Is There Anybody Out There? - Birkbeck public panel discussion in association with the CPS

When: 4 November 2024, 18:00 — 19:30
Venue: Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square

To accompany the exhibition Otherwordly at the Peltz Gallery, we are pleased to present this special event. We encourage you to attend the exhibition before and after the event.

Is There Anybody Out There? The search for life and what happens if we find it

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” - Arthur C. Clarke

Humanity has speculated about the possibility of life on other worlds for millennia, but only since the 1960s have we had the technology to try and answer this question. Efforts have expanded significantly in recent decades with space missions looking for signs of past or present life on Mars and the icy moons of our outer solar system. SETI (the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) actively monitors the skies for messages from alien civilisations.

But what if we actually do find alien life? What will this mean to humanity and how we will react to the discovery? In this panel discussion, chaired by Professor Roger Luckhurst, we hear from academics representing perspectives from science, linguistics, psychology, philosophy and religion, and invite the audience to join the conversation.

• Chair: Prof Roger Luckhurst (Birkbeck)
• Prof Ian Crawford, Professor of planetary science & astrobiology (Birkbeck/CPS)
• Dr Annahita Nezami, clinical psychologist and researcher (Kepler Space Institute)
• Dr Hannah Little, lecturer in communication & media (University of Liverpool)
• Dr Richard Playford, senior lecturer in philosophy, ethics & religion (Leeds Trinity University)

Otherworldly

This event is part of the events series for Otherworldly, a free exhibition at the Peltz Gallery 4 October - 6 December 2024.

Otherwordly is a group exhibition of London-based emerging artists who have worked in dialogue with the latest research in astrobiology. The study of the origins, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe, astrobiology is one of contemporary science’s most rapidly developing areas of research. It explores questions such as: What is life? How does life arise from non-life? What are the essentials and contingencies of habitability and evolution? Are we alone?

Links

• Otherworldly exhibition