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Are we required to exist? What is our destiny? Are conscious beings an accident, or a necessity? Must our universe bring forth intelligent life? There are three questions that speak directly to human uniqueness and purpose. 1) Does intelligent non-human life exist anywhere in the universe? 2) Given the fullness of time, will human beings spread across the galaxies? 3) Is there Something Special about this universe that causes, even requires, self-aware creatures like us to appear? 

Participants: Ayala, Benford, Lederman, Murray, Tipler

 

	Francisco Ayala was recently profiled in a major story in The New York Times as the "Renaissance Man of Evolutionary Biology." He is professor of biology and philosophy at the University of California at Irvine, where he specializes in evolutionary genetics, using DNA to track the path and flow of evolution. He has published 12 books and 650 articles. He is past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
	Gregory Benford is both a recognized physicist and world-renowned science-fiction novelist. He is professor of physics at the University of California at Irvine, where he specializes in plasma physics and astrophysics. He is also a consultant to NASA. He has written over 30 science fiction books, including If the Stars are Gods and COSM, and is considered perhaps the most scientifically accurate science fiction writer.
	Leon Lederman won the Nobel Prize in physics for contributing to the body of evidence that explains the fundamental structure of matter. He is Director Emeritus of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the founder of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, and the author of two best-selling science books, The God Particle and From Quarks to the Cosmos.
	Bruce Murray is professor of planetary science and geology at the California Institute of Technology. He was the Director of the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA’s center for planetary and deep space exploration. He is also co-founder (with Carl Sagan) and president of The Planetary Society, the largest public participation organization about Space.
	Frank Tipler is professor of mathematics at Tulane University where his interests focus on cosmology, particularly the fate of the universe. His two books have stimulated much controversy: The Anthropic Principle, which states that this universe was required to bring forth conscious human life, and The Physics of Immortality, which presents a rather wild theory about the ultimate future state of the universe.
	Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator and host of the Closer To Truth television series and author of the Closer To Truth book. Trained in brain research (Ph.D. UCLA), he has published more than twenty books, including the Handbook for Creative and Innovative Managers and the seven-volume Library of Investment Banking. He is the president of The Geneva Companies, a leading merger and acquisition firm for private, middle market businesses.
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