Santa Fe
Institute

InterPlanetary Transmissions

Atlantis

Caitlin McShea
SFI’s InterPlanetary Project

ATLANTIS engages in a conversation about the latest ventures in InterPlanetary science. We talk about the technical specifics and the philosophical significance of our attempts to get to know the universe.

We take our name from the old lost city which was said to drown for its hubris, and then rose again to champion the humane use of science. We send these dispatches from our island in the universe, which might very well be sinking already. Like the ships that sailed to seek Atlantis, we venture into the universe wondering what humans can and will do with their inquiring minds and technological power.

We hope to give our readers more clarity about the science and technology involved in InterPlanetary missions, as well as the ideas (and ideologies?) motivating moonshot endeavors, presently and across time. Together, we’ll engage in a deeper conversation about the nature of the universe and the place of life within it.

InterPlanetary Transmissions: Stardust

David C. Krakauer and Caitlin L. McShea, eds.
SFI Press, 2020

This volume is a record of the Santa Fe Institute’s second InterPlanetary Festival, nicknamed Stardust, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in June of 2019. The InterPlanetary Festival fuses an exploration of complex systems and technological innovation with music, film, art, food, drinks, and more.

During the Summer of Stardust, as the world observed the fiftieth anniversary of the momentous Apollo 11 Moon landing, the Festival celebrated human ingenuity and pondered what the next half-century might hold. Conversations centered on building other worlds — imaginatively in literature, experimentally in simulation and games, and literally in architectural design. Attendees and panelists wrestled with topics as wide-ranging as time, the future of cities, and the meaning of intelligence.

In this book, transcripts of the Festival panel discussions, each paired with new introductions by contributors including physicist Sean Carroll, poet, artist, and curator Anaïs Duplan, and speculative-fiction writer Rebecca Roanhorse, commemorate the creativity and insight generated at this one-of-a-kind cosmic event.

InterPlanetary Transmissions: Genesis

David C. Krakauer and Caitlin L. McShea, eds.
SFI Press, 2019

This volume is a record of the proceedings of the first InterPlanetary Festival, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in June of 2018 by the Santa Fe Institute, birthplace of complexity science.

An annual free public event, the InterPlanetary Festival combines an exploration of complexity science and technological innovation with a summer festival full of music, film, art, food, drinks, and more. 

The Festival is just one aspect of the broader InterPlanetary Project, which is equal parts conference, festival, and research program. The first project of its kind to combine celebration with experimentation, and conversation with analysis, the InterPlanetary Project seeks nothing less than a whole-planet project—beyond borders, beyond politics, beyond economics—to activate the collective intelligence of our first planet: Earth.