stay with us. >> rose: e.o. wilson is here.e of the world's most distinguished biologist and natural ice. he's a professor emeritus at harvard university. his new gook grapple with life's most fundmenteddal questions it is called the meaning of human existence. i'm pleased to have e.o. wilson as i always am back at this table. welcome. >> thank you. >> rose: how old are you now. >> i'm 85 and beginning to slow down in age but i don't feel quite that way yet. >> rose: here's why i ask,t&-we you were just here not long ago with another book. and you said to me three in two years. and i said is there some sense of urgency that you have these things that you think it's important for you to say now. >> yes. i said that. an 85 year old may have 10 more years, i'm not counting on it i just want to make sure if i have anything worth saying i get it out. >> rose: tell me how you came to the meaning of human existence. >> over a long long route. i started my career as an evolutionary biologist and that's another story, very interesting.

i am pleased to have e.o. wilson back at this table. you're how old now?> 85, and beginning to slow down, but i don't quite feel that way yet. >> here is why i asked. it seems like you were just here not long ago with another book and you said to me, three in two years, and i said, there is a sense of urgency that you have important toit's say now. more years.e 10 i'm not counting on. i just want to make sure if i have anything worth saying that i get it out. >> tell me how you came to the meaning of human existence. >> over a long route. i started my career as an biologist.y i actually invented that term. that also makes for an interesting story. in the course of studying every the biology of ants, i became interested in the broad theect of social behavior, origins of social behavior. i wrote a book called sociobiology and other related books. >> that became a bit controversial. >> it did. in the 1970's. now it is not controversial. after all, we are social animals. eventually, it just seemed logical, where i found myself positioned, to think about some o

e.o. wilson's definition of where we let the robots evolve too. want to see how far we can take it. >> that is the mantra of the techno-scientific age. there will be no halting of any scientific investigation or potentially useful technology because it is our human nature to want to explore and keep exploring always, but there is a big difference between a mad scientist inventing a neutron bomb on his own in a laboratory and the teams of scientists needed to produce the ability of robots or artificial intelligence of any kind to communicate and to go through natural selection. i think those who make up the good stories for us in hollywood don't appreciate exactly what selection is, natural selection and artificial selection. >> you listed evolutionary biology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence and robotics, paleontology. is that one or two? >> they segue into one another. when you get far enough back, you're not dealing with the artifacts of culture so much as you're with anatomy and physiology. >> when i picked up this book, before i read it,

. >> rose: we conclude this evening with harvard professor e.o. wilsonhing the time nowre