Astrobiology and Consciousness – Edwin Turner, Professor of Astronomy, Princeton University

We celebrate the season with a Tour of the Cosmos with Professor Ed Turner. It’s an exciting, wondrous beat: The birth and death of stars giving rise to complex matter and life, new tools to detect exoplanets, astrobiology and the search for life out there to better ponder if we’re alone or living in a Cosmic Womb of Creativity, the imminent launch of the James Webb Telescope to see further back into time, which, by the way, theoretically behaves quite differently than we experience it. Dark matter, black holes, the limits of reductionist science, AI the best candidate to go where humans are not designed to (Sorry Capt Kirk). The nature of consciousness (ultimately, the real final frontier) — we go exploring!

Ed Turner is Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, and a member of the Galileo Project and the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative.

We begin with a report on the James Webb Telescope by Tony Hull, Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy at University of New Mexico,

Hosted by Laura Lee and Paul Robear. Conversation4Exploration, Conversation 4 Exploration, Conversation for Exploration, Cuyamungue: Felicitas D. Goodman Institute, The Laura Lee Show