Prologue

e 19961SAST PROLOGUE Whumam have alwayslooked to the heavens with awe, alert to the beauty found above and filled with curiosity, yet fearful too of the unknown. It is seen as the place of the deity, the realm of God. In deep space the science of physics and science fiction cross paths. A discussion can (and did at this conference) mix Descartes, the detectability of substellar objects, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), the state of alien souls, Arabic music, Chinese astrology, and a serious academic study of Buck Rogers's adventures. Constant throughout time, an awareness of things astronomical has led to various definitions and redefinitions of the perceived design of the cosmos, which seems to change its form in accord with very down-to-earth vantage points and ends. Our place in the universe remains far from certain. We earthlings turn up our eyes and attempt to bring what we see above us down to the size of our understanding; some try to bring it under our control in the form of a mathematical model or in the form of equally true, if not literal, allegory. The aboriginal sun-woman, in makeup, warming the Earth, equates with solar power. Copernicus forced egotistic mankind out of the center of the universe, Kepler centered us on mathematical study, Galileo on the experimental method, and Newton on the notion of infinite space and time; the search continues for new constructs. It is useful to remember that the Western separation of art, philosophy, theology and science into discrete and separate disciplines is a comparatively modern conception , and perhaps not a very good one. Certainly the same creative mind-set is a basic necessity of each, as are the intellectual talent to go beyond the obvious and the personal courage to face risk. The artist Paul Gauguin once said in a letter to a friend that, to be an artist, one must be willing to go mad at least once a day; that is as true for the scientist and the philosopher considering probable and improbable cause as it is for a painter. Why not study extraterrestrials, and why not ask the larger questions concerning how life is defined? The very idea that other worlds could exist, for instance, and that perhaps they have other forms of life, is a lightning rod for contemporary myth-making. The notion of solar systems beyond our own was as ridiculous to the medieval scholar on his flat world as the suggestion of aliens is today on our round one-and as intriguing. Fiction writing and hard, true science both remain imaginative professions as well as practical applications, with the best responses springboards for still other discoveries and avenues of investigation . New myths, new data, new symbols, rediscovery of old ones, all push us forward and add to the dialectic of "reality." We still search for order and romantically venerate the search for the ideal beyond our reach: the twentieth century has just developed more technological tools. Part ofwhat makes us human is this attempt to understand and to formulate systems, concrete and abstract, that give shape to perceptions. The purpose of the gathering at the Villa Mondo Migliore was to focus on the core of creativity that unites all such intellectual endeavors and to explore and reinvigorate the cultural linkage between the humanities and science. It was an opportunity to learn, to find common ground and to have animated yet respectfully different perspectives. Discussions mixed astrophysicists with anthologists with artists with philosophers-each, for very different reasons, interested in meteor showers. An argument between theologians was a revelation to all. The selection of papers that follows is a small sampling to suggest the tone of the many voices raised to the sky. AMY BAKER SANDBACK Box 770 Rindge, NH 03461, U.S.A LEONARDO, Vol. 29, No.2, p. 125, 1996 125 ...