Origins event focuses on the future of humanity
Last weekend, the Origins Project at Arizona State University hosted a celebration of its fifth anniversary by focusing on the future of humanity in “Transcending our Origins: Violence, Humanity and the Future,” at Gammage Auditorium. Professor Lawrence Krauss, director of the Origins Project, served as the moderator for the evening’s two Great Debates, “The Origins of Violence” and “The Future: From Medicine and Synthetic Biology to Machine Intelligence.”
The first Great Debate of the evening, "The Origins of Violence," featured a panel of noted scholars and writers like experimental psychologist Steven Pinker; primatologist Richard Wrangham; political scientist Erica Chenoweth; psychologist Adrian Raine; international relations scholar John Mueller; and ASU assistant professor Sarah Mathew.
Krauss remarked that he hoped the event would "provoke, inspire, entertain and educate.”
Sarah Mathew (middle), assistant professor in ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Mathew's research explores the evolution of human ultra-sociality and the role of culture in enabling it.
Steven Pinker (middle), Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, conducts research on language and cognition.
Adrian Raine currently holds the chair of Richard Perry University Professor of Criminology & Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Raine’s research focuses on the neurobiological and biosocial causes of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults.
Erica Chenoweth (middle) is a political scientist and associate professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Chenoweth also serves as an associate senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo. She is known for her work on civil resistance movements and political violence.
Richard Wrangham is the Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, a long-term study of the Kanyawara chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda. His research interests include primate behavior and ecology, human ecology and evolutionary biology.
A packed house listened as the panel discussed the development of violence from the brain to world wars.
Experimental psychologist Steven Pinker (second from left) writes for publications such as the New York Times, and is the author of seven books, including his most recent, “The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature.”
The second panel, titled “The Future: From Medicine and Synthetic Biology to Machine Intelligence,” featured scientists and notable experts such as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (second from right); biologist and entrepreneur Craig Venter; science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson; investor and former journalist Esther Dyson; distinguished scientist Eric Horvitz of Microsoft; science executive George Poste of ASU; and physician and evolutionary biologist Randolph Nesse of ASU.
ASU Foundation Professor Randolph Nesse (second from left) serves as the founding director of the Center for Evolution, Medicine, & Public Health. Nesse's primary current research focus is on how selection shapes mechanisms that regulate defenses such as pain, fever, anxiety and low mood. Closely related is his work on how runaway social selection can shape human capacities for altruism, empathy and complex sociality that are otherwise difficult to explain.
The audience looks on as the panel discusses the future of new biomedical and robotic technologies, and their impact on humanity.
Former journalist and current philanthropist Esther Dyson (far right) is focused on breakthrough efficacy in health care, government transparency, digital technology, biotechnology and space.
Science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson is best known for his award-winning “Mars” trilogy.