Dr. Michael and Ada Anbar Lecture in Judaism, Science and Medicine and the Judaism, Science and Medicine Group Symposium: 'Being Human in the Technological Age'

Advances in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are reshaping how we understand creativity, intelligence, and even life itself. This symposium brings together Annette Aronowicz and Alan Mittleman to explore the ethical, philosophical, and theological implications of creating increasingly human-like technologies. Asking whether humanity is fashioning a new form of life in its own image, the program considers the moral responsibilities that accompany technological innovation and what it means to be human in the technological age.

About the Lecturers: 

• Annette Aronowicz is professor emerita of Religious Studies and emerita Weis Chair of Judaic Studies at Franklin & Marshall College. In addition to "The Thought at the Back of the Mind: Five Explorations of the Human in the Age of the Natural Sciences" (2024), she is the author of "Jews and Christians on Time and Eternity: Charles Péguy's Portrait of Bernard-Lazare" (1998); "Nine Talmudic Readings by Emmanuel Levinas, translated and introduced by Annette Aronowicz" (2019); and "Self-Portrait with Parents and Footnotes" (2021), She has also written a number of articles on the Jewish Communist Haim Sloves, on Yiddish theater, and on post-war Yiddish culture.

• Alan Mittleman is the Aaron Rabinowitz and Simon H. Rifkind Emeritus Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His teaching focuses on the intersection between Jewish thought and Western philosophy in the fields of ethics, political theory, and philosophy of religion. He is the author of eight books and the editor or co-editor of seven. 

  His many articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in such journals as Harvard Theological Review, Modern Judaism, Jewish Political Studies Review, and Journal of Religion. He is a contributor to The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism, The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion, The St. Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology among other reference works.