To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.
Published on Edge.org (https://www.edge.org)

Home >

2003 : 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? - GWB [1]

In the News [ 5 ] [2]
  |  
Contributors [ 94 ] [3]   |   View All Responses [ 93 ] [4]
[5]
Marvin Minsky [5]
Mathematician; computer scientist; Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT; cofounder, MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; author, The Emotion Machine
Mathematician and computer scientist

Mr. President:

My idea is that the whole "Homeland Defense" thing is too cost-ineffective to be plausible. The lifetime cost of, for example, preventing each airplane-crash fatality will be the order of $100,000,000—and we could save a thousand times as many lives at the same cost by various simple public-health measures.

Conclusion: what we really need is a "Homeland Arithmetic" reorganization.

Yours truly,

Marvin Minsky
Mathematician and computer scientist
Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences; Cofounder of Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
MIT
Author of eight books, including The Society of Mind.

Return to Table of Contents [3]

Links:
[1] https://www.edge.org/annual-question/what-are-the-pressing-scientific-issues-for-the-nation-and-the-world-and-what-is
[2] https://www.edge.org/inthenews/what-are-the-pressing-scientific-issues-for-the-nation-and-the-world-and-what-is
[3] https://www.edge.org/contributors/what-are-the-pressing-scientific-issues-for-the-nation-and-the-world-and-what-is
[4] https://www.edge.org/responses/what-are-the-pressing-scientific-issues-for-the-nation-and-the-world-and-what-is
[5] https://www.edge.org/memberbio/marvin_minsky