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. Can a universal general theory for solving the matter to life transition, detecting alien life and designing synthetic life be found?
Walker proposes a new paradigm for understanding what physics encompasses and what we recognize as 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. Walker leads one of the largest international theory groups in origins of life and astrobiology who are working to 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. Watch Benjamin's January 02025 talk, A Philosophy of Planetary Computation.
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