Modern humans are building megacities – and networks of megacities – at an unprecedented scale. During an SFI Community Lecture Monday evening, February 29, at The Lensic Performing Arts Center, Annalee Newitz compared today’s urbanization phenomenon to that of the Neolithic period roughly 9,000 years ago, when humans first began living in sedentary communities. That shift prompted massive social, biological, and technological changes, creating the first “domesticated” humans. Using history as a guide, Newitz explored the evolutionary upheaval that modern humans may have set in motion, and what it might mean for us as a civilization.

Watch her talk (February 29, 2016)

Read an article about the lecture in Pasatiempo (February 26, 2016)

Annalee Newitz is the technology culture editor at Ars Technica. She holds a PhD in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley. Her most recent book is Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction


SFI’s 2016 Community Lecture series is made possible by generous underwriting from Thornburg Investment Management, with additional support from The Lensic Performing Arts Center

More SFI community events here.