In anticipation of the InterPlanetary Project panel discussion on July 18, speculative fiction writer Neal Stephenson will be interviewed by Chris Kempes, a physical biologist, on the subject of InterPlanetary themes at work in Stephenson’s novels. They will discuss the technological and societal challenges that could arise as civilizations move to worlds beyond our current one.
With co-author Nicole Gallande, a critically acclaimed novelist, Stephenson has recently completed a captivating and complex near-future thriller called The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. It tells the tale of an accidental meeting between a linguist and a military intelligence operator that sets forth a chain of events that alters the characters’ lives and human history itself.
Both Stephenson and Kempes hold appointments at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), a not-for-profit research and education center institute that seeks to discover the general principles governing complex systems. Stephenson is an SFI Miller Scholar, and Kempes is an SFI Omidyar Postdoctoral Fellow researching the transitions of life from its origins, to shifts in human societies.
