Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
15.09.2026, 18:00–19:30
Language: English
Free admission

For too many, outer space exploration has become today the symbol of escapist tendencies that replace the need for climate adaptation with human expansion beyond Earth. However, the dream of collectively overcoming the escape velocity of our home planet is not the only possible cosmic perspective at our disposal. In this talk, I will argue that any meaningful terrestrial ecology is a genre of applied astronomy; there is no planetary without the extra-planetary. Spanning astrobiology, exoplanet science, search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and even contemporary neuroscience, this talk will introduce the argument of my upcoming book Environmentalism Beyond Earth (2027, Bloomsbury Academic) in order to show what the care for habitability of our planet means from the cosmic perspective, and what kind of planetary subjects we become if we stay faithful to this perspective.

Lukáš Likavčan is a philosopher focused on emerging technologies, ecology, and outer space. In his work, he traces intertwined histories of scientific infrastructures, ideas, and cultures mobilized in the production of knowledge that informs human efforts to sustain planetary habitability. Lukáš is currently a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences, and at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University. He is also a co-founder of an outer space consultancy company Substrate, a faculty at MA Information Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, and a long-term affiliate researcher at Center for AI & Culture, NYU Shanghai. His transdisciplinary research has been presented at CERN, Venice Biennale, Goldsmiths, Cambridge University, University of Pennsylvania, National University Singapore, Vienna Biennale, Peking University and many other venues.