Sara Imari Walker

Like, you know, the theory of computation and its universality that like we invented in the last century that might be universal to any intelligent species that emerges on any planet.

So I think it's really hard to say like what here is universal to other places versus.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's no evidence for life on any other planet.

And the mechanism of how life even got on this planet is not known.

I spent my entire career working on this fucking hard problem.

But I think the appropriate descriptor of it is really hard.

So I think it's easy to speculate on what we think life on other worlds will be like.

And we tend to do it from a very anthropocentric lens where we'll say it will be like us.

And even professional astrobiologists will do the same kind of thought experiments and they'll say, oh, well, the geochemistry on a planet should give rise to things like DNA and proteins.

And so we should look for those in the universe.

And I think that's really underestimating how large the space of possibilities actually is.

They are they mean not literally but like yeah, but yeah, no, no, I totally agree I mean they independently evolved a nervous system so and like and I'll you know, like they're crazy and

I think they're the most alien thing on this planet from us as far as trying to look at comparable intelligence and really understanding a different evolutionary trajectory.

Yeah, that too.

first cephaloneuro conference this year which i sent one of my students to i didn't go to but i know right like it's a great turn i know the neuroscience of cephalopods um but yeah i don't i don't think we know a lot about how they work or how they think and their lifespan is incredibly short it's only like a year or two it's just crazy yeah i have a friend who is uh building this office building and i talked him out of putting a jellyfish tank in it

No, I haven't.

I've always wanted to go.

I want to take my kids.

It's so cool.