From Star Trek to Interstellar, starships have long held a special fascination for science fiction storytellers. The ships function as surrogate Earths, providing safety, sustenance, and a sense of home for people journeying among the stars. Starships contain whole communities, even entire societies, and often serve as host to complex ecosystems that encompass plant life, microbes, animals, and more.
The classic 1970s starship thriller The Starlost, created by legendary author Harlan Ellison and starring 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s Keir Dullea, centers on a multi-generational starship so vast that it encompasses dozens of distinct biospheres, each containing different types of plant and animal life, and diverse human communities.The Starlost exemplifies some of the most important themes of 1970s science fiction: environmentalism, paranoia and conspiracy, the thin line between utopias and dystopias, and incredible facial hair.
Join us for a screening and conversation with Dave Guston, founding director of ASU’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and Ben Minteer, Arizona Zoological Society Endowed Chair in the School of Life Sciences.
We’ll have free dinner available for the first 150 guests. RSVP today!