Ethics and Astrobiology: A Collaborative Approach to Thinking Life in the Cosmos

“Ethics and Astrobiology: A Collaborative Approach to Thinking Life in the Cosmos” is a series of collaboratively authored essays dedicated to situating astrobiological knowledge from a truly interdisciplinary perspective. Based on the two-plus years of intellectual work by UCSC’s Ethics and Astrobiology reading group, we have identified five themes that will become the starting point for team-written essays that will bring together humanists, scientists, and artists. We will produce three essays, with accompanying visual art, from the currently constituted group based at UCSC, and will then expand to include other collaborators from other UC campuses for the final essays in the series. After completing each essay, the pair of authors will record a conversation, which will be included on the web page of the published essay. We will also host a live-streamed discussion to celebrate the end of the project, where we will additionally lead the audience in a speculative game we developed as part of the reading group.

This project was partially funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.