"WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?"
Great minds can sometimes guess the truth before they have either the
evidence or arguments for it (Diderot called it having the "esprit de
divination"). What do you believe is true even though you cannot
prove it?
http://edge.org/q2005/q05_print.html
The 2005 Edge Question has generated many eye-opening responses from
a "who's who" of third culture scientists and science-minded
thinkers. The 120 contributions comprise a document of 60,000 words.
The New York Times ("Science Times") and Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung ("Feuilliton") have been granted rights to publish excepts in
their print and online editions simultaneously with Edge publication.
The editors of "Science Times" and "Feuilliton", respectively, made
their own selections. The Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore will
follow on Sunday, January 9th.
This year there's a focus on consciousness, on knowing, on ideas of
truth and proof. If pushed to generalize, I would say it is a
commentary on how we are dealing with the idea of certainty.
We are in the age of "searchculture", in which Google and other
search engines are leading us into a future rich with an abundance of
correct answers along with an accompanying naïve sense of certainty.
In the future, we will be able to answer the question, but will we be
bright enough to ask it?
This is an alternative path. It may be that it's okay not to be
certain, but to have a hunch, and to perceive on that basis. There is
also evidence here that the scientists are thinking beyond their
individual fields. Yes, they are engaged in the science of their own
areas of research, but more importantly they are also thinking deeply
about creating new understandings about the limits of science, of
seeing science not just as a question of knowing things, but as a
means of tuning into the deeper questions of who we are and how we
know.
It may sound as if I am referring to a group of intellectuals, and
not scientists. In fact, I refer to both. In 1991, I suggested the
idea of a third culture, which "consists of those scientists and
other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and
expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional
intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives,
redefining who and what we are. "
I believe that the scientists of the third culture are the
pre-eminent intellectuals of our time. But I can't prove it.
Happy New Year!
John Brockman
Publisher & Editor
This year's Edge Question was suggested by Nicholas Humphrey.
(120 contributors; 60,000 words:) Howard Gardner *Nicholas Humphrey
*Marc D. Hauser *Daniel Gilbert *George Dyson *Daniel C. Dennett
*William Calvin *Lawrence Krauss *Neil Gershenfeld *Joseph LeDoux
*Stephen Kosslyn *Philip W. Anderson *Kevin Kelly *Paul Davies *Haim
Harari *Janna Levin *Steven Pinker *Alison Gopnik *Martin E. P.
Seligman *John McWhorter *Freeman Dyson *Robert Sapolsky * Leonard
Susskind *Keith Devlin *Susan Blackmore *Clifford Pickover *Piet Hut
*Gino Segre *Roger Schank *Alan Kay *Bruce Sterling *Judith Rich
Harris *Arnold Trehub *Gregory Benford *Lynn Margulis *Sam Harris
*Elizabeth Spelke *Kai Krause *Todd Feinberg *Nassim Nicholas Taleb
*Irene Pepperberg *Jesse Bering *Scott Atran *Karl Sabbagh *Gary
Marcus *Stuart A. Kauffman *Ray Kurzweil *John Barrow *Jaron Lanier
*Alex Pentland *Richard Dawkins *Jean Paul Schmetz *Thomas Metzinger
*John R. Skoyles *John Horgan *David Gelernter *Jordan Pollack *Lee
Smolin *Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi *Jeffrey Epstein *Michael Shermer
*Leon Lederman *Tom Standage *Simon Baron-Cohen *Stephen Petranek *J.
Craig Venter *Maria Spiropulu *David Buss *Esther Dyson *David Myers
*Denis Dutton *Donald Hoffman *Kenneth Ford *Margaret Wertheim *Alun
Anderson *Philip Zimbardo *Paul Bloom *Robert Provine *W. Daniel
Hillis *Martin Nowak *Seth Lloyd *Donald I. Williamson *Jonathan
Haidt *Rebecca Goldstein *Ned Block *Christine Finn *Rupert Sheldrake
*Rudy Rucker *Douglas Rushkoff *Verena Huber-Dyson *Chris W. Anderson
*Charles Simonyi *Carolyn Porco *Martin Rees *Pamela McCorduck *James
O'Donnell *John McCarthy *Carlo Rovelli *Leo Chalupa *Howard
Rheingold *Steve Giddings *Tor Nørretranders *Stanislas Deheane
*Benoit Mandelbrot *Ellen Winner *Paul Steinhardt *Oliver Morton
*Alexander Vilenkin *Terrence Sejnowski *Brian Goodwin *Stephen H.
Schneider *Randolph Nesse *Timothy Taylor *Marti Hearst *Daniel
Goleman *Jared Diamond *Anton Zeilinger *Ian Wilmut *Robert Trivers
*Ian McEwan
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