In a space as emblematic as “The Beatriz” auditorium, and having been introduced to the audience by the president of CIS University, Doña María Díaz de la Cebosa, the well known paleontologist Prof. Dr. Juan Luis Arsuaga began his lecture with a question:
— “For millennia, scientists and philosophers have asked: What makes us human? What differentiates us from other species and animals? Now, with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, the fashionable question has changed. Today, the latent question would be: What differentiates us from machines?
— Well, let me give you a clue, machines will never be able to create a good joke, because computers, like some of you, have no sense of humor.
Through this reflection that sparked laughter from the audience, Dr Arsuaga began his lecture on the occasion of the start of the 2023/2024 Academic Year, before an audience made up of parents, students, staff and professors.
Ramón y Cajal, as the axis of the last Spanish scientific century.
Once the foundations of his dissertation were laid, Dr. Arsuaga developed a summary of the last century of neurological research through key figures of science such as the Nobel Prize winner Ramón y Cajal, Wilder Penfield or the less remembered Pío del Río Hortega. Comparing the discoveries of these scientific giants with other elements such as the romantic poetry of Yeats and Bécquer or the visionary cinema of Blade Runner, the speaker was able to isolate those elements such as the sense of humor, empathy, improvisation or the capacity to love that finally, according to the speaker, differentiates us from machines.
