Modern astronomy has succeeded remarkably well in explaining the cosmic origins of the human race — how the Galaxy was assembled, how the Sun and Earth were formed, and where the precious chemical elements that comprise our planet came from. For the first time in history, the human race is poised to use that knowledge of the cosmic past to predict Earth’s cosmic future, and it looks extraordinarily bright ahead. Evidently, we human beings have been given the most precious gift of all, cosmic time — roughly a billion years of it. The challenge is now clear: how will we humans use this extraordinary opportunity? Sandy Faber will argue in this lecture that the profound insights from cosmology will be central to answering this question.