35. From Stardust To Sentience: Astrobiology & Life in the Cosmos – with Adam Frank

What is life, and are we alone in the universe?

In this episode I sit down with Adam Frank, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester, prolific science communicator, and author of five books including The Blind Spot and The Little Book of Aliens. Adam is one of the most compelling voices working at the intersection of astrobiology, philosophy, and the human future.

We journey from the stunning variety of exoplanets we're only beginning to map, to the deep questions on detecting life in space. Adam argues that the search for extraterrestrial life can't be separated from the question of what life means here on Earth. Astrobiology, it turns out, may be our most useful mirror for understanding our own civilisational moment.

We also get into the hard problem of consciousness, the blind spot at the heart of modern science, and how cosmology like art and myth - can be a gateway to awe. A conversation that leaves you more at home in the strangeness of the universe and probably less certain about what “alive” even means.

Episode Website Link

Links:

• Adam’s Website
• Adam’s Podcast: The Blind Spot
• Adam’s Instagram
• Noema Magazine: Why Science Hasn’t Solved Consciousness (Yet)
• The Atlantic: The Truth Physics Can No Longer Ignore
• 5 Sci FI Aliens article
• Beyond Center at ASU on astrobiology and SETI
• Sarah Walker’s Assembly Theory in the NYT: A Test for Life Versus Non-Life
• Nature paper on Assembly Theory
• Schrodinger: What is Life?
• Information Theory
• Book: Human Cosmos by Jo Marchant
• "Semantic information, autonomous agency and non-equilibrium statistical physics" by Artemy Kolchinsky and David Wolpert

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd

Photo Credit: Hubble Space Telescope

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