Santa Fe Institute's video: Andromeda Strain and the Meaning of Life: Bonus Episode with Chris Kempes and Dana Burton

COVID-19's continued threat makes hosting our annual InterPlanetary Festival near impossible. In lieu of in-person panel discussions and sci-fi film screenings, SFI's InterPlanetary Project will explore the Planetary Life Support System "Astrobiology and Life Detection" in a mini-series called "Andromeda Strain and the Meaning of Life." SFI President, David Krakauer, kicks this series off by discussing some of the challenging questions at the center of origins of life research that emerge in Michael Crichton's "Andromeda Strain." What can a science-fiction film about an invasive, alien virus tell us about life, on earth and beyond? He and Chris Kempes approached some of those themes in episode two. Then Chris Kempes discussed synthetic life with synthetic biologist Kate Adamala. After that, Kate conversed with theoretical physicist, astrobiologist, and SFI External Professor, Sara Imari Walker about information replication, and potential independent origins of life, whether in the lab or on an exoplanet. Then Lee Cronin, chemist and inorganic alien hunter joined Sara Walker for a lively discussion about the distinction between life and intelligence, the shortfalls of physical laws, and pre-biotic selection. Last week Lee was joined by Pete Worden, Executive Director of the Breakthrough Initiatives and Former Director of NASA Ames, to discuss what exactly we should be looking for when we look for life in the universe, where to look, and what tools to use. Then Pete sought advice from physicist Jeremy England, who recently published a new book on this subject called "Every Life is on Fire." on where he would direct his extra-planetary search for life, and what he'd be on the look out for. We left off with a conversation between Jeremy England and David Krakauer about the book, as an object, and what it can accomplish when it comes to big explorations like this. This week, for our final (truly final) bonus episode, anthropologist Dana Burton joins Chris Kempes to think through all of the interesting questions, assumptions, limits and exploits of the previous guests. We hope you enjoy this conclusion of our experimental InterPlanetary video series. Learn more about SFI's InterPlanetary Project at https://santafe.edu/interplanetary/mi... Learn more about SFI's Origins of Life research at https://santafe.edu/research/projects... Watch a trailer for Andromeda Strain at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMbSp... Learn more at https://santafe.edu Follow us on social media: https://twitter.com/sfiscience https://instagram.com/sfiscience https://facebook.com/santafeinstitute https://facebook.com/groups/santafeinstitute https://linkedin.com/company/santafeinstitute