The models keep getting better. The layoff headlines keep coming. So what's left that's only you? Dr. Sam Perli — MIT PhD who left a Nobel laureate's lab to pastor a church — takes on the question the Bay Area is quietly asking. Then he takes yours, live, over snacks and coffee.
One minute. We'll text you parking, kids check-in, and exactly where to find us — so July 12 morning feels easy.
Talk + open Q&A. Takes under a minute. We reply before Sunday.
We reply within 24 hours. No spam, ever. Questions? Email us.
Sam Perli spent a decade at the frontier of what makes life work — an MS and PhD at MIT, then stem-cell research in the Yamanaka lab at Gladstone/UCSF, the lab of a Nobel laureate. He's engineered cells, built circuits out of DNA, and served as CSO of a tech startup. Then he left it to answer a different question: what is a human being actually for? He doesn't preach about technology from the outside. He's been inside.
One Sunday. One question — what makes you irreplaceable. Then the mic turns around.
Pull into the lot at 2670 El Camino Real, grab a real coffee, find a seat. Hue Kids check-in opens at 10:15 for ages 0–11.
Music first, then Dr. Sam on AI & the soul — what the models can do, what they can't, and why the difference is the most important thing about you. Not a tech-bashing talk. Not a hype talk. An honest one.
Sam stays after the service and takes questions from the room — AI and jobs, consciousness, whether faith and science can sit at the same table. Ask live, or drop your question in the form above and we'll get it asked for you.
If you've felt it — in a standup, in a layoff thread, at 2 AM — July 12 is for you.
You work on or with these models every day. You've watched them absorb task after task — and some nights you wonder what's left that's only human. Bring that question.
If your worth is your output, AI is terrifying. Sunday is about a worth that was never tied to your output in the first place — and why that changes how you work.
You won't get slogans. You'll get a scientist who's published, patented, and pastored — engaging consciousness, souls, and machines with actual rigor.
"I spent years engineering what cells can become. Nothing I saw in the lab — or in the models since — comes close to what you are. On July 12 I'll tell you why, and then you can push back on all of it. Bring your hardest questions."
The question everyone here is quietly asking: if AI can do more and more of what I do, what makes me irreplaceable? Dr. Sam brings both a scientist's rigor and a pastor's hope to it — then takes your questions live over snacks and coffee.
Lead Pastor of Hue.Church. Before pastoring: IIT, then an MS and PhD at MIT in synthetic biology, then stem-cell research in the Yamanaka lab at Gladstone/UCSF — the lab of a Nobel laureate. MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary.
No. This is a church full of engineers, researchers, and builders — we have large screens everywhere and we love what technology can do. The talk is about what technology can't do: the parts of you no model can replicate.
Right after the service — around 11:45 AM — Sam stays in the room and takes live questions over snacks and coffee. Raise your hand, or drop your question in the Save Your Seat form ahead of time and we'll get it asked for you.
No tickets, no charge. Just show up. We recommend the Save Your Seat form so we can hold a seat and text you parking details.
No — this Sunday is built for anyone thinking about AI, work, and meaning. Skeptics, seekers, lifelong believers. Bring a coworker.
Yes — we'll post it on our YouTube channel within a week. But the Q&A is the part you have to be in the room for.
Yes. Hue Kids runs during the full Sunday service for ages 0–11. Safe, fun, age-appropriate. Check-in opens at 10:15 AM.
Free parking on-site at 2670 El Camino Real, Santa Clara — inside Elite Event Center. Big lot, no parallel parking stress.