SXSW 2020
ASCEND: Creating Our Off-World Civilization
Description:
We live in a time where the development of an off-world civilization might become the solution to one of the Grand Challenges of our time. As we venture off of Earth, experienced space and ethics professionals can help us face challenges and questions such as how we will adapt, survive, and thrive in outer space. Where does the human ecosystem begin and end? Do we have a responsibility to protect inhospitable planets? As we evolve off our planet as a species, will we mature and choose to be the best version of ourselves, or will our ego-driven selves prompt us to repeat the same mistakes? An astronaut, a veteran space executive, an ethicist, and a visionary engineer explore the possibility and potential of a future space civilization and the chance we have to build on lessons of our past.
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Takeaways
- Dealing with the inherent human challenges – both physiological and psychological – to living and working off-Earth.
- Technical and design solutions needed to expand off of planet Earth to other worlds.
- Our ethical responsibility as this journey unfolds, and how we ensure we meet it.
Speakers
- Ariel Ekblaw, Founder and Lead, Space Exploration Initiative, MIT Media Lab
- Sandy Magnus, Retired Astronaut , AstroPlanetview
- Susan Schneider, Baruch Blumberg Chair of Astrobiology (2019-2020), NASA
- Wanda Sigur, Former VP/General Manager, Civil Space, Space Systems (retired 2016), Lockheed Martin
Organizer
Melissa Power, Sr Program Dir, Interprose
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