47. Christopher Mason: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds and the Embryogenesis of Humanity

In this episode Peter Garretson talks with Christopher Mason, a Professor of Genomics, Physiology, Biophysics, and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine and Director of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction, and principal investigator for the NASA Twins Study. The conversation explores the ideas in his book, The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds. The episode opens with Chris' thought experiment for long-term thinking, and the realization that the span of life on Earth is finite and its implications. The discussion delves into key concepts from his book such as his "deontogenic ethics," the human purpose as shepherds of life, the duty to engineer, the 'metaspecies,' engineering astronauts, settlers, and their companion microbes, terraforming, and the nuts and bolts of his 500 year plan to engineer ourselves, the biospheres of planets in our solar system and settling new Earths, setting sail for second Suns. Mason shares insights from the NASA Twins Study, and highlights work in his lab such as creating radiation resistant cells by transplanting tardigrade DNA into human cells. The conversation covers planetary protection, longevity, synthetic biology, functional genomics, reproduction in space, AI & biological digital twins, and science fiction. Together, they explore what it means to codify such purpose in national policy, and how to encourage US leadership in the new space race in science and technology policy. Chris ends on a note of high optimism for the future of humanity.