An experiment in light expression

I finally finished reading John Brockman’s ‘What is your Dangerous Idea’. This book is a compilation of essays by some very interesting contemporary thinkers and doers on important topics ranging from society, technology, media, quantum physics, computing, the nature of self…you get the drift.

All the essays were in response to John’s 2006 Edge question:

WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?

“The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?”

Here, summarized below are my favorite 13 from the book with links to their brilliant, smart, and often contrarian thinkers:

1. The differences between humans and nonhumans are quantitative, not qualitative - Irene Pepperberg

..a humanistic (notice the bias in this word itself), ethical and scientifically rigorous take on how close we are to our nonhumans ancestors and fellow beings…

2. Groups of people may differ genetically in their Average talents and temperaments -

Steven Pinker

..a bold and important take on the genetic basis of among other things, talents and attitudes, and a reminder that this does not justify individual discrimination…

3. When will the Internet become aware of Itself? - Terrence Sejnowski

..a savvy comparison of the neuronal capacity and bandwidth of the human brain and the evolving Internet…

4. Mind is a Universally Distributed Quality - Rudy Rucker

… notes on panpsychism (or every object has a mind), how everything is a computation, and how this may mean fundamentally different interactions with the everyday world…

5. Zero Parental Influence - Judith Rich Harris

…a fundamental turning upside-down of the worldview that parental influence ultimately determines how children turn out to be, and how incorrect the assumption may be…

6. The Greatest Story ever told - Carolyn C Porco

…a striking comparison of what makes people relate to religion so warmly and science so coldly, a call for more ceremony, ritual and celebration of the science that enables life..

7. What are people well informed About in the Information Age - David Gelernter

..a word of caution that people today are far less interested in science, history, philosophy and how things work than our hands on and curious and well rounded forefathers…

8. There aren’t enough Minds to House the population explosion of Memes - Daniel Dennett

…a startling reminder that in the info-glut we live in and the eroding value of information itself, memes will compete harder to stick to the limited human bandwidth on the planet…

9. Anti-Gravity: Chaos Theory in an all-too-practical sense - Kai Krause

…a ground up, practical and contrarian take on how surprising it is that people actually live, get things done and push the world ahead with all that can possibly go wrong…

10. Runaway Consumerism explains the Fermi Paradox - Geoffrey Miller

…takes a shot at the eternal question (reframed by Fermi) ‘If there are intelligent aliens out there, why haven’t they contacted us yet’. The Answer? Perhaps they’re too busy playing video games, listening to iPods and lost in cyber-junk…

11. No more Teacher’s dirty looks - Roger C. Schank

…a good essay on the questionable nature of formal education peppered with great quotes such as the one by Mark Twain “Children leave school with a bellyful of words and no idea how to actually do something”…

12. Telling more than we can know - Richard Nisbett

…in the tradition of behavioral economists and sociologists, a reminder of how biased we indeed are the surprising findings from research on ‘rational’ human behavior…

13. A Twenty-Four-Hour period of Absolute Solitude - Leo M. Chalupa

…a reminder of something the Ancients knew well – there is nothing like true solitude to set the mind right, recalibrate priorities and become aware of what really matters….

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