Evolvability | Yair Assulin & Prof. Tzachi Pilpel
Yair Assulin will be speaking with Prof. Tzachi Pilpel, a geneticist and evolutionary researcher from the Department of Molecular Genetics, the director of the Braginsky Center for the Interface between Science and Humanities, and the 2023 recipient of the Landau Prize for Science and Research. The conversation will focus on how processes of change and development manifest from the scientist’s perspective, what evolution can teach us about history, the impact of technological revolutions on research, the role of science in our era, and what it is like to be a scientist during paradigm shifts.
Sponsored by the Braginsky Center for the Interface between Science and Humanities, with participation from the audience.
The discussion will be held in Hebrew
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s 1932 futuristic novel, presents a chilling satirical vision of a utopian future in which humans are reproduced artificially and their emotions are sterilized through drugs so they will passively serve the government. In this world, war and disease have been eradicated at the cost of individuality, art, family, and love. The novel is considered one of the most influential futuristic masterpieces of the 20th century, coining terms that have become integral to socio-political discourse.
Today, at the dawn of the third millennium, we are living in a “Brave new world” filled with unimaginable advancements, but also fear and danger. A world where “space” and “time” are fundamentally different from what we once knew; a world of new human consciousness. The Weizmann Institute is one of the places where this great era is developing, both through research and action. In a series of conversations, Yair Assulin will ask pioneering researchers in some of today’s most revolutionary fields (quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and evolution) to explore the major questions emerging from the various fields of research, the enormously relevant connection between science and the humanities in this era, and the new humanity emerging before our eyes.
