The Department of Religion is pleased to announce that Natalie Cimino (GS’22) is the recipient of the 2022 Peter Awn Undergraduate Paper Prize. Natalie’s submission, a chapter of her senior honors thesis, “AI Am Just LIke You,” which explores the shifting boundary between the human and the posthuman through an engagement with the humanoid robot BINA48. Taking as her point of departure a consideration of the religious of contemporary Transhumanism, she probes fundamental questions that increasingly Artificial Intelligence raises about human consciousness and the seemingly endless search for immortality.
The Peter Awn Undergraduate Paper Prize was established by the Department of Religion in 2019, to honor the memory of our colleague and his commitment to undergraduate education, and is awarded annually.
Congratulations to Natalie!