Jill Tarter — 'It Takes a Cosmos to Make a Human'

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Society, Spirituality, Society & Culture, Sociology, Culture, Science, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Social Sciences, On Being, Arts

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — or SETI — goes beyond hunting for E.T. and habitable planets. Scientists in the field are using telescopes and satellites looking for signs of outright civilizational intelligence. One of the founding pioneers in this search is astronomer Jill Tarter. She is a co-founder of the SETI Institute and was an inspiration for Jodie Foster’s character in the movie Contact, based on the novel by Carl Sagan. To speak with Tarter is to begin to grasp the creative majesty of SETI and what’s relevant now in the ancient question: “Are we alone in the universe?”

Transcript

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0:00.0	On being is brought to you by the John Templeton Foundation,
0:03.6	harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest and most perplexing questions facing humankind.
0:10.4	Learn about the latest discoveries in the study of hope and optimism,
0:14.3	intellectual humility, and free will at templeton.org.
0:20.8	I'm a big science fiction lover, and I've always thought of setty,
0:24.8	the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in that light.
0:28.7	But it's not a search for ET or for habitable planets with water.
0:33.7	Its telescopes and satellites are seeking signs of civilizational intelligence,
0:39.4	advanced technologies as great as or beyond our own.
0:43.8	And the astronomer Jill Tarder is one of setty's founding pioneers.
0:48.4	She was an inspiration for the character Jodie Foster played in the movie Contact,
0:53.2	based on the novel by Carl Sagan.
0:55.7	To speak with Jill Tarder is to begin to grasp the creative majesty of setty,
1:01.3	and what is of present relevance in the ancient question of whether we're alone in the universe.
1:08.2	I'm Christa Tippett, and this is on being.
1:16.5	Jill Tarder lives in Northern California, where the Setty Institute is based.
1:21.2	And she's the subject of a biography by Sarah Skolls called Making Contact.
1:26.6	I spoke with her in 2019.
1:30.2	I did read, and I think this is in Sarah Skolls' biography,
1:35.4	that you first considered the possibility of alien life
1:39.6	when you were visiting the Florida Keys as a child.
1:42.0	Did that actual thought cross your mind?
	...

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