Walther Ch. Zimmerli is a philosopher and Honorary Professor of Mind and Technology at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

He studied philosophy, German, English and various other subjects at the Universities of Göttingen and Zurich, where he received his doctorate in 1971 and habilitated in philosophy in 1978. Between 1978 and 1999, he held chairs of philosophy at the TU Braunschweig, the University of Bamberg (shared with the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) and the University of Marburg. From 1999 to 2002, he was President of Privatuniversität Witten Herdecke gGmbH, from 2002 to 2007 a member of the top management of Volkswagen AG and founding President of AutoUni as well as a member of the management of Volkswagen Coaching GmbH. From 2007 to 2013, he was President of the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus.

He is a recipient of the Humboldt South Africa Research Award, an honorary doctorate from the University of Stellenbosch and an honorary professor at TU Braunschweig and was Friedrich Stiftungsprofessor at the Graduate School of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin from 2013 to 2016, where he was appointed honorary professor in 2016. In 2017/18, he was a EURIAS Senior Fellow at the Collegium Helveticum of the University, ETH and ZHdK in Zurich, a Visiting Fellow at the IWM Vienna in 2019, a Fellow at the Digital Society Initiative of the University of Zurich from 2020 to 2022 and an External Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) in Freiburg in Breisgau in 2022.

During his stay at the Center for Science and Thought (CST) Prof. Zimmerli will continue working on his philosophy of digitalization with a special focus on „Artificial Intelligence - Hype or Myth?“

His most recent pertinent publications include:

• 2021a, Künstliche Intelligenz und postanaloges Menschsein. Entstehung, Entwicklung und Wirkung eines realen Mythos, in: A. Strasser/W. Sohst/R Stapelfeldt/K. Stepec (eds.), Künstliche Intelligenz- Die grosse Verheissung, Xenomoi: Berlin, 193-219.
• 2021b, Analog oder digital? Philosophieren nach dem Ende der Philosophie, in: U. Hauck-Thum/J. Noller (eds.), Was ist Digitalität? Digitalitätsforschung vol. 1, Metzler: Stuttgart, 9-33.
• 2020, Deus Malignus - The Digital Rehabilitation of Deception, in: B.P. Goecke/A. Rosenthal-von der Pütten (eds.), Artificial Intelligence. Reflections in Philosophy, Theology, and the Social Sciences, Brill Mentis: Paderborn, 15-35.