Santa Fe Institute's video: Andromeda Strain and the Meaning of Life: Part 7 with Pete Worden and Jeremy England

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. This week Pete seeks 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. 0:00 Intro 1:35 Alpha Centauri 2:36 How do you reconcile religion with physics 4:10 What are the behaviors that are distinctive of life? 9:00 Non-randomness and exceptionality 16:16 Might life on Earth have come from elsewhere? 22:15 What about “intelligent” life? 26:22 Reconsidering the Turing test metric 34.55 Universal truths as explored by Theology 39:30 Thinking through life and un-life as framed by Moses at Horeb 42:02 The value of traditional texts 44:04 Why does the Hebrew bible want to talk about life? 48:39 Science Fiction explores these questions, too 50:13 The problem with “ideal” experimental assumptions 52:45 If we find something, should we communicate with it? Or stay quiet? 56:55 When might we find another example of life? Each week, we'll host a conversation between experts on this subject. Tune in next Thursday for our final episode between Jeremy England and David Krakauer, who returns to round things out... Learn more about SFI's InterPlanetary Project at https://santafe.edu/interplanetary/mission Learn more about SFI's Origins of Life research at https://santafe.edu/research/projects/exploring-lifes-origins Watch a trailer for Andromeda Strain at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMbSpnlOOtE Purchase Jeremy's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Every-Life-Fire-Thermodynamics-Explains/dp/1541699017 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