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Caleb Scharf - Five Way Interview

Caleb Scharf received the 2022 Carl Sagan Medal while director of astrobiology at Columbia University and is currently the senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA’s Ames Research Center. He has written several previous books and is a frequent contributor to Scientific American and Nautilus magazine. He divides his time between Silicon Valley and New York City. His new book is The Giant Leap: Why Space is the Next Frontier in the Evolution of Life.

Why science?

I still feel the sense of great wonder at the world that I did as a child. For me science isn’t about some harsh, clinical deconstruction of things, it’s a type of contemplative discipline that amplifies that wonder and helps create a better sense of connection to this vast, crazy, messy universe we’re part of. I also love toying with ideas and asking questions, and I’m in awe of all the ways we humans continue to invent to help answer those questions. 

Why this book?

I said to my agent that I wanted to write a book to 'nerd out' about space exploration and tell many of the stories that get less attention: about early attempts, robotic missions, technology, and the science revolutions of planets and moons and asteroids. She told me I needed to do more than that if anyone was ever going to read it! 

I realized that there’s a special perspective on space exploration that comes from examining the 'big picture' for life, like us, that learns to break free of its point of origin. That examination became the core of the book, using all the other stories as evidence. I wanted to show the connections between breakthroughs in human thought and space exploration, as well as the parallels and lessons from enterprises like Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle and his eventual formulation of a theory of biological evolution. That theory also turned around and changed the course of evolution on Earth, and I think space exploration is doing something similar right now.

Technology is clearly part of our evolutionary development, but is it possible that AI rather than space is the next frontier in the evolution of life?

I think it could be both things, a melding of extraordinary developments. Space exploration is already highly dependent on robotics and computing but will be even more dependent in the future as we spread ever more across the solar system and attempt more remote and ambitious types of exploration. AI is likely central to that and, in turn, space may drive new kinds of AI. We’re seeing this with talk of AI data centres in space, and large-model AI is starting to play a role in accelerating the development and operation of space missions. I think AI could be key to allowing life on Earth to overcome its biological limitations in space by becoming our space-worthy avatars for many things.

What’s next?

The physicist Niels Bohr said that prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future! But I think we’re going to see more robust activity in space that is about building an extended space economy. That already exists in terms of data, from GPS to satellite imaging, but next will be a shift towards activities that have interdependencies similar to how Earth’s economies do. Resources in solar power and compounds like lunar water are connected. Computing in space and the needs of other space activities are connected. I hope also this creates opportunities for science, making it far easier to explore or build telescopes to look out into the cosmos.

What’s exciting you at the moment?

I’m very keen to see what we can do with certain types of AI and machine learning to advance science. I know it’s almost a cliché at this point, and there is a lot of confusion out there, but algorithms like the very large AI models already being used for many tasks are remarkably good at learning the structures or features in data that elude humans. We’re beginning to see the possibilities for mathematical research, physics, and challenges like protein structure predictions. My day job is astrobiology, searching for life in the universe, and I think AI could enhance our ability to sense and decode the many, many dimensions of life’s properties in the world, from molecular behavior to energy use, and evolution. Can we build the right kind of AI and let it go look for life on Mars or elsewhere?

Photo © Nerissa Enscanlar

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