At our first session on January 27, participants indicated that for the next session we could consider our relationship to the planet itself as our neighbor, and what this world could be like – without us. The attached readings are on that topic: 1) “Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy?”, and 2) “Varied Views Earth’s Anthropocene Age”. This second reading is long, but considers what it would take collectively, as neighbors on this planet, to keep us here, on this island Earth.
           And what is “here” anyway?, and what if we were not the only ones “here”? Loeb’s article is from the January Scientific American – “Advanced Extraterrestrials as an Approximation to God”. But just to be sure this issue is taken seriously, here is a piece from the Washington Post – “The religious questions raised by aliens”, as it is being considered in the Vatican. Yes, that Vatican.