Let’s introduce Dr. Graham Lau to our audience! Who are you? If you had to describe yourself in 1 sentence, what would you say?

Dr. Graham Lau is an astrobiologist, meditation guide, science communicator, and writer with a vision for exploring the cosmos and building the future of our civilization here on Earth.

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What are the most

A- Fascinating research

B- Impactful research

C- Fun and whimsical research

You are leading these days?

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Fascinating research: Along with colleagues at BMSIS, Graham is working on the topic of space settlement with a new paper in the works, led by Dr. Anamaria Berea, which explores the connections between space settlement and astrobiology.

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Impactful research: Graham is currently working on his concept of the Panzoic Effect, which is outlined in a recent article in Psyche Magazine.

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Fun and whimsical research: In Graham’s newsletter, The Cosmobiologist, he likes to explore a variety of topics in science and philosophy, but especially related to possible alien life. In one recent essay, he explored the concept of “space whales” and other giant alien creatures.

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Now let’s talk about the Panzoic Effect. What is it? And what does it tell us about life on Earth and beyond?

Many people can relate to experiences of awe and wonder in their lives. From seeing one’s child being born, to climbing tall mountains and experiencing the view, to moments of epiphany from stories and interactions, and even from collective celebrations with other people—making merry in song and dance. Such experiences of awe and wonder can motivate us to not only think deeper about our connections to each other and our world, but also have been shown to promote prosocial behaviors and empathy. The same thing is found in even grander experiences, such as deep meditation, psychedelic journeys, and traveling into space. For the latter, Frank White coined the term “Overview Effect” in 1987 after realizing that many astronauts were reporting similar experiences and feelings of unity. Dr. Lau has now coined the term “Panzoic Effect” to describe a similar phenomenon that he’s experienced in his own travels and discussions with many people about the possibility of alien life. While some people at first feel a sense of insignificance and sometimes even fear when thinking of the scale of the cosmos and the potential for life out there, Dr. Lau has observed that for many people the experience is one of awe and wonder. Awe at our connections to the cosmos, and wonder about what else might be possible out there. Thinking about alien life might help us to become better people—through enhancing our feelings of connectedness and empathy as well as by expanding our views of our place in the cosmos.

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Astrobiology…what a pursuit of the unknown! We often imagine aliens as humanoid beings. But could life out there be entirely different?

There are good reasons for us to have imagined aliens as humanoid in our stories—not only has it often been cheaper for film and television to use real human actors with a little makeup rather than trying to create new alien beings, but the stories that we tell in science fiction tend to be very human stories. But, when it comes down to it, alien life may be wildly different and it is by no means assured that there could be human-like forms out there. While convergent processes in evolution will likely lead to some similarities for some alien worlds—things like trees, carbon metabolism, the development of flight, sensory perception, and more—the evolution of alien life could lead to rather distinct biospheres across the universe.

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AI…AI…AI…is AI doing anything useful in your field of astrobiology?

Artificial intelligence is impacting every realm of human endeavor, and will only continue to do so in ever greater ways. This is the case for astrobiology, from future developments using automation on our spacecraft to present work using ML/AI to help us sift through large data sets, and more. Recent impacts can be seen in places like the outcomes of NASA’s Frontier Development Lab, the development of ExoMiner as a neural network for detection of exoplanets in data from Kepler and TESS missions, as well as the use of ML/AI to detect biosignatures from the air in Chile as a test for potentially implementing the approach on Mars.

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If you could design an experiment without any limitations of time or money…what would it be?

The Voyager spacecraft unveiled so much about the workings of our solar system. Launched in 1977, both missions brought us new insights on the gas giant planets and the workings of our solar system, and are still operational today. Both spacecraft are still very much within our solar system but have now entered interstellar space. Along with a few other missions (Pioneers 10 and 11 and New Horizons), they are heading away from home, never to return. A current concept mission led through Johns Hopkins University called the Interstellar Probe may soon add another deep space explorer, but I personally think we need more. If I could plan any experiment, it would be a continual process of rapid development and launch of spacecraft with the intention of getting into the outer solar system and beyond as fast as possible to better explore what’s out there, to potentially look for possible technosignatures (signs of alien technologies), and to carry time capsules of humanity to the stars.

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‍If you could have a superhero power. What would it be?

Immortality. We may be approaching longevity escape velocity, where it becomes viable for (some) humans to escape natural biological death and live extended healthy and thriving lives. While there are good ethical considerations with regard to life extension (including expanded inequality and resource allocation), I personally think that one of the key things holding our species back from deeper empathy and vision is that our lives are so terribly short. It’s hard for us to envision great change over time because we don’t experience all that much of it. I would love to have so much time on my hands that I could sit near the bank of a river and meditate for years as the ecosystem changes around me. Imagine having a life long enough that you could board a spacecraft and travel to the stars. Perhaps future generations will find new meaning and new science and new ways of being because they no longer face death in the same ways that we do.

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Mystery dinner party…Dead or Alive, who would be 3 guests you would invite to your dinner party?

Carl Sagan
Gene Roddenberry
Sara Imari Walker

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Question to you from our previous guest, Dr. Dante Lauretta : “As we advance toward the possibility of creating conscious experiences through highly advanced computers or artificial intelligence, what do you believe are our moral obligations in this endeavor? And, if we succeed in creating artificial consciousness, what might that reveal about the nature of our own consciousness and the human experience?"

I love the scenes in the film Sphere (based on the Crichton novel) where the crew stranded deep underwater exploring a submerged spacecraft from the future believe they are having an intellectual dialogue with an alien intelligence called Jerry through their computer monitor. At one point, Jerry types out a message decoded to say “I am happy.” The psychologist in the group, Norman (portrayed by Dustin Hoffman), says the following of this exchange:

"I would be happy if Jerry had no emotions whatsoever. Because the thing of it is, once you go down that road — here's Jerry, this  emotional being, cooped up for three hundred years with no one to talk to, none of the socialization, the emotional growth that comes from contact with other emotional beings…

What happens if Jerry gets mad?"

There’s so much we don’t know and can’t know about how an artificial consciousness (or an alien consciousness) might perceive itself. We honestly don’t even know how other humans or other conscious beings on Earth are experiencing life (though we have enough similarities with other people and language that allows us to communicate our experiences to each other). Personally, I am greatly worried about some of the issues that could come up as we continue developing AI on the road to AGI. Among these are the moral implications of creating not only an artificial sentience but if that sentience has feelings and emotions.

We need to be having more deep conversations right now to effectively determine how we might best avoid or limit suffering of any sentience and emotionally aware being that we might create (or otherwise interact with). On top of that, we have moral obligations to future people to ensure that we don’t endanger them with slavery, oppression, or annihilation at the hands of an advanced artificial lifeform. The potential for AI is promising and terrifying, and we should all be working now to promote the positive in our future.

That said, I think outside of finding an advanced alien civilization tomorrow, our developments in AI might be driving the next evolution of human understanding of our own conscious experience and our connections to the cosmos.