Edge Question 2011 - An Invitation

From: John Brockman Po Sent: 12/31/2010 6:23:47 PM To: Jeffrey Epstein [[email protected]] Subject: Edge Question 2011 - An Invitation Importance: — High “Deliciously creative...the variety astonishes...intellectual skyrockets of stunning brilliance. Nobody in the world is doing what Edge is doing." Denis Dutton, ARTS & LETTERS DAILY THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER James Flynn has defined “shorthand abstractions" (Cor "“SHA'’s") as concepts drawn from science that have become part of the language and make people smarter by providing widely applicable templates C"market", "placebo", “random sample," "naturalistic fallacy," are a few of his examples). His idea is that the abstraction is available as a single cognitive chunk which can be used as an element in thinking and debate. The Edge Question 2011 WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT? The term 'scientific"is to be understood in a broad sense as the most reliable way of gaining knowledge about anything, whether it be the human spirit, the role of great people in history, or the structure of DNA. A “scientific concept" may come from philosophy, logic, economics, jurisprudence, or other analytic enterprises, as long as it is a rigorous conceptual tool that may be summed up succinctly (or “in a phrase") but has broad application to understanding the world. [Thanks to Steven Pinker for suggesting this year’s EDGE Question and to Daniel Kahneman for advice on its presentation. ] In Memoriam DENIS DUTTON 1944-2010 Last year, the 2010 EDGE Question, "How Is The Internet Changing The Way You Think?" Chttp: //ww. edge.org/q2010/q10_index.html), generated 172 essays (132,000 words) and received global press attention. To date, the following have already responded to the 2011 EDGE Question: Clifford Pickover, Rudy Rucker,Sean Carroll, Gino Segre, Jason Zweig, Dylan Evans, Steven Pinker, Martin Seligman, Gerald Holton, Robert Provine, Nassim N. Taleb, Roger Schank, George Dyson, Milford Wolpoff, George Lakoff, W. Daniel Hiliis, Nicholas Humphrey,Christian Keysers, Haim Harari, John Allen Paulos, Bruce Hood, Howard Gardner. PERMALINK: http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_index.html user id: edge password: q2011 (all lower case — password-protected until publication) SUBMITTING ESSAYS: Email as text or attached word file to me. DUE DATE: 8pm, Wednesday, January 12th PUBLICATION DATE: Midnight, Thursday, January 13th PRESS EMBARGO: Until publication. Do not cite or circulate. EDITORIAL MARCHING ORDERS Say something new, true, and interesting, based on your own experience, in 1,000 words or less. Email contributions to me. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_029901