SETI Part 1: Macro-Engineering in the Galactic Context: 7/2/25

👽 SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Technological Intelligence) Part 1: Macro-Engineering in the Galactic Context: 7/2/25

Date: Wednesday, July 2
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Student Center, Multi-Purpose Room, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 100 Seymour Road, Utica, NY 13502
Presenter: Dr. Emilio Cobanera, Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for Safe and Secure AI Robotics at SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Description: Turning outer space into a place that humanity, or humanity's children, can call home is a formidable challenge, but it is not beyond current science, engineering, and the power of our imagination. It will all start with planetary-wide engineering, first on Earth to control global weather and then on Mars and Venus to make these planets again suitable for life. After that, humanity might graduate to stellar engineering, with projects like rejuvenating the Sun and maybe turning whole stars into efficient engines for energy, computation, or transportation. In this talk, I look at these ideas closely and rigorously from the point of view of current science and engineering. There are important immediate consequences. Observational astronomy is now sensitive enough to analyze the chemistry of exoplanets and constrain the median age of the abundant Earth-like planets in the Milky way. The conclusion is that technological civilizations could well exist in the Milky Way that are one to two billion years older than ours, and we might be at the threshold for observing soon their macro-engineering projects. To help this prospect, we must have the best possible idea of what these projects might be and their observational signatures.
Fee: Free/RSVP Required
Deadline: Register by Tuesday, June 1 at Noon
Participants: 30 (Max)