Cornell professors will argue which academic discipline is most worth preserving during the university's annual Apocalypse Debate on November 6. The event begins at 5 p.m. in Statler Auditorium in Statler Hall.
The thought experiment asks participants to imagine a disaster that eliminates 99.9% of Earth's population and threatens to erase 10,000 years of accumulated knowledge. An apocalypse-proof box can preserve the knowledge of only one subject, according to a Cornell announcement.
Logos, Cornell's undergraduate philosophy journal and club, is sponsoring the debate. The participants are chemistry and chemical biology assistant professor Erik Thiede; electrical and computer engineering assistant teaching professor Hunter Adams; government professor Thomas Pepinsky; philosophy associate professor Julia Markovits; and forensics director and senior lecturer Samuel Nelson.
Nelson will take the opposing position that none of the disciplines should survive. The others will make the case for their fields.
The program includes opening statements, rebuttals and a short period for audience questions. Audience members will vote for a winner.
Logos President Wyatt Sell said the event offers a way to examine the value of undergraduate education by hearing professors defend their disciplines. Nelson won last year's contest by one point over philosophy professor Rachana Kamtekar.
The first 200 attendees will receive a free sweatshirt, Sell said.
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