11 Oct 2026
ITEST Webinar An ITEST webinar Revisiting “Computers, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality” (October 10, 2026)
The Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (ITEST) presents a webinar entitled Revisiting “Computers, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality” in Light of Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas. Four of the presenters at the 2005 conference return to talk about AI and Virtual Reality 21 years later.
Ronald P. Loui, Ph.D. - Adjunct Full Professor of Computer and Data Science, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Professor Loui has worked on AI (including philosophical and legal aspects) for four decades and has contributed practical programming and design to innovative systems. His degrees are from Harvard and Rochester, with a postdoc at Stanford Cognitive Science. Using biostatistics and medical records interpretations he has recently produced a new timeline for Genesis patriarchs as Balikh-Khabur West Semites (MarTu/Amorites from Gudea to Ur-III, later an immigrant minority under Hyksos Avaris) that is consistent with archaeological data, linguistics, onomastics and theophorics, theological and geopolitical history, climatology, geology, anthropology, biology, and multiple textual sources. This academic work achieves historicity in exchange for mathematical normalization and correlation. He has done consulting work for intelligence agencies, the US Defense Department advanced labs, Cycorp, and the Cleveland Clinic, co-authoring with NSA, State Department, and DARPA researchers. His most recent invention is the Colvin Diagram that audits AI predictions for trustworthiness and illuminates causality issues.
Kevin Vallier, Ph.D. - Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership at the University of Toledo Dr. Kevin Vallier is a political philosopher specializing in trust, polarization, and the foundations of liberal democracy in deeply diverse societies. His research integrates normative political philosophy with empirical social science to understand how open societies sustain cooperation across moral and religious differences. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Director of Research at the Institute for American Constitutional Thought and Leadership (University of Toledo). He completed his PhD at the University of Arizona in 2011 under Gerald Gaus.
Gregory Beabout, Ph.D. - Romano Guardini Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture, Professor, Department of Philosophy Greg Beabout is Romano Guardini Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at St. Louis University. He teaches and does research in ethics and social philosophy, the history of philosophy, personalism, Kierkegaard, and Catholic social thought. His work applies personalism and virtue ethics to business and the professions. In 2025–26, he organized SLU’s Pope Leo Series on AI and the Social Teaching of the Church. His books include Virtue Ethics in Business and Management, Ethics: The Art of Character, Freedom and Its Misuses, and The Character of the Manager. His current book project and accompanying documentary film are titled Sacred Signs: The Whooping Cranes of Kaskaskia.
Sr. Carla Mae Streeter, OP, Th.D., Professor Emerita of Systematic Theology and Spirituality at Aquinas Institute of Theology Sister Carla Mae Streeter, O.P., Th.D. completed doctoral studies with the Canadian Jesuits at Regis College at the University of Toronto School of Theology in 1986. She was co-recipient of the first Jean-Marc Laporte Scholarship Award for academic excellence, and the first woman to complete a theological doctorate at Regis College. She is the author of Foundations of Spirituality: The Human and the Holy, Seasons of the Soul: An Intimate God in Liturgical Time, and co-author of Avoiding the Sin of Certitude. She has served on the Board of Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis and on the Board of ITEST, the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology. Carla Mae is also the former...
