"WHAT
IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?" |
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| The
natural gift of consciousness should be treasured all the more
for its transience. |
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The
answers...exert an un- questionable morbid fascination — those
are the very ideas that scientists cannot confess in their
technical papers. |
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"Fate
largo alle «beautiful minds» di Roberto
Casati;;
"La
terza cultura di John Brockman" di Armando Massarenti |
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God
(or Not), Physics and, of Course, Love: Scientists Take a
Leap: Fourteen scientists ponder everything from string theory
to true love. |
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| Space
Without Time, Time Without Rest: John Brockman's Question
for the Republic of Wisdom—It
can be more thrilling to start the New Year with a good question
than with a good intention. That's what John Brockman is
doing for the eight time in a row. |
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| What
do you believe to be true, even though you can't prove
it? John Brockman asked over a hundred scientists
and intellectuals... more» ... Edge |
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That's
what online magazine The Edge - the World Question Center
asked over 120 scientists, futurists, and other interesting
minds. Their answers are sometimes short and to the point |
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| Science's
Scourge of Believers Declares His Faith in Darwin... |
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| Singolare
inchiesta in usa di un sito internet. Ha chiesto ai signori
della ricerca di svelare i loro "atti di fede".
Sono arrivate le risposte piu' imprevedibili i fantasmi dello
scienziato: non ho prove ma ci credo. |
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| To
celebrate the new year, online magazine Edge asked
some leading thinkers a simple question: What do you
believe but cannot prove? Here is a selection of their
responses... |
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| Scientists
dream too - imagine that |
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"Fantastically
stimulating ...Once
you start, you can't stop thinking about that question. It's
like the crack cocaine of the thinking world." — BBC
Radio 4 |
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| Scientists,
increasingly, have become our public intellectuals, to whom
we look for explanations and solutions. These may be partial
and imperfect, but they are more satisfactory than the alternatives. |
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Bangladesh—The
cynic and the optimist, the agnostic and the believer,
the rationalist and the obscurantist, the scientist and
the speculative philosopher, the realist and the idealist-all
converge on a critical point in their thought process where
reasoning loses its power. |
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Il
Sole 24 Ore-Domenica Segnalate le vostre cuioosita,
chiederemo riposta alle persone piu autorevoli |
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| "So
now, into the breach comes John Brockman, the literary agent
and gadfly, whose online scientific salon, Edge.org, has become
one of the most interesting stopping places on the Web. He begins
every year by posing a question to his distinguished roster of
authors and invited guests. Last year he asked what sort of counsel
each would offer George W. Bush as the nation's top science adviser.
This time the question is "What's your law?" |
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| "John
Brockman, a New York literary agent, writer and impresario of
the online salon Edge, figures it is time for more scientists
to get in on the whole naming thing...As a New Year's exercise,
he asked scores of leading thinkers in the natural and social
sciences for "some bit of wisdom, some rule of nature, some
law-like pattern, either grand or small, that you've noticed
in the universe that might as well be named after you." |
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| "John
Brockman has posted an intriguing question on his Edge website.
Brockman advises his would-be legislators to stick to the scientific
disciplines." |
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| "Everything
answers to the rule of law. Nature. Science. Society. All of
it obeys a set of codes...It's the thinker's challenge to put
words to these unwritten rules. Do so, and he or she may go down
in history. Like a Newton or, more recently, a Gordon Moore,
who in 1965 coined the most cited theory of the technological
age, an observation on how computers grow exponentially cheaper
and more powerful... Recently, John Brockman went looking for
more laws." |
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| "In
2002, he [Brockman] asked respondents to imagine that they had
been nominated as White House science adviser and that President
Bush had sought their answer to 'What are the pressing scientific
issues for the nation and the world, and what is your advice
on how I can begin to deal with them?'Here are excerpts of some
of the responses. " |
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| "Edge's
combination of political engagement and
blue-sky thinking makes stimulating reading
for anyone seeking a glimpse into the next
decade." |
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"Dear
W: Scientists Offer
President Advice on Policy" |
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"There
are 84 responses,
ranging in topic
from advanced nanotechnology
to the psychology
of foreign cultures,
and lots of ideas
regarding science,
technology, politics,
and education." |
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| "Brockman's
thinkers of the 'Third Culture,' whether
they, like Dawkins, study evolutionary
biology at Oxford or, like Alan Alda, portray
scientists on Broadway, know no taboos.
Everything is permitted, and nothing is
excluded from this intellectual game." |
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"The
responses are generally written in an
engaging, casual style (perhaps encouraged
by the medium of e-mail), and are often
fascinating and thought - provoking....
These are all wonderful, intelligent
questions..." |
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| "We
are interested in ‘thinking smart,'" declares Brockman
on the site, "we are not interested in the anesthesiology
of ‘wisdom.'" |
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"INSPIRED
ARENA: Edge has been bringing together the world's foremost
scientific thinkers since 1998, and the response to September
11 was measured and uplifting." |
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| "Responses
to this year's question are deliciously creative... the variety
astonishes. Edge continues to launch intellectual skyrockets
of stunning brilliance. Nobody in the world is doing what Edge is
doing." |
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"Once
a year, John Brockman of New York, a writer and literary
agent who represents many scientists, poses a question in
his online journal, The Edge, and invites the thousand or
so people on his mailing list to answer it." |
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"Don't
assume for a second that Ted Koppel, Charlie Rose and the
editorial high command at the New York Times have
a handle on all the pressing issues of the day.... a lengthy
list of profound, esoteric and outright entertaining responses. |
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| "A terrific, thought provoking site." |
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| "The
Power of Big Ideas" |
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| "The
Nominees for Best Invention Of the Last Two Millennia Are .
. ." |
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"...Thoughtful and often
surprising answers ....a fascinating survey of intellectual
and creative wonders of the world ..... Reading them reminds
me of how wondrous our world is." — Bill Gates, New York Times Syndicated
Column |
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"I
can answer the question, but am I bright enough to ask it?"
— James Lee Byars, founder, The World Question Center
"Fantastically
stimulating...It's like the crack cocaine of the thinking world....
Once you start, you can't stop thinking about that question." —
BBC Radio 4
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The Edge Annual
Question — 2006
WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
The
history of science is replete with discoveries
that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally
dangerous in their time; the Copernican and
Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious.
What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think
about (not necessarily one you originated)
that is dangerous not because it is assumed
to be false, but because it might be true? |
| [Thanks
to Steven Pinker for suggesting the Edge Annual
Question — 2006.] |
January
1, 2006
To
the Edge Community,
Last
year's 2005 Edge Question
— "What do you believe is true even though you cannot
prove it?" — generated many eye-opening responses
from a "who's who" of third culture scientists and
science-minded thinkers. The 120 contributions comprised a document
of 60,000 words. The New York Times ("Science Times")
and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ("Feuilliton")
published excepts in their print and online editions simultaneously
with Edge publication.
 The
event was featured in major media across the world: BBC Radio; Il
Sole 24 Ore, Prospect, El Pais, The
Financial Express (Bangledesh), The Sunday Times (UK), The
Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, La Stampa, The
Telegraph, among others. A book based on the
2005 Question — What
We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science
in the Age of Certainty, with an introduction by the
novelist Ian McEwan
— was just published by the Free Press (UK). The US edition
follows from HarperCollins in February, 2006.
Since
September, Edge has been featured and/or cited in The
Toronto Star, Boston Globe, Seed, Rocky Mountain Mews, Observer,
El Pais, La Vanguaria (cover story) , El Mundo, Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, Science, Financial Times, Newsweek, AD,
La Stampa, The Telegraph, Quark (cover story), and The
Wall Street Journal.
Online
publication of the 2006 Question occurred on New Year's Day.
To date, the event has been covered by The Telegraph, The
Guardian, The Times, Arts & Letters Daily, Yahoo!
News, and The Huffington Post.
Something
radically new is in the air: new ways of understanding physical
systems, new ways of thinking about thinking that call into
question many of our basic assumptions. A realistic biology
of the mind, advances in evolutionary biology, physics, information
technology, genetics, neurobiology, psychology, engineering,
the chemistry of materials: all are questions of critical importance
with respect to what it means to be human. For the first time,
we have the tools and the will to undertake the scientific
study of human nature.
What
you will find emerging out of the 119 original essays in the
75,000 word document written in response to the 2006 Edge Question
— "What is your dangerous idea?" — are
indications of a new natural philosophy, founded on the realization
of the import of complexity, of evolution. Very complex systems — whether
organisms, brains, the biosphere, or the universe itself — were
not constructed by design; all have evolved. There is a new set
of metaphors to describe ourselves, our minds, the universe,
and all of the things we know in it.
Welcome
to Edge. Welcome to "dangerous ideas". Happy
New Year.
John
Brockman
Publisher
& Editor |
The Edge Annual
Question — 2006
WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
|
Kyung
Hang, Rocky
Mountain News, Telopolis, El
Correo Gallego, The
Sunday Telegraph (Syndey), The
Hindu, La
Vanguardia, Financial
Times, Radio3
Scienza, Washington
Times, Taipei
Times, Berliner
Morgenpost, The
New York Times, The
News & Observer, The
Sunday Express, New
Scientist, Australian, La
Stampa, Sueddeutsche
Zeitung, Vintrenta
Auvi, The
Hankyoreh, Slashdot, Arts & Letters
Daily, The
Guardian, The
Times, The
Telegraph, Boing
Boing, Yahoo
News, Huffington
Post |
Edge Annual
Question traffic report: 1st week in
January |
Dates |
Hits |
Unique
Visitors |
January
1-7 |
34,667,049 |
363,711 |
Opinion
— Columnists
Seebach:
My dangerous idea: Each child deserves an IQ
test
January
21, 2006
Most
of the contributors appear to have interpreted "dangerous" as
meaning something like "subversive," challenging
to one or another received orthodoxy.
... In that spirit, here is my dangerous
idea: Every child in school deserves
an individual IQ test. ... And the corollary:
Every statistical analysis of school-
and district-level data should include
individual IQ as one of the variables
measured. ... Why
is that subversive? Because so many people,
especially in education, are terrified
to admit that individual IQ has anything
to do with academic achievement, because
it is not evenly distributed demographically. |
Meine
gefährlichste Idee
Ralf
Grötker 04.01.2006
172
Wissenschaftler antworteten auf die
Edge-Frage 2006
Seit nunmehr neun Jahren startet die
Stiftung Edge mit einer Umfrage zu einem
großen generellen Thema ins neue
Jahr. 172 Wissenschaftler haben diesmal
geantwortet. Sie geben preis, was sie
für ihre gefährlichste Idee
halten, die wahr werden könnte.
[Click
here for Google translation] |
Santiago
— Domingo 29.01.2006
CRÓNICAS
BÁRBARAS
Ciencia racista, atractiva pero muy
peligrosa
Manuel Molares do Val
La
afirmación políticamente
más incorrecta, a cuyo autor pueden
acusarlo de racista si no de nazi, es
que hay grupos humanos cuyas características
genéticas los hacen más
inteligentes que otros.
Lo
malo es que esto lo afirman algunos científicos
al contestar a la pregunta que hace cada
año The Edge (www.edge.org), órgano
de un club de sabios de todo el planeta
que se plantean problemas aparentemente
simples que son comple- jísimos.
La cuestión de 2006, que responderán
hasta 2007 miles de investigadores, la
presentó Steven Pinker, psicolingüista,
profesor de psicología en Harvard.
Recuerda Pinker que la historia de la ciencia
está repleta de descubrimientos
que fueron considerados social, moral y
emocionalmente peligrosos; los más
obvios, la revolución copernicana
y la darwiniana.
[Click
here for Google translation] |
Syndey — News In Review
Into
the minds of the believers
January 15, 2006
With
the aim of gathering ideas from the world's
leading thinkers on intellectual, philosophical,
artistic and literary issues, US writer
John Brockman established The Edge Foundation
in 1988. Since 1997, Edge has been running
on the Internet (www.edge.org), and every
year poses a question in its The World
Question Centre. |
Opinion
Gene
discoveries highlight dangers facing
society
By
Alok Jha
January 3,
2006
Royal
Society president Martin Rees said the
most dangerous idea was public concern
that science and technology were running
out of control. "Almost any scientific
discovery has a potential for evil as
well as for good; its applications can
be channelled either way, depending on
our personal and political choices; we
can't accept the benefits without also
confronting the risks. The decisions
that we make, individually and collectively,
will determine whether the outcomes of
21st century sciences are benign or devastating."
Professor
Rees argues that the feeling of fatalism
will get in the way of properly regulating
how science progresses. "The future
will best be safeguarded — and science
has the best chance of being applied optimally — through
the efforts of people who are less fatalistic." |
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