Goldman Sachs Talks

Robert Rowland Smith, Exploring What It Means to be Human

Philosopher Robert Rowland Smith, author of AutoBioPhilosophy: An Intimate Story of What It Means to Be Human, reflects on his own life story to offer insights about the human condition.

On what it means to be human: “We all have circumstances we’re born into and to be human means having to respond to that. You can either accept that set of circumstances, you can challenge them, overcome them, or you can be defeated by them.” 

On AI vs. human nature: “There’s a very contemporary sense that we need to reclaim what it is to be human away from the transactional, the algorithmic, the robotic.”