E.O. Wilson - Biodiversity and the Meaning of Human Existence

Professor Wilson opens the seminar with introductions and discussion of his work on unexplored islands. Themes are introduced that will develop throughput the seminar: the primacy of species as a concept; the roles of morals, ethics, and values in conservation and biodiversity studies; the intersection of science and policy; the end of the anthropocene; and a first foray into the meaning of human existence.

Professor Wilson addresses careers, coaxes students to enter biodiversity studies, explains what that field will be and why it will be critically important in the future. Sell inspiration and resolve the human/wildlife conflict. Understand that solutions must be both scientific and values based.

The three tiers of biodiversity: ecosystems, species, genes. A deep discussion of taxonomy studies includes naming species after famous friends. Understanding ultimate and proximate causation in evolution and in ecosystem balance. Professor Wilson keeps up his challenge to his seminar to think rigorously about policy.

Open discussion of ourselves as a dysfunctional species. What hopes for a species with paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology?

Professor Wilson tells a rousing story of ecological recovery in Gorongosa National Park. and recounts his ongoing efforts to create a giant new national park in the southeast US, and a preservation corridor from Florida to Louisiana. The discussion of corridor biology concludes with a grand vision of connecting corridors until the entire US is boxed by preservation land.

Introduction of the precautionary principle: where the data are incomplete but the problem is real, don’t wait, fix it. Professor Wilson continues to challenge the seminar to take intellectual responsibility by formulating policy ideas.

Open discussion on activism, ecological footprints, and how to make environmental awareness bigger than the Super Bowl.

Focus on solutions: Targeting and measuring success in conservation; ethical issues of close management of populations sizes; radical ideas for restoring habitats (get rid of lawns). Professor Wilson becomes cheerfully combative. The stakes are high.

Professor Wilson challenges the group: You have 15 minutes with President Obama in the Oval Office. Advise him on what to do next to save the environment. The conversation becomes a reprisal of the continuing theme of morals and values.

Professor Wilson retraces the themes that emerged during the seminar and forcefully addresses the meaning of human life. The meaning of life will be determined by evolutionary biologists, who are answering the questions, Where do we come from and What are we, and must contribute wisdom and values to the final question, where are we going?