Reactions would be would be even more difficult. We have come up with three approaches. History. There are times in the past that we thought we discovered life. You can see what the reaction was. Also, the nature of the , acovery, and thirdly culture contact in various analogies that can help illuminate what the discovery would be like. History, discovery, and analogy are my three approaches. Can we go to those one by one . Tell us about history and what there is to learn from our own history about what our possible responses might be to discovery of life. A great deal, although you have to be careful to say you cannot predict the future. It is an analogy itself. If you use history, you can record in detail what happened, but there is projection as to how it might affect the future. Let me take three cases in past history. One of the earliest one is in move something called the hoax which was a series of articles in the new york sun claiming that the famous astronomers sir John Hersche
Programming, include varying points of view, and be submitted by january 2015. Grab a camera and get started today. Traveledan history tv to the library of congress kluger center in washington, in. Which was established 2000. The Center Welcomes over 100 scholars every year to pursue Research Interests at one of the Worlds Largest libraries. Next, we speak with one of their 2014 fellows. Joining us on American History tv is stephen dick, a former nasa chief historian. Tell us what astrobiology is. Astrobiology is a search for life in the universe. That involves the search for origin of life here and elsewhere. The nature of life, the future of life, the implications if we find life. It is a very interdisciplinary subject. That is what brought you to the kluge center . We have this chair in astrobiology to look particularly at the humanistic aspect of astrobiology, which is broad in itself. I looking at the impact on am society if we find life. What is your thinking on how human beings
It. In the 1940s, the idea of the panic thing was really the main scenario of what happened. It was not that at all. What implications do those two stories have for a potential future . Well, what they show right away is that the media is going to have a very big affect. In this case, these both originated in the media. That me to you one more case in history, which is real science. That is 1996, when nasa announced that they had found nano fossils, very small fossils in a mars rock. Mars rocks to explode off of mars on their hit by a meteorite and intersect the earths orbits and land on the earth. A dozen or so of these have been found. Studying one of these, nasa scientists believe that found fossils. The reaction to that was quite tremendous. The reaction was, first of all, that there were press conferences at nasa headquarters. President clinton at the time made remarks on the south lawn of the white house. Vice president gore later held a symposium with theologians and all kinds o
Look particularly at the humanistic aspect of astrobiology, which is broad in itself. I looking at the impact on am society if we find life. What is your thinking on how human beings would respond to discovering intelligent life in the universe . The first thing you have to ask when you approach the subject is how you approach it at all. It is such a farout subject. Astrobiology is far out enough. Trying to figure out what the reactions would be would be even more difficult. I have come up with three approaches. One is history. There are times in the past that we thought we discovered life. You can see what the reaction was. Also, the nature of the discovery, what i call the extended nature of discovery and , thirdly, a culture contact in various analogies that can help illuminate what the discovery might be like. History, discovery, and analogy are my three approaches. Can we go through those three approaches one by one . Tell us about history and what there is to learn from our own h
and there s a big disjuncture between, of course, the chorus and the verses in that song where the chorus can be taken and was taken and appropriated as this patriotic affirmation that the verses told the story of a downtrodden vietnam vet. and so there s a lot of commentary on that, and the conservative columnist george will tries to sort of claim springsteen for reaganism and the right. and that part of the story s pretty well known of the gipper and the boss. you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. now on booktv, brian christian looks at the state of artificial intelligence today and reports on the annual loebner prize event where the turing test is administered to the most advanced computer programs in the world. from seattle, washington, this is about 50 minutes. [applause] thanks so much to elliott pay for having me. i lived in seattle for the past four years, and so this is my neighborhood haunt. and thanks to you guys for coming out. this is