The weekly update on SPI Fellows
by Julie Esris
It’s common to lament that we are living in a more violent world than ever, but evolutionary psychologist and SPI Fellow Steven Pinker would beg to differ. Pinker┬árecently spoke at the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Forum about his 2011 book┬áThe Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. You can check out his interesting presentation that should put to rest your fears about the state of humanity, followed by Q&A here.
Planetary scientist and SPI Fellow Carolyn Porco has a lot to be proud of. She has recently accepted invitations to become a Fellow at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco as well as a Distinguished Scholar at the University of California at Berkley. To find out what this means for her and her research, read more here!
The Associates of the Boston Public Library is hosting its 27th annual Literary Lights dinner on April 12, 2015 at the Boston Park Plaza. This dinner will honor distinguished writers, including novelist and SPI Fellow Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. Goldstein is the author of┬áThirty-Six┬áArguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction┬áand, most recently, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away. Learn more about this exciting event and find out how to purchase tickets here.
On March 22, 2015, astrophysicist and SPI Fellow Lawrence Krauss (author of several books, including A Universe from Nothing and The Physics of Star Trek) met linguist and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky met for a public discussion at the Origins Project Dialogue at the University of Arizona. It is an exciting discussion about the humanity, the human mind, science, and more! You can check out the discussion on YouTube. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.
Daniel Dennett
Stream of consciousness? Stream of unconsciousness? Just┬áwhat is consciousness? What does it all mean?┬áIn December┬á2014, philosopher and SPI Fellow Daniel Dennett— author of several great books such as┬áConsciousness Explained┬áand┬áBreaking the Spell— gave┬áan exciting presentation about the “Hard Question of Consciousness”. The video is now available here.