2002 : WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION? ... WHY?

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2002 : WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION? ... WHY?

When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards, and just go ahead and do what you know is right? Esther Dyson Investor; Chairman, EDventure Holdings; Executive Founder,...	How does being able to learn about a changing world endow our minds with expectations, imagination, creativity, and the ability to perceive illusions? Stephen Grossberg Principal founders of the fields of computational...
Why is it only amongst adults in the Western world that has tradition been so insistently and constantly challenged by the raising of Edge questions? John R. Skoyles researcher in the evolution of human intelligence in the...	What is the nature of learning? Todd Siler Founder and director of Psi-Phi Communications
'To Be or Not to Be' Remains the Question Derrick De Kerckhove Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture	What is your heresy? Kevin Kelly Senior Maverick, Wired; Author, What Technology Wants and...
Universe or multiverse, that is the question? Paul Davies Theoretical physicist; cosmologist; astro-biologist; co-...	What must a physical system be to be able to act on its own behalf? Stuart A. Kauffman Professor of Biological Sciences, Physics, Astronomy,...
Why do we ask questions? Alison Gopnik Psychologist, UC, Berkeley; Author, The Gardener and the...	Would you choose universe Omega or Upsilon? Clifford Pickover Author, The Math Book, The Physics Book, and The Medical...
What are minds, that they are both essentially mental yet inextricably intertwined with body (and world)? Andy Clark Professor of Cognitive Philosophy, Department of Philosophy...	Was there any choice in the creation of the Universe? Lawrence M. Krauss Theoretical Physicist; Foundation Professor, School of...
Many Universes? Martin Rees Former President, The Royal Society; Emeritus Professor of...	Why do we tell stories? Douglas Rushkoff Media Analyst; Documentary Writer; Author, Throwing Rocks...
At what age should women say, 'No,' to first-time pregnancy? Sylvia Paull founder of Gracenet	How much can we handle? Jaron Lanier Computer Scientist; Musician; Author, Who Owns The Future?
How will people think about the soul? Paul Bloom Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and...	Eureka: What makes coherence so important to us? William H. Calvin Theoretical Neurobiologist; Affiliate Professor Emeritus,...
What is the relationship between being alive and having a mind? Todd E. Feinberg M.D. is Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at...	Why am I me? Freeman Dyson Physicist, Institute of Advanced Study; Author, Disturbing...
Is morality relative or absolute? Timothy Taylor Jan Eisner Professor of Archaeology, Comenius University in...	To be or not to be? Nicholas Humphrey Emeritus Professor of Psychology, London School of...
Do we want to live in one world, or two? Lance Knobel Independent Writer and Strategist	What does it mean to have an educated mind in the 21st century? Roger Schank CEO, Socratic Arts Inc.; John Evans Professor Emeritus of...
Why Sleep? Terrence J. Sejnowski Computational Neuroscientist; Francis Crick Professor, the...	Do we want the God machine? John Horgan Director, Center for Science Writings, Stevens Institute of...
What s the neurobiology of doing good and being good? Robert Sapolsky Neuroscientist, Stanford University; Author, Behave	Do the benefits accruing to humankind James J. O'Donnell Classics Scholar, University Librarian, ASU; Author, Pagans
What makes a genius, and how can we have more of them? Howard Lee Morgan Vice Chairman of idealab! the Pasadena	What kind of system of coding of semantic information does the brain use? Daniel C. Dennett Philosopher; Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Co...
Is humanity in the midst of a cognitive Mark Stahlman Newmedia Laboratory	Is technology going to 'wake up' or 'come alive' anytime in the future? Robert Aunger Biological Anthropologist; Author, Gaining Control
Why do people â€” even identical twins â€” differ from one another in personality? Judith Rich Harris Independent Investigator and Theoretician; Author, The...	Is the universe really expanding? Or: Did Einstein get it exactly right? Julian Barbour Theoretical physicist; Author, The Janus Point
Why do we continue to act as if the universe were constructed from nouns linked by verbs, when we know it is really constructed from verbs linked by nouns? Steve Grand Founder, Cyberlife Research; author, Creation: Life and How...	"What is the nature of fads, fashions, crazes, and financial manias? Do they share a structure that can in turn be found at the core of more substantial changes in a culture? In other words, is there an engine of change to be found in the simple fad that Alan Alda Actor; Writer; Director; Host, PBS program Brains on Trial...
How different could life have been? Richard Dawkins Evolutionary Biologist; Emeritus Professor of the Public...	When will we emerge from the quantum tunnel of obscurity? Antony Valentini Pilot-wave theory
Is the universe a quantum computer? Seth Lloyd Professor of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT; Author,...	What comes after Science? When? Henry Warwick artist, composer, and scientist
How are moral assertions connected with the world of facts? David Deutsch Physicist, University of Oxford; Author, The Beginning of...	How will computation and communication change our everyday lives, again? Rodney A. Brooks Panasonic Professor of Robotics (emeritus); Former Director...
Can wealth be distributed? John Markoff Pulitzer Prize-winning Reporter, The New York Times; Author...	Three Roads to Quantum Gravity. Lee Smolin Physicist, Perimeter Institute; Author, Einstein's...
Why is beauty making a comeback now? Joel Garreau Principal, The Garreau Group	The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace Margaret Wertheim science writer and commentator
Would an extra-terrestrial civilization develop the same mathematics as ours? If not, how could theirs possibly be different? Karl Sabbagh Producer; Founder, Managing Director, Skyscraper...	Why doesn t conservation click? Delta Willis Paleontologist; Author, Hominid Gang
What is the pertinent question? Eduardo Punset Scientist; Spanish Television Presenter; Author, The...	Where Are They? George Dyson Science Historian; Author, Analogia
Why do we fear the wrong things? David G. Myers Professor of Psychology, Hope College; Co-author,...	Paul Davies Responds John Mccarthy Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University
Do wormholes exist? Gregory Benford Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UC-Irvine;...	Will humankind be able to use its growing Christopher J. Anderson Curator, TED conferences, TED Talks; author, TED Talks
Are the laws of nature a form of computer code that needs and uses error correction? John D. Barrow Cosmologist; Physicist; Professor of Mathematical Science,...	Could our lack of theoretical insight in some of the most basic questions in biology in general, and consciousness in particular, be related to us having missed a third aspect of reality Piet Hut professor of astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced...
How can a small number of genes build a complex mental machine? Gary Marcus Professor of Psychology, Director NYU Center for Language...	If the medium is indeed the message, does (or can) the message define the medium? Gerd Stern Media artist and cheese maven and the author
Can we ever escape our past, or are we doomed to a future of biobabble? Milford H. Wolpoff Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan; Adjunct...	Why do people kill other people? David M. Buss Professor of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin;...
How different could minds be? Richard Nisbett Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished University Professor of...	Is the PC desktop really dead? Mark Hurst Founder of Internet consulting firm Creative Good
What, me worry? Samuel Barondes Professor of Neurobiology and Psychiatry, UCSF; Author,...	What is the difference between the sigmundoscope and the sigmoidoscope? Less cryptically, how is everyday narrative logic different from extensional mathematical logic? John Allen Paulos professor of mathematics at Temple University
Can democracy survive complexity? Stephen Schneider climatologist, is a professor in the Department of...	Does life on Earth have a future? Stuart Pimm Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology, Duke University;...
What is the missing ingredient â€” not genes, not upbringing â€” that shapes the mind? Steven Pinker Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology;...	How much can we expect the social sciences to help build a just and free society? Dan Sperber Social and Cognitive Scientist; CEU Budapest and CNRS Paris...
What Is Real? Robert Provine Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, Baltimore...	Is it possible to know what is good and what is evil? James Gilligan Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry Psychiatry ,...
When will our souls be upgraded? Frank Schirrmacher Influential German journalist, essayist, best-selling author	Why do people like music? W. Daniel Hillis Physicist, Computer Scientist, Co-Founder, Applied...
Is God nothing more than a sufficiently advanced extra-terrestrial intelligence? Michael Shermer Publisher, Skeptic magazine; Monthly Columnist, Scientific...	Is there, or should we expect, a fracture in the logical basis on which people now look for a description of the nexus between particle physics and cosmology? Sir John Maddox Editor (Emeritus), Nature; Royal Commissions on...
Response Brian Greene Co-founder of the World Science Festival and Chairman,...	Is it conceivable that the standard curriculum in science and math, crafted in 1893, will still be maintained in the 26,000 high schools of this great nation? Leon M. Lederman Director emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Why do we decorate? Brian Eno Artist; Composer; Recording Producer: U2, Coldplay, Talking...	Is there Progress? Jordan Pollack Professor and Chairman of Computer Science, Brandeis...
Are space, time, and all other physical quantities only relational? Carlo Rovelli Theoretical Physicist; Aix-Marseille University, in the...	Response Rafael Núñez Professor, Department of Cognitive Science, University of...
In view of globalization, which is here to stay, and the events of September 11and its aftermath, which were a shock to most of us, do we need to make fundamental changes in our educational goals and methods? Howard Gardner Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard...	Will unification ever come to a stop? Anton Zeilinger Nobel laureate (2022 - Physics); Physicist, University of...
Can there be a science of human potential and the good life? Steven R. Quartz Neuroscientist; Professor of Philosophy, Caltech; Co-author...	Why bother? Or: Why do we go further and explore new stuff? Tor Nørretranders Writer; Speaker; Thinker, Copenhagen, Denmark
What is value? J. Doyne Farmer Professor of Mathematics, Oxford University; Director,...	The hows and whys of what led to us Keith Devlin Mathematician; Executive Director, H-STAR Institute,...
How do womens minds work? Eberhard Zangger Managing director of science communications	Why is religion so important to most Americans and so trivial to most intellectuals? David Gelernter Computer Scientist, Yale University; Chief Scientist,...
Who am I? What am I? Ray Kurzweil Principal Developer of the first omni-font optical...	Will cognitive science change the way we think as much as other sciences have? George Lakoff Fellow at The Rockridge Institute; Author, The Little Blue...
Why is life so full of suffering? Randolph Nesse Research Professor of Life Sciences, Director (2014-2019),...	Do folk concepts of the mind have anything to do with what really happens in the brain? David Berreby Journalist; Author, Us and Them
How do we scale up the number of quality human relationships one person can sustain by many orders of magnitude? In an increasingly connected world, how does one person interact with a hundred thousand, a million or even a billion people? Adrian Scott Founder, Rayz	Will non-sustainable developments (i.e., atmospheric change, deforestation, fresh water use, etc.) become halted in pleasant ways of our choice, or in unpleasant ways not of our choice? Jared Diamond Professor of Geography, University of California Los...
After postfeminism, whats next? Tracy Quan Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl: A Nancy Chan Novel.	Do languages matter? Xeni Jardin Tech Culture Journalist; Partner, Contributor, Co-editor,...
Is our brain smart enough to understand the brain? Stanislas Dehaene Neuroscientist; Collège de France, Paris; Author, How We...	Who and what are the we in we? Paul W. Ewald Professor of Biology, Amherst College; Author, Plague Time