signals

A search is underway to find intelligent life in the universe. Can SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) researchers detect radio, infrared, or optical signals from other civilizations? Current and future SETI projects, including the new $100-million Breakthrough Prize Foundation "Listen" project, may provide an answer.

UC Berkeley astronomer Dan Werthimer, Chief Scientist at Berkeley SETI Research Center, will describe the rationale for past and future searches, and will show how new technologies are revolutionizing SETI. Dan is the 2019 recipient of Wonderfest's Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure, and the intelligent are full of doubt." So said philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate (in literature!) Bertrand Russell. Indeed, overconfidence leads us to delude ourselves with wishful thinking, take too many risks, and waste time on doomed ventures. Under-confidence dissuades us from taking risks and pursuing ventures that can enrich life in so many ways. Psychological evidence and insight help us to thread the needle between foolhardy overconfidence and stultifying under-confidence.

Wonderfest joins the Commonwealth Club in presenting UC Berkeley's Donald Moore, Mitchell Chair in Leadership at the Haas School of Business, in conversation with Patrick O'Reilly, Chair of the Commonwealth Club's Psychology Forum. Dr. Moore's latest book is Perfectly Confident: How to Calibrate Your Decisions Wisely.