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David Kipping on how the search for alien life is gaining credibility

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 12d

My @bigthink.com interview with the wonderful David Kipping about all things astrobiology and science outreach.

bigthink.com/13-8/david-k...

The astronomer recently spoke with Big Think about technosignatures, "extragalactic SETI," and being a popular science communicator.

bigthink.com

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 14d

Yes! This is why QBism is so exciting and I have been happy to be part of their big @templetonfdn.bsky.social project. But, as you say, QBism has been the only QM domain that has ingested phenomenology's central lessons about the primacy experience.

Lots of really exciting work to be done there.

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 15d

Chris Fuchs has talked about Phenomenology and Husserl a fair bit in this respect - but yes, he's a rarity in that regard.

Some Good News About the Collapse of Civilization.

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 15d

Another great thing about French's book is the deep dive into Phenomenology which never (as far as I can tell) gets discussed in Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. Having been a fan since college (I actually read Being and Time... yikes!) I have always thought it was a natural for QM application.

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 19d

I can't help wondering if it's a slightly heavy-handed way of getting to the idea that the wavefunction is epistemic, but I must take a look.

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 15d

The end of the world as we know it, is not the same as the end of the world. The trick is to understand what emerges from instability and get ahead of the curve.

Today's Everyman's Universe post on "Goliath's Curse" a book about societal collapse.

www.everymansuniverse.com/p/some-good-...

Human beings are not built for war.

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 17d

I think it is way more than that. First it’s a recognition of how important and innovative the London & Bauer paper is (which has been all but forgotten).

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 19d

I can't help wondering if it's a slightly heavy-handed way of getting to the idea that the wavefunction is epistemic, but I must take a look.

Why quantum mechanics needs phenomenology | Aeon Essays

Reposted by Adam Frank

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 19d

I can't help wondering if it's a slightly heavy-handed way of getting to the idea that the wavefunction is epistemic, but I must take a look.

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 19d

French’s book is amazing. A stirring argument of what’s been missed in philosophical discussions of quantum mechanics.

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 19d

I was thinking "I hope this is going to get to QBism" - and then it does. And thereby offers a nice perspective on it. In a way, the question is all about how we think about the wavefunction.
aeon.co/essays/why-q...

The role of the conscious observer has posed a stubborn problem for quantum measurement. Phenomenology offers a solution

aeon.co

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 20d

This makes me very sad. Breakthrough Starshot was such an exciting idea. Crazy yes, but crazy in a good way.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

A $100-Million Mission to Another Star Just Disappeared

An abandoned plan to visit another star highlights the perils of billionaire-funded science

www.scientificamerican.com

Life On Mars, Our Difficult Lives Here.

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 23d

Last week's news was terrible all around but hidden in it all was the discovery - maybe - of signatures of life on Mars.

Why the latter matters for the former. A bigger story for ourselves.

www.everymansuniverse.com/p/life-on-ma...

How new evidence about Life on Mars shows what's best in us.

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 26d

I did not like that entry in the Alien franchise. I hear Alien Earth is really good.

Spacely @spacely3.bsky.social · 26d

Prometheus.

Cyberpunk, Your Coffee Addiction and AI's need to get a World.

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 26d

Just started Cyberpunk 2077. Amazing!

Did its rough start actually help the game? That question and others in today's in Everyman's Universe news round-up.

@cyberpunk.net

www.everymansuniverse.com/p/cyberpunk-...

Stories for you about Cosmos and Culture

@adamfrank4.bsky.social
arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 26d

This is SUPER interesting. Bummer if we leave the samples on Mars. That would be silly.

Interesting possibility... life started on Mars and then was carried to Earth via rocks blow off Red Planet in asteroid impacts.

Spacely @spacely3.bsky.social · 26d

NASA found intriguing rocks on Mars, so where does that leave Mars Sample Return?

“I have to look at dollars, and I have to look at time, and I have to look at return.”…

arstechnica.com

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 28d

Also Pérez-Couto et al have an archive paper attempting to track the source perturber of 3I/ATLAS. They don't find strong evidence of a more "recent" stellar encounter but do conclude it was part of the "thin disk" of the galaxy.

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 28d

Keto and Loeb have what appears to be a nice article on the archive about the anti-tail of 3I/ATLAS. Mathematical model seems plausible. No adding of unneeded speculation about alien origin. On a purely physics level be interested to see what comet scientists think.

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 29d

Padowan, it is time.

Graham Lau @cosmobiologist.bsky.social · 29d

Still haven’t gotten over the crash of my hard drive when that game bugged out on my PS4 when it came out. I’ve heard they made it more stable for old consoles now, though I probably should just bite the bullet and upgrade to the PS5 anyway.

What’s the deal with UFOs?

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 29d

Finally starting Cyberpunk 2077.

I had to get over my addiction to Dune Awakening first. If I had to craft one more fabricator I was gonna lose it.

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 29d

"If you don’t have evidence that hits those standards - the one’s science discovered via four centuries of blood, sweat and tears - then you’re just chasing after your own biases.

I don’t want to confirm my biases. I don’t want to believe. I want to know."

Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · 29d

1) "There is a reason Science works. There is a reason why it’s given us miracles like whatever device you’re reading this on. UFOs don’t get a special dispensation."

From today's Everyman's Universe

www.everymansuniverse.com/p/what-s-the...

Part 1 of god only knows how many posts...

Find it and your life can change

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · Sep 5

How to change your life.

If you can take time each day to find the Moon, then note its phase, then note where you’re seeing it in the sky and, finally, note what time of day you’re seeing it… then the Universe will tell its secrets.

I kid you not.

www.everymansuniverse.com/p/where-s-th...

Where's the damn Moon?

Physics of Life: Exploring Information as a Distinctive Feature of Living Systems

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · Sep 4

Here is our new paper that we're really excited about. What makes a cell different from a rock? The answer we argue is the USE of information. But information carries meaning and that changes everything if we want to understand the "physics of life".

journals.aps.org/prxlife/abst...

Living systems are defined by their active acquisition and use of information. This Roadmap surveys current research on life's information processes and their importance for the search for life beyond...

journals.aps.org

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Adam Frank @adamfrank4.bsky.social · Aug 28

It’s Big Fun. Download it and play with biospheres for yourself.

Remi Sussan @sremi.bsky.social · Aug 28

Side note: if you want to play with "Daisy world", the model used as a basis for this paper, you can do it here (click on "model info" if you want to understand the theory behind it)
www.netlogoweb.org/launch#https...