the co-evolution of life and environment and why any of it matters to the people of planet Earth.
Three Takeaways
- Why are we looking for life beyond Earth, and how will we find it?
- How do life and habitat on Earth inform our search for life beyond Earth, and what does planetary exploration teach us about life and habitat at home?
- Why should people care about the search for life beyond Earth?
Panelists
- Franck Marchis (moderator): senior planetary astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder at Unistellar
- Kennda Lynch: astrobiologist and geomicrobiologist studying life in extreme environments on Earth as models for characterizing habitable environments and searching for biosignatures on other planetary bodies in our solar system and elsewhere at the Lunar and Planetary Institute
- Sofia Sheikh: postdoctoral fellow at the SETI Institute who is primarily a technosignature researcher who also works on pulsars and radio frequency interference
- Brittany Nelson: SETI Institute artist-in-residence, works with 19th-century photographic chemistry techniques to address themes of queer and feminist science fiction; utilizes space exploration and off-planet transmissions to discuss themes of isolation and loneliness in relation to the experience of being closeted
We invite all Science Enthusiasts, Visionaries, Earthlings to vote for us to have a spot at SXSW
