Santa Fe Institute's video: Andromeda Strain and the Meaning of Life: Part 1 with David Krakauer

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? Each week, we'll host a conversation between experts on this subject. Tune in next Tuesday for a follow-up between David Krakauer and Chris Kempes. Future confirmed panelists include Kate Adamala, Sara Imari Walker, Lee Cronin, Pete Worden and Jeremy England. 0:00 Intro 1:26 Andromeda Strain intro 2:32 Plausibility of large, complex extraterrestrial lifeforms 4:39 Plausibility of crystalline lifeforms 7:24 Plausibility of simple, single-celled extraterrestrial lifeforms 8:23 Chronology, Ubiquity, and Contingency 11:45 Solaris and non-anthropomorphic sentience 13:04 How should we think about intelligence? 14:59 How universal is life? 15:46 Computation as an analogy for life 18:00 The Wildfire protocol, and what counts as life 19:05 How is life bounded? 20:06 A principled approach to understanding life 21:00 Why are we even talking about science fiction? 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