>> >> hi. before we begin a few quick notes so please make sure

your cellphone is on an assignment. there is no flash photography end the time constraints he can sign books but no personalization. i am the writer and editor here for the library and it is my great pleasure to introduce one of the most esteemed biologist and a very good friend to the library and has received a pulitzer prize twice for nonfiction of the intersection of biology and sociology and the humanities. dr. wilson explores creatures eliminating all living things are interdependent. as such he is an impassioned advocate for biodiversity advocating for the natural

world. his new book "the meaning of human existence" bridges science and philosophy to create at 21st century thesis on human existence. it is valedictory work to be above the crowd of biology writers he is wise learned and wicked and vernacular. he will be interviewed tonight from dr. shepard for bioethics and policy he earned his m.d. from pennsylvania and he is also my husband which is the greatest accolade of all. [laughter] please welcome e.o. wilson back to the library. [applause]

>> good evening. it is good to meet you finally and person dr. wilson and back to philadelphia. so to start off to get to know you i want to give the audience said chance as well and you are a very talented man and had done extremely well in the field you have chosen. >> of biographical questions and thank you for making it easy. [laughter] and what do you mean by existence?

[laughter] the easy question was in the deep south i had a comfortable life almost every day my parents did not know about it so but i wanted to go. on the river banks of alabama. and decided very early i would be an entomologist. and then living in washington for a brief period of time. and the expedition set was reading about and i thought

that is what i would like to do. or a tropical explorer and realized that is a little boy a stream and to this day i have not changed i am about jazz imager as i was then. [laughter] >> for my follow-up question what makes you so passionate that at such "in-depth" level for many years? >> let me put it this way there are perhaps 60,000 species are creatures that people call wildlife. the fishes and reptiles and amphibians when people talk

about nature they mean they see the flora then they look for the wildlife. but there may only be 60,000 in the whole world but overall there are 8 million species. right now we have a scientific name for 2 million species when there are between six or 8 million are still undiscovered by science. it is the little things that run the earth. the insect, and vertebrates for all the habitats of the

world and they run the ecosystem of the world. so i became aware of that factor early on. because i focused on that i have a punctured i and i cannot see very well. i have a sharp revision in this i'd so in sectors remain subject early on of interest and discovered i had zero whole world almost to myself to explore and discover and that continued when i went to college and working on organisms that nobody else was paying attention to. and making discoveries easily year-to-year so that personal experience to

recommend for young scientist or that kind of phenomenon. so to have a chance of real success with the scientific endeavors as a result, that is transfixed ever since the. >> fantastic. i do want to talk about your book that is fascinating. one of the things that you talk about with the practice of medicine were with the physiology through evolution

we use the example to not cope with the modern dying or the sedentary lifestyle. but i am curious with the focus on social aspects to you think the rapid advance for social media created a similar disconnect how we socialize and now that we acquired through evolution? and what implications does that have going forward for the new modern age? >> and with something far more important and dangerous manner early heart attack and the fact that basically we are still paleolithic with our minds in the way

our brains are constructed i would call our species dysfunctional because we have paleolithic of motions -- demotions very, sapiens and medieval institutions and we have godlike power. that is a very dangerous and unstable combination and that is where we are as a species. [laughter] >> one of the other areas i want to touch on, talk about

it yearbook it is fair to say it is the impression as a certain meeting for humanity lee would not have written the book called "the meaning of human existence". the it religion does not give that sense of meaning that cohesion of the tribal aspects do you think it has anything to offer or that is behind entirely? >> actually the main argument that i make it is very natural for human beings to wonder of that which is just beyond and a whole perception of space and time and i believe human

beings universally share with his religion in the theological sense with the earnings and feelings of the possible existence of god the designer and maker of the world and universe. it is something important for the development of the human psyche and we care if it is a world beyond. that we will go to some other existence. and that binds people together actually with that kind of searching in the theological sense. what does not bind us together is the organized

religions of what we call faith. what is faced? it is the bullet -- the belief of a group tightly organized ave creation story. and the accounts of supernatural e. vance. there are hundreds of them around the world each has its own creation story in their own stories of the paranormal. that is how they identify themselves as a faith. but what binds them together is the instinct of human

beings but to belongs to the group's to identify and your future with that group and to submit in the religious realm with that creation with the paranormal. it defines you and give you meaning. that is especially in the united states where people tend to join according to their liking of propensity. but beyond that was expressed is tribalisms the need to belong to a group to

identify yourself to depend upon it for the psychological needs your strongest propensity but the problem is that no matter how gentle the argument i am not declaring this as dogma but no matter how gentle or how charitable or how tolerant members of a particular faith far, they adhere to it and submit to it and think of their group as superior to all others. perhaps realizing as social

psychologists have shown how they manifest themselves from early childhood on and win groups are formed experimentally, it seems they tested and those that participate know that then they quickly form a group and they compete and come to believe if the their group is alien and up to there level and is highly adaptive to place your future, your life with this circuit of the tribe of the religion is interpreted as a form of

tribalism. and i would say faith has hijacked religion. >> host: with that strong component of religion you mention a competition between groups election where extreme competition or with those extremely competitive folks but i got the sense and if on the surface to be to the human with that effort with that moral discussion that is centered in religion with

that tribalism and and what is outmoded so to feel those moral issues or do we move past that? and it is not as strongly steeped in that tribal competition and. >> the goal of religion with self understanding you touched on an area where science and the humanities could actually come together in a meaningful way that is how we bring science and the amenities together. what do we mean by self

understanding? meaning in this case is to go past history with the origin of literacy. but then on into prehistory with the lives and activities that give rise to the modern human species but then to go beyond that to the evolutionary process that drove the origins of humans species and the way i put that is that history means nothing without

pre-history. but in the last 2 million years and it means nothing without biology. but to understand that human species that it is to know something about those periods. when you start looking into that you raised the question where altruism comes from for the religious impulse. wiry this way in our brain architecture or our behavior? i risk going little a field but one of the things i had then studying social behavior is to search for

the known cases of social behavior and with highly advanced societies not that is organized by intelligence but intelligent planning but organized by a division of labor those that produce more thereby contribute personally more to another group better able to reproduce. as part of a cooperative structure a society that allows division of labor and highly effective operating

unit. but the capacity has the best that i can find that has occurred of the evolving species in all the history of life to 20 times conspicuously for example, when the other thing that a merged is quite peculiar for every one of those the division of labor with highly organized societies were preceded by the adaptation and that is a female or a female in the

mail which they protect to go out to force the food and bring in to raise that young to maturity that is a rare condition it rose 20 times. that is very rare. those that manage to pass through that level with that threshold but now you have a social society. generally they are extremely successful as a dominant creature of the earth with a small creatures are termites and bees and wasps. that explains part of it but

then what is going on? how does that happen the group can form a like that to be cooperative and though juristic? bettis a question when we ask about humanity and here i just emerged from a controversy from some mathematicians with considerable ability of younger scholars that can help being can make it possible to be altruistic and that is the starting point for the advanced society that is the dogma

part. but now we show that is mathematically impossible you cannot organize and devolve. and no demonstration has ever been made. the correct answer is. [laughter] forgive the technicality is multilevel selection. to say if formed individuals are competing not having wrastling matches but they're more likely to survive to adulthood and the individuals are competing

but between groups that of individuals competing with others and their results of this is the opposition that is intuitively familiar to all. to use the following mantra for the individual level of selection where they compete that they beat the eliot juristic it is beating the selfish individual so the social trades involve groups election and they are

evolving to create the totality of those that organize it is it it is a unstable combination we're constantly going from one extreme but it cannot ever settle down and the stable. that word is called conscience. it is a source of so much creativity of stories or music in to deal with that conflict of what created yes that is the explanation that is emerging from biology. >> host: i am glad you brought up that struggle because certainly in

addition with the knowledge of pre-history what other ways could you better explore knowing their roots of that struggle? >> but to find ways to bring that in contact with humanity to have positive ways but in terms that we should understand to deal with prehistory of where we all came from then you have to do with biology. but that is not so hard to understand.

that science generally will impact or forms and logistically with the humanities jesses the humanities need to know the foundation of the impulse biologically. this cannot be done by all scientist. never ask them about the meanings of humans. [laughter] they may try to answer it and be respectful never ask an astronomer or a chemist or a majority of psychologist or even my colleagues on the net -- molecular biology there too far removed from the subject

of interest. who do you ask? in the evolutionary biologist level whole line of species from one kind of life to another. the paleontologist segue into archaeology because it with different time scales with that adaptation with fine details from capacity and analysis. and then to ask this is the big thing now is to study

how the brain works and i believe that is the and the standing of the nature of consciousness. ended to ask the meaning of humanity. but then the center of the subconscious mind and the conscious mind that nature their mobile lot to contribute to self understanding but i ask those working with artificial intelligence or robotics that is where we will carry on experimental and theoretical work how the brain might work because these folks i'd met with

there very ambitious not just trying to build supercomputers they zeroed in on the robot "avatar" robots constructed to think and act like a human being by creating models of decision making in the robots to find out more and more. i have gone on a long time that this is important. [laughter] sova to ask the experts they

answer what is the meaning of human existence. >> i have time for one more question. i am glad you brought up astrophysicist on the cosmic scale was one of the more widely cited passages to put humanity into perspective you say earth relates to the universe as the second segment sitting on a flower petal in a garden for a few hours this afternoon. we could spend time on new jersey. [laughter] but in your book you make the case of the guardians of the biodiversity that we have been the grand scheme of things on the cosmic

scale why does it matter if we get any of this right? if we understand the meaning ? >> we are cheerfully wiping out the 8 million species out there. most of them we don't even know yet we know very little about the 2 million that we know. this is the biosphere. with a living organisms around a whole planet that creates the conditions that is necessary for the millions of species including us. what happens but to have

that right atmosphere and temperature regimes it was always there but we've called as the species over the last 6 million years to be squeezed lee adapted -- to exquisitely adapted to the biosphere as we like that out we take on our souls to be super engineers in the future to take the measurements by the biospheres previously into maintain ourselves and that is the crazy way to go. that is why as part of the overall environment movement not just climate change or

pollution but should be devoted to the living environment. and i have a rule. if you save the living environment with the 8 million species you automatically save the physical environment because in order to save that we have to return to some degree of previous normalcy. we'll understand that but we don't understand the living environment but if you say the physical environment you

have taken away the foundation of the other 8 million species and the shield. >> understanding of our place in the universe is a matter to resolve the internal conflict. >> we do. i am inclined to think this is even blue sky for me but we really do have to start thinking of away to make our moral reasoning. with the theological forms with the belief in the deity is transcended shared by everyone.

to make that population of the world and then turn to one tribe and there is no competing to must get up. but then you'll have and transcendent moral values. but one transcendent moral value is to save the living world. i know you are a doctor. i will borrow a rule from the medical practice with this very important part of our lives to go further harm to the biosphere. stock right now. [applause]

>> host: thank you very much dr. wilson we have folks on the ideal please wait for the microphone. >> good evening. what do you think of the mathematics with the abstract mathematics lee kang calculated mathematically. but we put it into the equation into that experiment.

>> lanius of the first question. >> i will try my best so to comment that mathematical study of paleontology? >> here is the problem and fortunately the division of labor and intellect but with the mathematician but if abstract mathematics we determine the equation in a mathematical way but with experimental science it is a method to determine that equation is to be subjected

to that experiment itself. >> but how about we bury that abstract of mathematics with the constraints of the real world? >> but to ask how does mathematics serve science? but it isn't any different and physics with mathematical analysis to provide the models to measure age and the capability of organisms it is in your call. but use that mathematical

models to simplify the process of obstruction. of space and time where we cannot do solid empirical work but by any number of test to intersect but was projected of the trajectory with that decline. and then to rebuild an understanding. >> this should be easy. [laughter] >> hidden society it is

language thank you speculate on the origins of human language? >> that is an area not in any great detail from the evolutionary process. we still are not completely sure as the direct ancestor, a erectus or from the needles to have language. but i just have a feeling they did have a language. that you have to have a vocabulary.

but to name them with the sound as we are the ideal visual species. and to be audiovisual we could not be called a language. that we think what it could be in a primitive form one of the most powerful drives the propensity to learn parts of human nature for children to learn the language. this is impulsive.

that is not a satisfactory answer. [laughter] but it is a subject what i hope we are addressing. >> maybe we can discuss it later. another question over here? >> dr. wilson. when you talk about one tried -- tribe and it comes down to self understanding understanding, it has to happen one individual at a time. how does that have been -- have been in a society like the united states where

the selfish when? >> guest: we use of understanding with two levels to talk about that usual self understanding of the individual even more to recognize why he or she feels the way they do. but just as an individual needs to know where they are born or what did the events occurred, then what broader space time level to

understand where we came from. the real question to be answered for self understanding with the humanity is the three basic questions of philosophy and religion. and they are where do we come from? where are we? where are we going? and we are pretty close to answering where did we come from. we year beginning to approach this in as we bring science and humanities to gather any meaningful way we will know what we are. then we will have a much better chance to decide where we are going. >>.

>> there are a number of groups lately that claim artificial intelligence truce -- proves to be the greatest disaster for humanity. what is sure thinking on that? >> purity created artificial intelligence. what could be an amazing achievement it is something else. that is the artificial intelligence people are mainly interested in practical users. but to be defined with robotics there is a name for it.

and that is the goal of these people thinking far ahead of robotics to actually create a robotic crane that acts like the human brain closely. but not duplicating it. and to come close to putting in all the functions the human brain has. could misbehave. and there is a controversy of those working on emulation with artificial intelligence whether the brain is true the binary or

operates more analog i will not go into details. but there are too strange thoughts going into that direction and one of them is analog and it is very different from any device because it does operate in the analog fashion with cells working together like masses of people to bring the brain to perception and decision making. >> i find the idea of the it

might -- unity peeling i cannot help but wonder even with the complete description and an understanding of consciousness how would that tell us about moral reasoning in a different sphere? >> but the question is knowing everything about evolution how with that form the basis for moral reasoning? so to know that evolutionary antecedent.

and that basis for moral reasoning at all. and i have just explained the origin of that internal conflict in the operation of what we call conscience but we know increasingly in the early stages that there is such a thing as a moral impulse.

and that is created and to hell of that group's election which is a premium on cooperation which is what groups election produces there is no limit to the kinds of degree of moral reasoning of behavior to be developed genetically. but we are a brand new species of very new species

we cannot understand ourselves yet where we came from and even the think tanks in washington. but then to think about the real problems were the humanities come together. >>. >> dr. wilson i heard you speak about extra terrestrial life elsewhere would they have a creation story? or must we have one? >> is et moral?

does he have creation stories of religion it -- religious faith? was that early stages of evolution i think they would. because every line of advance social behavior but then to suggest of the sequence of the events with the highly evolved social system.

and then to create a protein system. it is so consistent we would expect to see it occurring at and think they would never want to land here. [laughter] with the knife was forgetting about the ufos. because it was a biological train wreck. the bacteria ended them in.

and then call it though wells the fact. [laughter] but then to have the and habitable planet. but then to eliminate all life but then to sterilize it with that domestic flora and fauna with you. thank you very much. [applause] and to dr. wilson. [inaudible conversations]

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