Can We Define Life? Should We? A SETI Talk Sponsored by Wendi Zhang. Wednesday, August 21, 2021 at 7pm PDT
MIAMI, FLORIDA, USA, August 13, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — What is the difference between you and a rock? Are stars alive? Is a computer virus a living being? These may seem easy questions, but scientists have struggled to formulate a universal definition of life, to draw the line between the living and the inanimate. Can life even be defined? Is such a task even helpful?
We think we can intuitively recognize whether something is alive or not. But nature shows many examples that are difficult to categorize as life or non-life. The challenge may intensify as other worlds in our universe open up to exploration.
The SETI Institute has invited two scientists to this month's "SETI Talks" to discuss these issues. Haley Sapers, an astrobiologist at Caltech who studies organisms such as those we might find far from Earth, and Carol Cleland, a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who wrote “The Quest for a Universal Theory of Life: Searching for life as we don’t know it.”
Joined by Molly Bentley, executive producer and co-host of the Big Picture Science radio show, these two scientists will explore ideas about life based on what we know from biological, philosophical and physical perspectives. They will discuss whether a singular definition of life is possible or even relevant – could such an approach blind us to finding something more profound?
The hopes of this conversation is to shed light on what we are, living creatures searching for an explanation to differentiate ourselves from a rock or a star. And perhaps open our minds to possibilities beyond a simple definition of life.
The chat will take place online on Wednesday, August 18, 2021 at 7pm PDT and anyone interested can register for free here.
About the SETI Institute: Based in Mountain View, California, the SETI institute is the world's pre-eminent organization focused on the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Its more than 100 research scientists investigate the nature of the universe and the prevalence of life beyond earth.
Since 2015, the CarlKruse.org blog has highlighted non-profit organizations and people making the world a better place. The blog has previously covered the SETI Institute in articles such as, Seti Are We Alone? Blog members were involved in the SETI@Home project and closely follow developments in SETI and space exploration.
Carl Kruse
Carlkruse.org
+49 15175190292
email us here
Visit us on social media:
Twitter
LinkedIn
