Dr. Herzfeld is our guest speaker in worship on Sunday, February 24 for our “Enlightened; Faith + Science” series. She will be speaking about: “Spirit and Self in the Age of AI and the Internet” and hosting a Q&A after worship in the parlor.
 
What does it mean to be a self or to have a soul?  Would an artificial intelligence have a soul?  Am I my body when my spirit can travel through cyberspace?  Computer technology and how we might interact with it raises new questions about the nature of the self, the spirit and the soul.

More about Dr. Herzfeld:
Noreen Herzfeld is the Nicholas and Bernice Reuter Professor of Science and Religion at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict. She holds degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from The Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Theology from The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Herzfeld is the author of In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit (Fortress, 2002), Technology and Religion: Remaining Human in a Co-Created World (Templeton, 2009), The Limits of Perfection in Technology, Religion, and Science (Pandora, 2010) and editor of Religion and the New Technologies (MDPI, 2017). She has published numerous articles and book chapters and is a frequent speaker on the prospects for AI, ethical issues in technology, and Islam. She is the founder and a writer for the Avon Hills Salon at avonhillssalon.com.