Mark Twain wrote, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” InterPlanetary seeks to restore focus at a planetary scale.

What terrestrial challenge could provide greater focus than nourishing and uniting the peoples of the Earth to explore the extrasolar planets? And what great solutions might we find by searching beyond the confines of our earthly troubles?

To search through outer space we shall need to rise above our inner spaces, the gravest challenges of our time — from reducing disease and economic inequality, to managing finite resources and surviving war — and to take all necessary steps towards a larger, shared goal: an understanding of life’s place in the universe. Because confronting the challenges of space requires braving and solving the complexities of life.

The InterPlanetary Project is equal parts ideas festival, open-source citizen science platform, and research program. The first project of its kind to combine celebration with experimentation, and conversation with analysis, InterPlanetary seeks nothing less than a whole-planet project — beyond borders, beyond politics, beyond economics — to activate the collective intelligence of this, our first planet.

The Interplanetary Festival

The annual InterPlanetary Festival is part of our larger Interplanetary Project, which seeks to engage with pressing problems of today by imagining the challenges of tomorrow.

The first Interplanetary Festival in June 2018 attracted thousands of space enthusiasts to downtown Santa Fe. The 2019 event is going to be bigger and better, with leading thinkers, creatives, and scientists reimagining our future as a species. In between live concerts and panel discussions, enjoy interactive expo booths, food, drink, and art installations that will refocus your imagination.

Check in at www.interplanetaryfest.org for the latest developments, and mark your calendars for June 14-16, 2019! Join us at the Railyard Park in Santa Fe, NM to “Change the world, one planet at a time.”

-If you or your organization would like to be involved in the 2019 InterPlanetary Festival, please contact Caitlin McShea at cmcshea@santafe.edu for more information.

Past InterPlanetary Events

-The first InterPlanetary panel discussion asked: What will it take to become an InterPlanetary civilization? SFI President David Krakauer, SFI Distinguished Professor Geoffrey West, SETI artist-in-residence Dario Robleto, Digital Domain Films, Inc. Founder and CGI pioneer Scott Ross, SFI Miller Omega Fellow and critically acclaimed science-fiction author Neal Stephenson, science journalist and HI-SEAS Mars simulation participant Kate Greene, Westworld and InterStellar screenwriter, producer and director Jonah Nolan, and astronomer/astrophysicist and lead investigator of the DEEP2 survey Sandra Moore-Faber gathered at The Lensic Performing Arts Center to discuss. (July 18, 2017)

-The October InterPlanetary Series explored the universe through film, art, creativity, and discussion in a series of special events in downtown Santa Fe. (October 13-17, 2017).

-The inaugural InterPlanetary Festival drew space enthusiasts from around the world for a celebration of complexity and human ingenuity. Each day, 4,800 participants enjoyed panel discussions, live music, games, and other festival events. Videos of panel discussion are available through the Santa Fe Institute's YouTube channel and through the InterPlanetary Festival website. (June 7-8, 2018)

Snapshots from the inaugural Interplanetary Festival (clockwise and spiraling inward from top left): Festival Director Caitlin McShea; author Cory Doctorow signs books; Ozomatli performs; Shay Youngblood keeps the audience enrapt; a Currents New Media exhibit, SFI Professor Michael Lachmann and his daughter, Ella; a very InterPlanetary crowd; panelist Annalee Newitz; an InterPlanetary fist bump; Amy Lindquist of The Sticky; panelists Graham Spencer, Jonah Nolan, and Kurt Squire, along with emcee D.A. Wallach; Bob Davis’s rocket in the Railyard. (Photos by Kimberly Corante, Aaron Leventman, Katherine Mast, and Scott Wagner)

The InterPlanetary Project is part of The Miller Omega Program at the Santa Fe Institute.

Anticipate • Extrapolate • Enunciate

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SFI External Professor Nicholas de Monchaux named Dean of UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

Brian Enquist receives Robert H. MacArthur Award

Anticipate • Extrapolate • Enunciate

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SFI External Professor Nicholas de Monchaux named Dean of UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

Brian Enquist receives Robert H. MacArthur Award