Sara Imari Walker | An Informational Theory of Life

Theoretical Physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is. Walker proposes a new paradigm for understanding what physics encompasses and what we recognize as life— and has developed and expanded a bold new framework for identifying and classifying life, one that applies not just to biological life but to any expression of life. Assembly theory is a physics framework based on molecular complexity that opens a new path to identify where the threshold lies for life to arise from non-life, and to detect and understand the evolution of life on our planet and in the universe. This talk will be hosted by Benjamin Bratton, Director of the Antikythera program at the Berggruen Institute. Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist, and is deputy director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science and professor at Arizona State University, a fellow of the Berggruen Institute, and an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. Walker co-founded the astrobiology social network SAGANet, is on the board of directors for Blue Marble Space, and is author of Life As No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence. This talk was preceded by a Long Short. OY - “SPACE DIASPORA” Directed by Moritz Reichartz. https://www.momade.de/ Music written, performed & produced by OY A.K.A. Joy Frempong & Melodydreamer. www.oy-music.com