Wilberforce was a member of the Royal Society and an acquaintance of Samuel Pepys. After Pepys' presentation of his transformational theory of life to the Society on 29 May 1661, Wilberforce stood to ask him whether his great-grandfather or his great-grandmother was a sim? Pepys replied that there was no shame in having a sim as an ancestor and using its limited intellect as best as one could but to use one's intellect to raise quibbles such as this was shameful. This answer brought forth a round of applause which caused Wilberforce to sit down embarrassed.