05 January 2006

The Year of Thinking Dangerously

Each year, EDGE founder John Brockman poses a question to members of the so-called Third Culture. Last year’s question (What is it you believe but cannot prove?) was translated into an utterly delightful book. This year, Brockman ups the intellectual ante, asking, “What is your dangerous idea?” The provocative answers promise a lively year ahead …

Steven Pinker (TED03, 04): Groups of people may differ genetically in their average talents and temperaments

Clay Shirky (TEDGlobal): Free will is going away. Time to redesign society to take that into account.

Helen Fisher (TED06): Antidepressants (such as Prozac and many others) can jeopardize feelings of romantic love. If patterns of human love subtlely change, all sorts of social and political atrocities can escalate

Kevin Kelly (TED05): More anonymity is good.

Jared Diamond (TED03): Tribal peoples often damage their environments and make war.

Richard Dawkins (TED03, TEDGlobal): Retribution as a moral principle is incompatible with a scientific view of human behaviour.

Irene Pepperburg (TED05): The differences between humans and nonhumans are quantitative, not qualitative

Sir Martin Rees (TEDGlobal): Science may be running out of control

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