For Immediate Release Contact: Greg Borzo (312) 665-7100 (For Media Use Only) gborzo@fieldmuseum.org Monica Amarelo, AAAS (202) 326-6431 Becoming Human … and Beyond Field Museum hosts conference Nov. 1-3 on the origin, constitution and future of human nature CHICAGO – Who are we? From where do we come? Where are we going? Advances in scientific understanding in many fields are providing new understandings of the world and new answers to these primordial questions. Discoveries in paleoanthropology are shedding light on the evolutionary emergence of Homo sapiens. Mapping the human genome is providing insight into the contemporary biological constitution of human beings and our evolutionary heritage. The neurosciences are opening up deeper understanding of the relationships between human subjective experience and the physical structures and processes of the brain. Robotics and artificial intelligence represent an effort to constitute a human-like form of cognitive being in a non-biological form. Becoming Human...and Beyond will explore these developments and their implications for human self understanding through presentations and discussions with scientists, philosophers, religious scholars and authors of speculative fiction. It will provide an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of these developments as we continue to seek an understanding of what it means to be human. WHEN: November 1 - 3, 2001 WHERE: The Field Museum SPONSORS: The American Association for the Advancement of Science; The Field Museum ADMISSION: General public $210; Members of AAAS or The Field Museum $180; Students $150; Reporters free. Pre-registration is required. MEDIA CONTACT: Greg Borzo, The Field Museum (312) 665-7106, Monica Amarelo, AAAS (202) 326-6431 Speakers include: Robert Martin, Vice President, Academic Affairs, at The Field Museum, on “Human Distinctiveness” John Terrell, Curator of Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology at The Field Museum, on “Genes and Behavior: An Anthropological View” Rodney A. Brooks, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, on “AI and robotics” Other topics include: Genetic Modification; The Human Family Tree; Speculative Fiction Writers; and Designer Humans For a full program and registration materials go to www.aaas.org