This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. The more we study the history and nature of Earth’s biosphere, the more we see that life has become an integral aspect of Earth, not something that has happened on an otherwise lifeless planet. The arrival of the “Anthropocene Epoch”, where humans have become a major geological force, suggests the possibility that intelligence, too, may become a planetary property on Earth and, perhaps, elsewhere.A Sagan medalist, NASA-funded astrobiologist and currently a visiting scholar at the Library of Congress, David is at the forefront of understanding life in the universe.