Expanding Worldviews: Astrobiology, Big History and Cosmic Perspectives

- Introduction: Expanding Worldviews: Astrobiology, Big History and Cosmic Perspectives. - "The Keen Longing for Unified, All-Embracing Knowledge": Big History, Cosmic Evolution, and New Research Agendas. - From Planetary Dynamics to Global Trade and Human Genetics: A Big History Narrative. - How Big History Could Change the World for the Better. - Expanding World Views: Can SETI Expand Its Own Horizons and that of Big History Too?. - The Summons of a Silent Universe: The Relationship Between Existential Risk and Cosmic Silence. - The Visibility of Big History. - Re-encountering Signs of Agency: Surveying the Appearance of 'Layering' Patterns Within Our Interstellar Messaging Record as Representational Signsfor Earth. - COGITO in Space. - The Overview Effect and Well-Being. - The Biological Overview Effect. - Is the Universe Enough? Can It Suffice as a Basis for Worldviews?. - The Universe Decentered: Transcultural Perspectives on Astrobiology and Big History. - "Unfathomable, Bottomless, Very Deep": Waterworld Imaginaries. - Astrobiology and the Outer Limits of Human Ethics. - Big History and the Significance of the 1969-1972 Apollo Lunar Landings. - Towards a Planetary Polity: The Formation of Global Identity and State Structures. - Widening Perspectives: The Intellectual and Social Benefits of Astrobiology, Big History, and the Exploration of Space.

Ian Crawford is Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. His current research interests focus on lunar science, the search for life in the universe, and the future of space exploration. He has been at Birkbeck since 2003, where he was responsible for establishing the B.Sc. Degree in Planetary Science with Astronomy. Prior to his appointment at Birkbeck, Professor Crawford had a fifteen-year career as an observational astronomer at University College London, specialising is studies of the interstellar medium.  He was President of the Society for Popular Astronomy for 2006-2008, and a Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society for 2017-2019.

Professor Crawford also has strong interests in the social and cultural implications of astrobiology and space exploration. In 2018, he was awarded a Visiting Fellowship at the Humanities Research Centreof the Australian National University to further explore these topics. This book is partly a result of that activity.

Professor Crawford was awarded the 2021 Service Award for Geophysics by the Royal Astronomical Society for his long-standing promotion of lunar science and human space exploration, his role as a mentor for young planetary scientists, and other contributions to the planetary science community over the last twenty years.