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Human uniqueness, science and religion will be brought together during a public lecture being given by the award-winning visionary paleobiologist Professor Simon Conway Morris.Professor Conway Morris, Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Paleobiology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College, won the prestigious £1.04 million Templeton Prize earlier this year for his groundbreaking work in the field of evolutionary biology.
He will present The Chapel Lecture, titled 'If humans are unique... ?'. The lecture is interdisciplinary and given by prominent thinkers whose work spans academic boundaries and addresses questions about human meaning, spirituality and faith. It is part of the College's Common Good programme.
Professor Conway Morris is best known for his work on convergence, the recurrence of similar biological features across vastly different evolutionary lineages.
His interests also extend into astrobiology and a concept known as Fermi’s Paradox – which highlights the contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial life and the lack of evidence or contact with other civilizations.
His research raises tantalising questions: are humans fundamentally different from animals? What is the essence of organic life? Is life possible elsewhere in the universe? Can Large Language Models – AI systems capable of understanding and generating human language – rival human capacities, or does our ability to imagine set humans apart in ways that can never be fully replicated?
The lecture is free and open to all, booking is not required.
Full details: https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/about-us/news-and-research/is-anybody-out-there---and-are-we-unique
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Event venue
St John's College Chapel, St John's St,Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
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