Chapter 6
COGITO in Space
Daniela de Paulis
Abstract COGITO in Space is an experiential narrative sending thoughts into outer
space as radio waves. The project exists both as a mobile installation and as performative event staged inside the cabin of the Dwingeloo radio telescope in The Netherlands. For both versions of the project, a team composed by three neuroscientists
prepare the subject with a lab grade electroencephalogram (EEG) device and a virtual
reality (VR) headset, showing an experimental video of the Earth seen from space.
The brain activity stimulated by the video is recorded and simultaneously transmitted
into space in real time, using the antenna of the Dwingeloo radio telescope.
6.1 Introduction
The first brain activity was purposefully sent into space in 1977, etched as sound in
the Golden Record by Carl Sagan and his team. The brain activity of Ann Druyan
was recorded for one hour on June 3 1977, with the help of Julius Korein and Tim
Ferris of the New York University Medical as a single electroencephalography (EEG)
channel and compressed into a one-minute sound recording [2] (see Fig. 6.1).
Although a highly poetic gesture, the brain activity etched in the Golden Record
does not convey actual information about human mental states or the human existential condition. Neuroscience has progressed much since, with modern EEG recording
and analysis techniques allowing sufficient fidelity to capture individual brain states
to the point where they can be used as individual ‘fingerprints’, and for the decoding
of subjective and cognitive processes.
COGITO in Space began as a thought experiment in 2013, with the first public
talk about the project as part of KOSMICA in Mexico City in August 2013. A public
performance and radio transmission of brain activity into space followed as part of
This paper was first published on the #46 issue of “Antennae: Journal of Nature in Visual Culture”
and Leonardo MIT Journal 54, Issue 1 [1].
D. de Paulis (B)
IAA SETI Permanent Committee, Roma, Italy
e-mail: selavyrose@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Montebugnoli and A. Melis (eds.), The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence,
Springer Proceedings in Physics 260, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63806-1_6
35
COGITO in Space
Daniela de Paulis
Abstract COGITO in Space is an experiential narrative sending thoughts into outer
space as radio waves. The project exists both as a mobile installation and as performative event staged inside the cabin of the Dwingeloo radio telescope in The Netherlands. For both versions of the project, a team composed by three neuroscientists
prepare the subject with a lab grade electroencephalogram (EEG) device and a virtual
reality (VR) headset, showing an experimental video of the Earth seen from space.
The brain activity stimulated by the video is recorded and simultaneously transmitted
into space in real time, using the antenna of the Dwingeloo radio telescope.
6.1 Introduction
The first brain activity was purposefully sent into space in 1977, etched as sound in
the Golden Record by Carl Sagan and his team. The brain activity of Ann Druyan
was recorded for one hour on June 3 1977, with the help of Julius Korein and Tim
Ferris of the New York University Medical as a single electroencephalography (EEG)
channel and compressed into a one-minute sound recording [2] (see Fig. 6.1).
Although a highly poetic gesture, the brain activity etched in the Golden Record
does not convey actual information about human mental states or the human existential condition. Neuroscience has progressed much since, with modern EEG recording
and analysis techniques allowing sufficient fidelity to capture individual brain states
to the point where they can be used as individual ‘fingerprints’, and for the decoding
of subjective and cognitive processes.
COGITO in Space began as a thought experiment in 2013, with the first public
talk about the project as part of KOSMICA in Mexico City in August 2013. A public
performance and radio transmission of brain activity into space followed as part of
This paper was first published on the #46 issue of “Antennae: Journal of Nature in Visual Culture”
and Leonardo MIT Journal 54, Issue 1 [1].
D. de Paulis (B)
IAA SETI Permanent Committee, Roma, Italy
e-mail: selavyrose@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Montebugnoli and A. Melis (eds.), The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence,
Springer Proceedings in Physics 260, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63806-1_6
35