Prof. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson is Director of Jewish Studies and Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism and Professor of History at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. She writes on Jewish intellectual history with a focus on philosophy and mysticism in premodern Judaism, the interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the Middle Ages, feminist philosophy, Judaism and ecology, bioethics, and religion and science. Through her interdisciplinary research, she seeks to create bridges between intellectual disciplines, religious traditions, religious and secular outlooks, and gendered perspectives. She is especially committed to understanding the complimentary relationship between science and religion from an historical perspective.

To read more:

Abstract:

“Buber and the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century: Ecology and Technology”
 
 Two main challenges overwhelm the future of humanity in the 21st century: climate change and ecological degradation, on the one hand, and the technologization of human life, on the other hand.  This presentation argues that the ecological and the technological challenges of the 21st century arise from instrumental I-IT relations, and that Buber’s I-THOU relations offer the most profound response to both challenges.  Buber’s insights, which are compatible with feminist ethics of care, have already inspired many ecological thinkers, but there are yet to make an impact on contemporary debates about converging technologies, especially the debates on artificial intelligence.  This paper argues that Buber’s religious humanism is especially relevant today as techno-futurists envision a future in which humanity will become obsolete, replaced by super-intelligent machines.