The Edge Question 2018 - 14

 

<previous
1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14
 

Jason WilkesJason
Graduate student in Psychology, UC Santa Barbara; Author, Burn Math Class

 

 

 

 

Why are the errors that our best machine-learning algorithms make so different from the errors we humans make?

 

 

 

 


Evan WilliamsEvan
CEO, Medium

 

 

 

 

What will be obvious to us in a generation that we have an inkling of today?

 

 

 

 


Alexander Wissner-GrossAlexander
Scientist; Inventor; Entrepreneur; Investor

 

 

 

 

Can general-purpose computers be constructed out of pure gravity?

 

 

 

 


Milford H. WolpoffMilford H.
Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan; Adjunct Associate Research Scientist, Museum of Anthropology

 

 

 

 

Can the pace of human evolution stop accelerating?

 

 

 

 


Richard WranghamRichard
Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Curator of Primate Behavioral Biology at Harvard University; Author, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

 

 

 

 

In which century or millennium can all humanity be expected to speak the same primary language?

 

 

 

 


Elizabeth Wrigley-FieldElizabeth
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Faculty Member, Minnesota Population Center

 

 

 

 

How do our microbes contribute to that particular combination of continuity and change that makes us human?

 

 

 

 


Richard Saul WurmanRichard Saul
Founder, TED Conference; EG Conference; TEDMED Conferences; Architect, Cartographer; Author, Information Architects

 

 

 

 

Clarify the differences between understanding, knowledge and wisdom that could be communicated to a literate twelve-year-old and recommunicated to their parents.

 

 

 

 


Victoria WyattVictoria
Associate Professor of History in Art, University of Victoria

 

 

 

 

How do contemporary developments in technology affect human cultural diversity?

 

 

 

 


Itai YanaiItai
Director, Institute for Computational Medicine; Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, New York University School of Medicine; Co-author (with Martin Lercher), The Society of Genes

 

 

 

 

 

How can we rebel against our genes if we are biological creatures without free will?

 

 

 

 


Dustin YellinDustin
Artist; Founder, Pioneer Works

 

 

 

 

Will the frontiers of consciousness be technological or linguistic?

 

 

 

 


Eliezer S. YudkowskyEliezer S.
Research Fellow; Co-founder, Machine Intelligence Research Institute

 

 

 

 

What is the fastest way to reliably align a powerful AGI around the safe performance of some limited task that is potent enough to save the world from unaligned AGI?

 

 

 

 


Dan ZahaviDan
Professor of Philosophy; Director, Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen; Author, Self and Other: Exploring Subjectivity, Empathy, and Shame

 

 

 

 

What is the world without the mind?

 

 

 

 


Anton ZeilingerAnton
Physicist, University of Vienna; Scientific Director, Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information; President, Austrian Academy of Sciences; Author, Dance of the Photons: From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation

 

 

 

 

Will the individual quantum event forever remain random?

 

 

 

 


Carl ZimmerCarl
Journalist: Author, A Planet of Viruses; Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed

 

 

 

 

How does the past give rise to the future?

 

 

 

 

<previous
1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 . 11 . 12  . 13 . 14