Alien Crash Site

Dec 24 2021 26 ep. 54 mins 127

Alien Crash Site Podcast artwork

A new InterPlanetary interview series from the Santa Fe Institute takes a page from the Strugatsky brothers' classic Soviet sci-fi novel, Roadside Picnic, to discuss a variety of transformative alien artifacts. Thirteen years ago, an alien civilization visited our planet, and left behind myriad, mysterious materials in their crash sites. These areas, Zones, behave very strangely, but the interplanetary items they contain could change the trajectory of our technological advancement. What appears as a hoop might actually be a perpetual-motion machine. What appears as a slime might alter space-time. Spend too much time in the Zone and your genes might mutate, your bones might dissolve, your body might be ground into meat. If you’re lucky enough to make it out alive, you’ll likely be imprisoned. But a successful trip in and out of the Zone could alter human history. Do you dare? And for what? Hosted by Caitlin McShea.

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What can an asteroid tell us about our own Planet. #023 with Lindy Elkins-Tanton

Dec 24 2021 55 mins

This week, Alien Crash Site invites Lindy Elkins-Tanton into the Zone. Lindy is a Foundation and Regents Professor at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration. She is the Vice-president of ASU’s InterPlanetary Initiative. And, she is the principal investigator of NASA’s Psyche Mission: an attempt to understand a metal rich asteroid located between Mars

#022 - Crossover episode with Complexity Pod: Gary Bengier

Dec 07 2021 60 mins

After a career in Silicon Valley, Gary Bengier pursued passion projects, studying astrophysics and philosophy. He’s spent the last two decades thinking about how to live a balanced, meaningful life in a rapidly evolving technological world. This self-reflective journey infuses his novel, Unfettered Journey, with insights about our future and the challenges we will face in finding

Co-Ordination: On Time Between Worlds - an InterPlanetary panel on Complex Time

Nov 18 2021 88 mins

SFI's InterPlanetary Project teamed up with New School Policy and Design for Outer Space to present this conversation on Complex Time, as part of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. When imagining InterPlanetary life and human civilization in space, it's always a matter of time. Philosophers and physicists from Aristotle to Carlo Rovelli have deeply considered the nature of tim

What are the best strategies for finding life in space? #021 with Natalie Grefenstette?

Oct 28 2021 63 mins

Astrobiology is a paradoxically established and yet still burgeoning field that is reconsidering the fundamental boundaries of what we mean by "life," while simultaneously searching for that life beyond Earth. Past guests have outlined how difficult the search for life is; they've contributed new detection methods and measures, they've proposed new tools, and they're working to est

Special Announcement - InterPlanetary Panel on Complex Time

Oct 15 2021 3 mins

Alien Crash Site is taking a small break, to return the week of October 24th. Why? Because SFI, in partnership with New School Policy and Design for Outer Space, are hosting an InterPlanetary panel discussion on Complex Time. October 21st, 10 am MDT. Free to attend.

How does size shape our understanding of and search for life? #020 with Chris Kempes

Oct 01 2021 48 mins

Chris Kempes is a professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a mathematical biologist, who works on scaling laws, and is ultimately interested in where those scaling laws break down. What are their limits? What is the physiological constraint for life on earth? How small can life be? How big? How might that constraint change in other environments? He recently published a paper, a

What to look for, when we don't know what we're looking for? #019 with Heather Graham

Sep 03 2021 54 mins

What do we look for, when we don’t know what we’re looking for? As we announce more missions seeking life in the universe, and as we build new technologies to assist in that pursuit, how do we ensure we don’t miss it when we come across it? How can we best prepare ourselves to recognize life unlike our own? This week, Heather Graham fills us in on exactly how she is seeking

What Governance Structure Best Suits an InterPlanetary Humanity?" #018 with Timiebi Aganaba

Aug 23 2021 60 mins

As we stand on the precipice of becoming an InterPlanetary Species, we need to think carefully about what an InterPlanetary governance structure looks like, and how it ensures that space is explored and protected for the benefit of all humanity. Dr. Timiebi Aganaba is the perfect person to walk us through all that's at stake in such a huge consideration. Timiebi Aganaba is an Assi

What lies in the space between? #017 with Aerospace Engineer Ryan McGranaghan

Aug 06 2021 55 mins

This week Alien Crash Site brings aerospace engineer Ryan McGranaghan into the Zone. Ryan currently works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab as a Jack Eddy Post-doctoral research fellow. His work focuses on the application of data assimilation, complex systems analyses and data science to space science research…specifically work within the realm of the “space environment.” We s

How Do Artifacts Inform Cultural Evolution? #016 with Vanessa Ferdinand

Jul 09 2021 49 mins

This week, Computational Cognitive Scientist Vanessa Ferdinand provides us with her skeptical take on the very premise of Roadside Picnic. Given her research on cultural evolution, and how cultural artifacts are changed by the cognitive systems that perceive them, she had quite a few problems with the idea of finding and using an object created by an alien lifeform. She explains