This week Alien Crash Site invites Evolutionary Biologist, and SFI Professor Michael Lachmann into the Zone to seek out a feeling device. We discuss the work he's done in the past year on strategic approaches to COVID, interdisciplinary science in general, his opinions on the origins of life, Roadside Picnic, Stalker, Solaris and understanding how aliens feel.

#010 with Michael Lachmann

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.

Society & Culture

Technology

Fiction

Philosophy

Science Fiction

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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#010 with Michael Lachmann

#010 with Michael Lachmann