Robots, Autism, and God: Rice Students Consider Advances in Affective Computing with Rosalind Picard
On January 25, nearly 500 students attended The Veritas Forum at Rice University, titled “Robots, Autism, and God” with Dr. Rosalind Picard. Dr. Picard is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, and Founder and Director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Laboratory. The forum was planned by a coalition of campus ministers, students and Christian faculty and was cosponsored by sixteen ministries and the Graduate Student Association.
Can robots respond to human emotion? Rosalind Picard’s groundbreaking research has shown that they can. Her work in affective computing and artificial intelligence (AI) develops new technologies that advance basic understanding of affect and its role in human experience. At the Rice forum, Dr. Picard gave students a look into her work at the MIT Media Lab and discussed ethical issues inherent to affective computing – noting, for instance, the differences between humans and robots. She also shared some of the ways her research has created new technologies to better serve people on the autism spectrum.
Rice sociology professor Elaine Ecklund moderated a time of Q &A in which students submitted questions via text. Over sixty questions were texted in, ranging from, “What are the shiny green things on your wrists?” (biometric measures Dr. Picard is developing to compute data for the experience of emotion in autistic persons) to “Many would argue that…the field of AI is moving too quickly to be ethically conscious of possible consequences. Has your morality, derived from your faith, influenced the direction of your research?” Perhaps the most evocative question of the evening, however, probed whether Dr. Picard’s science is ever in conflict with her faith. Dr. Picard answered that she understands her faith and her work to be two avenues in the pursuit of truth. They are therefore compatible, and even encouraging, of one another.
The way in which this and other Veritas Forums have challenged and empowered students to connect difficult questions with the Gospel story can be found in the experience of this Rice student: “The Forum itself was very interesting and encouraging but probably the biggest impact was the conversations that I had with friends who are not believers before we even went to the Forum. The event gave me an opportunity to begin spiritual conversations with people that I ordinarily wouldn’t have felt comfortable with.”
An Interview with Matthew Moravec
We recently caught up with Matthew Moravec, Rice University campus minister (Campus Crusade for Christ) and campus advisor for this year’s Veritas Forum at Rice.
How did you become involved with The Veritas Forum?
In 2009 we brought Francis Collins to Rice for a lecture. The campus ministry with which I’m on staff was a sponsor for the event. Though I didn’t participate in any of the planning, I participated in the event and invited my friends. I became convinced that Veritas Forums are valuable events to engage the whole campus with the good news of Jesus, so I helped plan the 2010 Veritas Forum and was the campus advisor for the 2011 Forum.
How have you seen forums at Rice impact the university?
As a campus minister, one of the biggest challenges I face is to help students take steps of faith in talking to their friends and classmates about Christ. There is a climate of apathy toward spiritual things on campus that (understandably) dampens evangelistic convictions.
One constant I have seen over the past few years is students’ excitement and support of The Veritas Forum. They are willing to invite their peers and they bring them in droves to the event. I think the level of academic inquiry is high enough that students feel it is more than sufficient to meet their friends’ skepticism of spiritual things.
What do you find compelling about The Veritas Forum?
It is wonderful to see different parts of the body of Christ partner to help make him known. It fosters a sense of purpose and trust among the various campus ministries. Additionally, there are not many ways to reach the entire university with the message of Christ. The traditional methods of engaging undergraduates with spiritual issues (e.g., dorm Bible studies, evangelistic meetings) aren’t as appropriate or inviting for graduate students, faculty, staff, and administration. The Veritas Forum is one event that appeals to all segments of the university community.
The Social Net(works?): Community, Friendship, and the Social Media Revolution
Veritas Forum student planners Joel Harrison and Joses Ho share the motivation behind the upcoming Oxford Veritas Forum scheduled for June 2011. More details on the forum will be available at www.veritas.org/Oxford.
We lived on farms, then we lived in cities,
and now we’re gonna live on the Internet.
- Sean Parker, played by Justin Timberlake
The Social Network (2010)
At the beginning of the academic year I (Joel) found myself at the Oxford Law Library for an induction session on how to use online library resources. It was as boring as it sounds. So, huddled in a booth, I logged into Facebook. “Psst,” hissed a student two computers down, “check your friend requests.” I clicked on the icon, and lo and behold, a friend was made.
This year, the Veritas Forum at Oxford is titled ‘The Social Net(works?): Friendship, Community, and the Social Media Revolution.’ We would like to invite the community of scholars and students to consider questions such as, ‘What is friendship?’, ‘How is social networking changing our practices of relationship?’, and ‘What is the impact of social networking on civic participation?’
As Christians, we believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ best informs how we relate to each other. Tim Keller argues that while discipleship entails a primary relationship of conformity to Christ, this is given substance in relationship with other disciples. He notes that we are called to acts of hospitality, to bearing with one another in times of suffering, the sharing of feelings and our material things, and the surrendering of our unilateral decision-making power to the discernment of our brothers and sisters. He contrasts these characteristics with the friendship of this world, which, he argues, is typified by a self-love that discards friends when they cease to meet a self-centered desire.
Social networking also has a vision for how human relationships should be. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg states, ‘The thing I really care about is making the world more open and connected.’ This has multiple implications. Some have contended, for example, that this neglects concern for the quality of connections (consider those whose Facebook contacts number into the thousands). Yet the focus on connection could also be facilitative of deepening our closest relationships and bringing together geographically dispersed people. Is the vision of human relationship espoused by social media in alignment with that of the Gospel? Social networking, we suspect, may be re-configuring our understanding of the conditions of friendship, the social, and community.
As for me, I never did again see the New Friend I made that day in the Oxford Law Library. Six months later, I unfriended him.
Veritas Forums in New Media Channels
Selected Veritas Forums can now be found in more places online! We are regularly posting full-length talks and clips on our YouTube channel. We post Veritas talks, share new articles, and ask big questions on our Facebook page. You can keep up with the latest Veritas Forums on iTunes, or track with the keen insights of the Veritas Riff fellows through our joint podcast with Patheos.com. The Veritas Forum is also partnering with the Forum Network, a joint venture by NPR and PBS, to display our events on their website. And, as always, our complete media library is available for online streaming and downloading at www.veritas.org.
So friend us on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube, and continue to explore life’s hardest questions with the Veritas community!
A Place for Truth
This September Veritas Books, in partnership with InterVarsity Press, released its 6th title, A Place for Truth. This exciting volume contains some of The Veritas Forum’s most outstanding presentations over the years, including talks by Richard John Neuhaus, Os Guinness, Tim Keller, Alister McGrath, David Helfland, Hugh Ross, Paul Vitz, Dallas Willard, Peter Singer, John Hare, Rodney Brooks, Rosalind Picard, Jeremy Begbie, N.T. Wright, John Warwick Montgomery, Mary Poplin, and Ronald Sider.
Volume editor Dallas Willard, who thoughtfully contextualizes each chapter, describes the book in this way:
“[…] a remarkable volume in which a number of outstanding Christian intellectuals, along with a few from other perspectives, deal with questions about truth itself and questions about several particular truths […] The Veritas Forum, under whose auspices the talks were originally given, is interested both in the current status of truth on the campus, and in how the basic claims of Christianity are now treated there—or not treated, as the case may be. Its aim is to restore the university to its age-old character as A Place for Truth.”
Apply for a Graduate Fellowship with Trinity Forum Academy
The vision of Trinity Forum Academy is to cultivate a generation of faithful professionals, scholars, and artists who are together able to thoughtfully engage the most critical issues faced by our culture. Join with leaders such as Os Guinness, Andy Crouch, Kelly Monroe Kullberg, Francis Collins and Makoto Fujimura in this 9-month graduate program. Competitive applicants must demonstrate strong leadership potential within their field. To learn more, contact the Academy at academy@ttf.org, or visit academy.ttf.org. College juniors and seniors may apply for our Student Leaders Week (August 7-14) with global leadership consultant Fred Harburg.
