This night has it all: multiple telescopes for planets and stargazing; an LED-lit balloon chain installation, floating overhead and swaying to the changing winds; and world renowned scientists and chefs, including a former White House pastry chef, discussing the vagaries of cooking, eating, and staying alive in outer space. Grab your picnic blanket and join us in Brooklyn Bridge Park to contemplate – and savor – your singular, magical, miniscule spot in the universe.

Stargazing is FREE and open to the public. RSVP not required, but encouraged.

If an alien were to “phone” us here at home, what would we expect to be on the other end of the line: biological life, artificial intelligence, or some combination of both? It took only 200,000 years — a blip on the cosmic timeline — for the first sparks of intelligent life to invent artificial intelligence. And since space is big, and life is short — at least biological life, as we know it — it may be that chatter on the cosmic airwaves is dominated by various forms of A.I. Join leaders in philosophy, astrobiology, evolutionary biology, and A.I. to wrestle with the subject of life up there and its implications for life down here.