FORMULAE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY [10.13.07]



WHAT IS YOUR FORMULA? YOUR EQUATION?
YOUR ALGORITHM?

Alun Anderson, Scott Atran, Mahzarin R. Banaji, Simon Baron-Cohen, Samuel Barondes, Gregory Benford, Susan Blackmore, Paul Bloom, Stewart Brand, John Brockman, Rodney A. Brooks, Sean Carroll, George Church, M.Csikszentmihalyi, Leda Cosmides, Paul Davies, Richard Dawkins, David Deutsch, Keith Devlin, Chris DiBona, Freeman Dyson, George Dyson, Drew Endy, Brian Eno, Dan Everett, J. Doyne Farmer, Richard Foreman, Howard Gardner, David Gelernter, Steve Giddings, Daniel Gilbert, Marcelo Gleiser, Alison Gopnik, Joshua Greene, John Gottman, Jonathan Haidt, Judith Rich Harris, Marc D. Hauser, Donald D. Hoffman, Gerald Holton, John Horgan, Nicholas Humphrey, Marcy Kahan, Danny Kahneman, Dean Kamen, Kevin Kelly, Rem Koolhaas, Bart Kosko, Kai Krause, Ray Kurzweil, Lawrence M. Krauss, Janna Levin, Seth Lloyd, Benoit Mandelbrot, Geoffrey Miller, Marvin Minsky, Oliver Morton, David Myers, PZ Myers, Tor Nørretranders, Mark Pagel, Irene Pepperberg, Steven Pinker, Jordan Pollack, Ernst Pöppel, William Poundstone, Eduardo Punset, Martin Rees, Lisa Randall, Matt Ridley, Carlo Rovelli, Rudy Rucker, Doug Rushkoff, Dimitar D. Sasselov, Gino Segre, Michael Shermer, Neil Shubin, George Smoot, Dan Sperber, Maria Spiropulu, Linda Stone, Leonard Susskind, Nassim Taleb, Timothy Taylor, John Tooby, Max Tegmark, Craig Venter, Alexander Vilenkin, Shing-Tung Yau, Anton Zeilinger


AN EDGESERPENTINE GALLERY COLLABORATION

Introduction

I recently paid a visit to the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London to see Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, a long-time friend with whom I have a mutual connection: we both worked closely with the late James Lee Byars, the conceptual artist who, in 1971, implemented "The World Question Center" as a work of conceptual art.

The walls of Obrist's office were covered with single pages of size A4 paper on which artists, writers, scientists had responded to his question: "What Is Your Formula?" Among the pieces were formulas by quantum physicist David Deutsch, artist and musician Brian Eno, architect Rem Koolhaas, and fractal mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot.

Within minutes we had hatched an Edge-Serpentine collaboration for a "World Question Center" project, to debut on Edge during the annual Serpentine Gallery Experiment Marathon, the weekend of October 13-14. The plan was to further the reach of Obrist's question by asking for responses from the science-minded Edge community, thus complementing the rich array of formulas already assembled by the Serpentine from distinguished artists such as Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Gilbert & George, and Rosemarie Trockel.

Edge Live in London

The Serpentine Gallery Experiment Marathon
10:00 am to 1:30 pm, Sunday 14 October

In addition to the online publication of "Formulae for the 21st Century," Edge was invited to program four hours of the twenty-four hour Serpentine Gallery Experiment Marathon. The event, which took place October 14th, was held in The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007, commissioned by Serpentine Director Julia Peyton-Jones and designed by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorson.


Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007
© 2007 Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen

The session session featured live presentations of "table-top" experiments from zoologist Seirian Sumner (A Cooperative Foraging Experiment — Lessons From Ants), archeologist Timothy Taylor (The Tradescant's Art Experiment), physiologist Simon Baron-Cohen (Do Women Have Better Empathy Than Men), biologist Amrand Leroi (The Songs of Songs), geneticist Steve Jones (Some Like It Hot), physicist Neil Turok (What Banged? and The Morning Line), biologist Lewis Wolpert (How Our Limbs Are Patterned Like The French Flag), and playwright Marcy Kahan in conversation with psychologist Steven Pinker.

JB


THE TELEGRAPH
October 13, 2007

Science and art meet in 'Experiment Marathon'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

...Venter, head of the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, examines the connection between the ratio of the elements of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus with life, and how this links with the letters of the genetic alphabet that nature used to spell out genes.

Pinker of Harvard University works out the potential number of thoughts we can have and Prof Dawkins underlines the power of Darwin's ideas about evolution. ...



SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
September 3, 2007
FEUILLITON — Front Page

Short Answers To Big Questions
Andrian Kreye
, Editor, The Feuilleton


...The experiment is not only represents a collaboration by Brockman and Obrist’s of their own work; it is also a continuation of a movement that began in the '60s on America’s East Coast. John Cage brought together young artists and scientists for symposia and seminars to see what what would happen in the interaction of big thinkers from different fields.  The resulting dialogue, which at the time seemed abstract and esoteric,  can today be regarded as the forerunner to interdisciplinary science and the digital culture.... 



E-FLUX
October 13, 2007

SERPENTINE GALLERY

Steven Pinker and other leading scientists join artists at the Serpentine Gallery for a 24-hour Experiment Marathon featuring robots, three-way kissing booths and out-of-body experiences

13 - 14 October 2007


The 2006 Marathon was 'An inspiring experience' - Time Out

Olafur Eliasson together with Hans Ulrich Obrist convenes the Serpentine Gallery 24-Hour Experiment Marathon from 13 to 14 October which blurs the boundaries of art and science and creates a laboratory of experience. A huge variety of experiments exploring perception, artificial intelligence, the body and language, takes place in and around the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007 designed by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen.

This year's Pavilion has been conceived as a laboratory for experimentation and invention with artists, architects, academics and scientists being invited to present hand-held or table-top experiments throughout the weekend.

...

[Click On Images Below]

Alun Anderson
Scott Atran
Mahzarin R. Banaji
Simon Baron-Cohen
Samuel Barondes
Gregory Benford
Susan Blackmore
Paul Bloom
Stewart Brand
John Brockman
Rodney A. Brooks
Sean Carroll
George Church
M.Csikszentmihalyi
Leda Cosmides
Paul Davies
Richard Dawkins
David Deutsch
Keith Devlin
Chris DiBona
Freeman Dyson
George Dyson
Drew Endy
Brian Eno
Dan Everett
J. Doyne Farmer
Richard Foreman
Howard Gardner
David Gelernter
Neil Gershenfeld
Steve Giddings
Daniel Gilbert
Marcelo Gleiser
Alison Gopnik
Joshua Greene
John Gottman
Jonathan Haidt
Judith Rich Harris
Marc D. Hauser
Donald D. Hoffman
Gerald Holton
John Horgan
Nicholas Humphrey
Marcy Kahan
Danny Kahneman
Dean Kamen
Kevin Kelly
Rem Koolhaas
Bart Kosko
Kai Krause
Lawrence Krauss
Ray Kurzweil
Janna Levin
Seth Lloyd
Benoit Mandelbrot
Geoffrey Miller
Marvin Minsky
Oliver Morton
David Myers
PZ Myers
Tor Nørretranders
Mark Pagel
Irene Pepperberg
Steven Pinker
Jordan Pollack
Ernst Pöppel
William Poundstone
Eduardo Punset
Martin Rees
Lisa Randall
Matt Ridley
Carlo Rovelli
Rudy Rucker
Doug Rushkoff
Dimitar D. Sasselov
Gino Segre
Michael Shermer
Neil Shubin
George Smoot
Dan Sperber
Maria Spiropulu
Linda Stone
Leonard Susskind
Nassim Taleb
Timothy Taylor
John Tooby
Max Tegmark
Craig Venter
Alexander Vilenkin
Shing-Tung Yau
Anton Zeilinger
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 






 

DANNY KAHNEMAN
Psychologist, Princeton; Recipient, 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

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DEAN KAMEN
Entrepreneur; Founder Deka Research; Inventor of the Segwey

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LEDA COSMIDES
Psychologist, UC Santa Barbara; Co-Founder and Co-Director, with John Tooby, of UCSB Center for Evolutionary Psychology

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JOHN TOOBY
Psychologist, UC Santa Barbara; Co-Founder and Co-Director, with John Tooby, of UCSB Center for Evolutionary Psychology

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J. CRAIG VENTER
Geneticist; Founder and President of the J. Craig Venter Institute and the J. Craig Venter Science Foundation; Author A Life Decoded

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LISA RANDALL
Physicist, Harvard University; Author, Warped Passages

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MARIA SPIROPULU
Physicist, CERN

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MAHZARIN R. BANAJI
Psychologyst, Harvard

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SETH LLOYD
Quantum Computer Scientist, MIT; Author, The Computational Universe

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JANNA LEVIN
Physicist and Astronomer, Columbia Universtiy; Author, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines

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STEWART BRAND
Founder, Whole Earth Catalog; cofounder, The Well; cofounder, Global Business Network; Author, How Buildings Learn

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KEVIN KELLY
Editor-At-Large, Wired Magazine; Author, New Rules for the New Economy

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MARTIN REES
Physicist, Cambridge University; UK Astronomer Royal; President of the Royal Society; Author, Our Final Century

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LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS
Physicist, Case Western Reserve University; Author, Fear of Physics

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NEIL GERSHENFELD
Physicist, MIT; Author, FAB

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GERALD HOLTON
Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics and Research Professor of History of Science, Harvard University; Author, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought

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OLIVER MORTON
Chief News and Features Editor, Nature; Author, Mapping Mars

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MARCY KAHAN
Screen Writer; Stage Dramatist

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EDUARDO PUNSET
Economist, Chemical Institute of Ramon Llull University in Barcelona; Director and Producer of Networks; Author, The Happiness Trip

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DREW ENDY
Biologist, MIT

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TIMOTHY TAYLOR
Archeologist, University of Bradford; Author The Buried Soul

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DANIEL GILBERT
Psychologist , Harvard University; Director, Harvard’s Hedonic Psychology Laboratory, ; Author Stumbling on Happiness

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JOSHUA GREENE
Cognitive Neuroscientist and Philosopher, Harvard University

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NICHOLAS HUMPHREY
School Professor, London School of Economics; Professor of Psychology, School for Social Research; Author, The Color Red

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JORDAN POLLACK
Computer Scientist, Brandeis University

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PAUL DAVIES
Physicist, Arizona State University; Author, The Cosmic Jackpot

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RAY KURZWEIL
Inventor and Technologist; Author, The Singularity Is Near

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Ray Kurzweil

ALISON GOPNIK
Psychologist, UC-Berkeley; Coauthor, The Scientist In the Crib

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CHRIS DIBONA
Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc.; Editor, Open Sources: Voices From the Open Source Software Revolution and Open Sources 2.0

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BART KOSKO
Information Scientist, USC; Author, Noise

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TOR NØRRETRANDERS
Science Writer; Consultant; Lecturer, Copenhagen; Author, The Generous Man

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MARK PAGEL
Evolutionary Biologist, Reading University, England

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GEORGE SMOOT
Cosmologist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Recipient, The Nobel Prize For Physics 2006; Coauthor, Wrinkles in Time

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J. DOYNE FARMER
Physicist, Santa Fe Institute; Cofounder, Prediction Company

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KAI KRAUSE
Software and Design Pioneer

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BENOIT MANDELBROT
Mathematician, Yale University; Author, The Fractal Geometry of Nature

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SIMON BARON-COHEN
Psychologist, Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University; Author, The Essential Difference

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ANTON ZEILINGER
University of Vienna and Scientific Director, Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences

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ALUN ANDERSON
Senior Consultant (and Former Editor-In-Chief and Publishing Director), New Scientist

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JONATHAN HAIDT
Psychologist, University of Virginia; Author, The Happiness Hypothesis

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RODNEY A. BROOKS
Director, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL); Chief Technical Officer of iRobot Corporation; Author, Flesh and Machines

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STEVE GIDDINGS
Theoretical Physicist, University of California, Santa Barbara

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GINO SEGRE
Physicist, University of Pennsylvania; Author, Faust In Copenhagen: A Struggle for the Soul of Physics

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MARVIN MINSKY
Computer Scientist; 1st Generation Artificial Intelligence Pioneer, MIT; Author, The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind

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NASSIM TALEB
Epistemologist of Randomness and Applied Statistician; Author, The Black Swan

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GEORGE CHURCH
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Director, Center for Computational Genetics

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KEITH DEVLIN
Mathematician, Stanford University, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Language and Information

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PAUL BLOOM
Psychologist, Yale University; Author, Descartes' Baby

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SAMUEL BARONDES
Neurobiologist and Psychiatrist, University of California San Francisco; Author, Better Than Prozac

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RUDY RUCKER
Mathematician, Computer Scientist; CyberPunk Pioneer; Novelist; Author, Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul



PZ MYERS
Biologist, University of Minnesota, Morris



DAN SPERBER
Social and cognitive scientist; Directeur de Recherche, CNRS, Paris; Author, Rethinking Symbolism

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CARLO ROVELLI
Physicist, Universite' de la Mediterrane' (Marseille, France); Author, What is time? What is Space?



LEONARD SUSSKIND
Physicist, Stanford University; Author, The Cosmic Landscape



MARCELO GLEISER
Physicist, Dartmouth College; Author, The Prophet and the Astronomer



DONALD D. HOFFMAN
Cognitive Scientist, UC, Irvine; Author, Visual Intelligence



DOUG RUSHKOFF
Media Analyst; Documentary Writer; Author, Get Back in the Box : Innovation from the Inside Out



ERNST PÖPPEL
Neuroscientist, Chairman, Board of Directors, Human Science Center and Department of Medical Psychology, Munich University, Germany; Author, Mindworks



MAX TEGMARK
Physicist, MIT; Researcher, Precision Cosmology



SUSAN BLACKMORE
Psychologist and Skeptic; Author, Consciousness: An Introduction



GEOFFREY MILLER
Evolutionary Psychologist, University of New Mexico; Author, The Mating Mind



RICHARD DAWKINS
Evolutionary Biologist, Charles Simonyi Professor For The Understanding Of Science, Oxford University; Author, The God Delusion



MICHAEL SHERMER
Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American; Author, Why Darwin Matters



SCOTT ATRAN
Anthropologist, University of Michigan; Author, In Gods We Trust



SEAN CARROLL
Theoretical Physicist, Caltech



DIMITAR D. SASSELOV
Astronomer, Harvard University; Director, Harvard Origins of Life Initiative



GEORGE DYSON
Science Historian; Author, Project Orion



JUDITH RICH HARRIS
Independent Investigator and Theoretician; Author, No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality



FREEMAN DYSON
Physicist, Institute of Advanced Study, Author, A Many-Colored Glass



JOHN HORGAN
Director, the Center for Science Writings, Stevens Institute of Technology; Author, Rational Mysticism



MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI
Psychologist; Director, Quality of Life Research Center, Claremont Graduate University; Author, Flow



HOWARD GARDNER
Psychologist, Harvard University; Author, Five Minds for the Future



ALEXANDER VILENKIN
Psychologist, Harvard University; Author, Five Minds for the Future



RICHARD FOREMAN
Founder Director, Ontological-Hysteric Theater; Playwright



SHING-TUNG YAU
Mathematician, Harvard University



DAVID MYERS
Social Psychologist, Hope College (Michigan); Author, A Quiet World: Living with Hearing Loss



GREGORY BENFORD
Physicist, UC Irvine; Author, Deep Time



DANIEL L. EVERETT
Researcher of Pirahã Culture; Chair of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures, Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology, Illinois State University



LINDA STONE
Former VP, Microsoft & Co-Founder & Director, Microsoft's Virtual Worlds Group/Social Computing Group



JOHN GOTTMAN
Psychologist; Founder of Gottman Institute; Author (with Julie Gottman), And Baby Makes Three



IRENE PEPPERBERG
Research Associate, Psychology, Harvard University; Author, The Alex Studies



DAVID GELERNTER
Computer Scientist, Yale University; Chief Scientist, Mirror Worlds Technologies; Author, Drawing Life



MARC D. HAUSER
Psychologist and Biologist, Harvard University; Author, Moral Minds



STEVEN PINKER
Psychologist, Harvard University; Author, The Stuff of Thought



MATT RIDLEY
Science Writer; Founding chairman of the International Centre for Life; Author, Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code



WILLIAM POUNDSTONE
Author, Fortune's Formula




NEIL SHUBIN
Paleontologist, University of Chicago; Associate Dean, University of Chicago Medical School



DAVID DEUTSCH
Quantum physicist, Oxford University; Author, The Fabric of Reality



BRIAN ENO
Artist; Composer; Recording Producer: U2, Talking Heads, Paul Simon; Recording Artist



REM KOOLHAAS
Architect, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University




John Brockman, Editor and Publisher
Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher

contact: [email protected]
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Edge Foundation, Inc
All Rights Reserved.

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