EFTA00751595.pdf

From: Lawrence Krauss 5 To: Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacation®gmail.com> Cc: ' Krauss" < Subject: Fwd: Origins Programs Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:13:03 +0000 here is draft of a proposal I sent to Bamaby.. but of course I would be happier if Florida Science Foundation at least partnered.. :) LMK Begin forwarded message: From: Lawrence Krauss < fr" Date: November 29, 2010 10:10:29 AM MST To: Krauss" Barnaby Marsh <bmarsh@templeton.org> Subject: Origins Programs Barnaby: Hi.. will I see you in Dec? Just got back from Oz.. Here is a draft of a proposal for a variety of ongoing origins initiatives... let me know what you think.. Further to our last phone conversation, here are programs that will be supported by Origins on an Ongoing basis, including long term workshops, research, and outreach. I would like to request $1M/program to support these ongoing efforts over a 3 year period (i.e. $3331Uy/program/yr). I. Origins of Morality, in collaboration with Sandra Day O'Conner Law School at ASU and Cambridge University: We are embarking on a long term series of programs aimed at exploring the evolutionary origins of the sense of morality and then exploring the implications, if any, that these origins have for ethics or meta- ethics. We have already brought together a workshop of leading philosophers and neuroscientists, and ethicists to explore this issue, including, to name just a few, Simon Blackburn, Stephen Pinker, Josh Greene, and Peter Singer. (We also hosted a public event, called The Great Debate, Can Science Tell Right from Wrong, at which 2000 members of the public attended a series of presentations and discussions on this issue.) We plan to continue to explore this issue, bringing together an even more diverse group, including most importantly evolutionary biologists, to follow up on the issues raised in our initial workshop, for a series of extended discussions and workshops, both at Cambridge and at ASU. The goal will be to produce a comprehensive series of volumes on this issue, exploring the science and philosophy from a variety of perspectives 2. Origins of Creativity and Social Complexity, with School of Life Sciences and Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity: We have, at ASU, an impressive collection of biologists, anthropologists, and archaeologists examining the nature of social dynamics. Key members of this collaboration include Bert Holldoebler, one of the world's experts on ant physiology and social dynamics, Manfred Laublicher, co-director of the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, and Sander Van de Leeuw, Director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. In collaboration with scientists at the Santa Fe Institute, we plan to launch a comprehensive and broad EFTA00751595 program exploring the dynamics of social systems, from insects to humans, as seen from a variety of perspectives, biological, mathematical, anthropological, and sociological. 3. Origins of Human Uniqueness and Early Modem Hominids: with Institute of Human Origins and School of Human Evolution and Social Change, ASU: Spearheaded by Anthropologist Kim Hill and Paleontologist Curtis Marean, we have begun a comprehensive and broad new program exploring the Origins of Human Uniqueness. In the spring of 2010 we hosted a groundbreaking workshop on the subject, bringing together a group of anthropologists, psychologists, geneticists, evolutionary biologists, paleontologists, and social scientists to explore precisely what properties differentiated early modem hominids from other species, leading to their evolutionary success, and at the same time to explore how these properties may have arisen. This program is continuing, and we are making a major recruiting effort to bring some of the world's best known cultural anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists together to help direct a long term effort to produce breakthroughs in understanding in this area. 4. What is Life and How did it Begin?, an RNA world revisited, with Florida Science Foundation: We are beginning a new program exploring the origins of life, both on earth and elsewhere, drawing on expertise from asu astrobiologists who are currently directing one of the 7 NASA Astrobiology institutes, and also being co- directed by Nobel Laureate Sidney Altma, who has come to ASU as a Distinguished Origins Visiting Professor. We will be running a workshop on an RNA world in February 2011 in order to begin to explore these issues and ascertain areas of potential progress. 5. Dark Matter and the Origins of Cosmic Structures, with Cosmology Initiative at ASU: The Universe has devoted substantial resources to a new cosmology initiative at ASU, and we have recently recruited six new faculty. The goal of this program is to explore the microphysical processes, from the Big Bang onwards, that have resulted in our present universe, and to explore the ongoing dynamics of our universe to anticipate its long term future as well. Topics we are exploring include, multiverses and extra dimensions, inflation and the early universe, dark matter and dark energy, topological defects and the origin of magnetic fields. gravitational wave generation, black holes, big bang nucleosynthesis, neutrino astrophysics, galaxy and structure formation, star formation and planet formation. 6. Origins of the Laws of Nature, with Beyond Center at ASU: Our empirical understanding of the universe has made great strides over the past four decades, leading us to the edge of exploring meta-questions such as: Is our Universe Unique? Are the laws of nature merely environmental? Why are there four known forces and three families of elementary particles? What is the nature of gravity? The Origins Project, in associated with the Beyond Center at ASU is working on these issues. Spearheading part of this program is Distinguished Origins Visiting Professor and Nobel Laureate Frank Wliczek, and recent Beyond hire, Maulik Parikh. We have already hosted one workshop on the nature of gravity, and are planning to continue to explore these issues with an active visitor program. Lawrence M. Krauss Foundation Professor Director, The ASU Origins Project Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative Assoc. Dir, Beyond Center ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Liberal Arts and Sciences School of Earth and Space Exploration PO Box 871404 I Tempe AZ 85287-1404 Exec. Asst ( Origins Asst EFTA00751596 Lawrence M. Krauss Foundation Professor Director, The ASU Origins Project Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative Assoc. Dir, Beyond Center ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Liberal Arts and Sciences School of Earth and Space Exploration PO Box 871404 I Tem e AZ 85287-1404 Exec. Asst Origins Asst EFTA00751597