[tt] Meme 128: What Have You Changed Your Mind about?

[Premise Checker]

[Tell me what you have changed your own mind about. I would not include 
things about which you had only a casual opinion. I once casually dismissed 
post-modernism, but not anymore. The concept is illusive and its expositors 
(except for Stanley Fish) are orthodox campus types, but I see a strong 
affinity to Darwinism. For me, the same is true of Mormonism. Now that I 
have made a concerted study of it and know more about it than 90% of 
Mormons and 99% of non-Mormons, I find it to be, in very real ways, the 
first American religion, the first Darwinian religion, and the first 
post-modern religion. (I'll probably be expound on these ideas later.) And 
I don't think Joseph Smith's gold plates are any more absurd that Moses's 
stones. I would say that the greatest change in my thinking since I got a 
home Internet connection (1995) is that my antagonism to religion has 
dropped. It is just to much to expect from a human nature that evolved to 
foster social cooperation that Objectivism comes easily. And perhaps it 
never can: making one's world view consistent takes hard work, even if you 
are one of those comparatively few creatures that actively enjoys Premise 
Checking. I've come to appreciate the benefits of religion, thanks in good 
measure to David Sloan Wilson's _Darwin's Cathedral_. I read and grasped 
its central ideas quickly, but it has taken time to really seep into my 
thinking.

[Don't tell me about things you have come to believe, in other words, that 
have not involved a substantial change in a substantially held view. I'd 
love to know how your overall world view has deepened and widened. And do 
tell me about this. But mostly tell me about your changes.

[I would not say becoming a transhumanist changed my mind, since I really 
always was one as far back as I could understand the idea. I'm not listing 
earlier changes of mind, like my abandoning Objectivism either.

[I just found this on Arts and Letters Daily yesterday and look forward to 
reading them all carefully. Do click on the URL at some point, for you'll 
get pointers to past years' questions (I've sent them all) and other things 
worth pondering. The Edge Organization is a great group, though it has it 
own boundaries of respectibility not drawn where I would want to draw them.

[My own question for these thinkers, and better one, is not what you have 
changed your mind about but what it would take for you to abandon your most 
cherished hypothesis. I have give my answer to my top two. Write to me 
about yours. Tell me if you want me to remove your name before I send it to 
my list or just not to send it at all.

[Structure:
1. List of Contributors
2. Reviews of this document (click the top URL to get to them)
3. Summaries of the contributors and their changes of mind.

[The detailed contributions are omitted. Not enough room on lists. Just 
click the URL.]

"WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT?"

CONTRIBUTORS

Alan Alda
Stephon Alexander
Chris Anderson
Scott Atran
John Baez
Simon Baron-Cohen
Mary Catherine Bateson
Patrick Bateson
Gregory Benford
Jesse Bering
Jamshed Bharucha
Roger Bingham
Susan Blackmore
Adam Bly
David Bodanis
Lera Boroditsky
Nick Bostrom
Stewart Brand
David Brin
Rodney Brooks
David Buss
William H. Calvin
Philip Campbell
Nicholas Carr
Sean Carroll
Leo Chalupa
Nicholas A. Christakis
George Church
Steve Connor
Helena Cronin
Austin Dacey
David Dalrymple
Paul Davies
Richard Dawkins
Aubrey de Grey
Francesco De Pretis
Stanislas Dehaene
Daniel C. Dennett
Keith Devlin
Chris DiBona
Denis Dutton
Esther Dyson
Freeman Dyson
George Dyson
Daniel Engber
Brian Eno
Juan Enriquez
Jeffrey Epstein
Daniel Everett
Paul Ewald
Todd Feinberg
Helen Fisher
Ken Ford
Howard Gardner
James Geary
David Gelernter
Neil Gershenfeld
Gerd Gigerenzer
Daniel Gilbert
Marcelo Gleiser
Rebecca Goldstein
Daniel Goleman
Beatrice Golomb
David Goodhart
Brian Goodwin
Alison Gopnik
Linda S. Gottfredson
Jon Haidt
Diane Halpern
Haim Harari
Judith Rich Harris
Sam Harris
Marc D. Hauser
Marti Hearst
Roger Highfield
W. Daniel Hiliis
Donald Hoffman
John Horgan
Nicholas Humphrey
Piet Hut
Marco Iacoboni
Xeni Jardin
George Johnson
Alan Kay
Daniel Kahneman
Kevin Kelly
Marcel Kinsbourne
Gary Klein
Bart Kosko
Stephen Kosslyn
Kai Krause
Lawrence Krauss
Andrian Kreye
Jaron Lanier
Leon Lederman
Joseph LeDoux
Janna Levin
A. Garrett Lisi
Seth Lloyd
Gary Marcus
John McCarthy
Thomas Metzinger
Geoffrey Miller
Oliver Morton
David Myers
PZ Myers
Steve Nadis
Randolph M. Nesse
Tor Nørretranders
James O'Donnell
Tim O'Reilly
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Mark Pagel
John Allen Paulos
Irene Pepperberg
Steven Pinker
Jordan Pollack
Ernst Pöppel
Carolyn Porco
Robert Provine
Eduardo Punset
Lisa Randall
Martin Rees
Ed Regis
Carlo Rovelli
Rudy Rucker
Douglas Rushkoff
Karl Sabbagh
Paul Saffo
Scott Sampson
Robert Sapolsky
Dimitar Sasselov
Roger Schank
Stephen Schneider
Peter Schwartz
Gino Segre
Charles Seife
Martin Seligman
Terrence Sejnowski
Robert Shapiro
Rupert Sheldrake
Michael Shermer
Clay Shirky
Lee Silver
Barry Smith
Laurence Smith
Lee Smolin
Dan Sperber
Paul Steinhardt
Linda Stone
Seirian Sumner
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Timothy Taylor
Max Tegmark
Arnold Trehub
Robert Trivers
Colin Tudge
Sherry Turkle
Yossi Vardi
J. Craig Venter
David Sloan Wilson
Frank Wilczek
Richard Wrangham
Anton Zeilinger
____________________________________________________________________

The Edge Annual Question -- 2008

When thinking changes your mind, that's philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that's faith.
When facts change your mind, that's science.

WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?

Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How
have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?"

165 contributors; 112,600 words

"They are the intellectual elite, the brains the rest of us rely on
to make sense of the universe and answer the big questions. But in a
refreshing show of new year humility, the world's best thinkers have
admitted that from time to time even they are forced to change their
minds." -- James Randerson, The Guardian

"As fascinating and weighty as one would imagine." -- Comment
(Leading Article), The Independent

"A great event in the Anglo-Saxon culture." -- El Mundo

"A remarkable feast of the intellect... an amazing group of
reflections on science, culture, and the evolution of ideas. Reading
the Edge question is like being invited to dinner with some of the
most interesting people on the planet." -- Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly
Radar

"The splendidly enlightened Edge website (www.edge.org) has rounded
off each year of inter-disciplinary debate by asking its
heavy-hitting contributors to answer one question. I strongly
recommend a visit."-- Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

"Provocative ideas put forward today by leading figures." --Roger
Highfield, The Telegraph

"Even the world's best brains have to admit to being wrong
sometimes: here, leading scientists respond to a new year
challenge." --Lewis Smith, The Times

"For an exceptionally high quotient of interesting ideas to words,
this is hard to beat. ...What a feast of egg-head opinionating!" --
John Derbyshire, National Review Online

"Answers ring like scientific odes to uncertainty, humility and
doubt; passionate pleas for critical thought in a world threatened
by blind convictions." -- Sandro Contenta, The Toronto Star

"A jolt of fresh thinking...The answers address a fabulous array of
issues. This is the intellectual equivalent of a New Year's dip in
the lake -- bracing, possibly shriek-inducing, and bound to wake you
up."
-- Margaret Wente, The Globe and Mail

"As in the past, these world-class thinkers have responded to
impossibly open-ended questions with erudition, imagination and
clarity." -- J. Peder Zane, The News & Observer

PRESS COVERAGE: Arts & Letters Daily; bloggingheads.tv; Corriere
Della Sera; The Globe and Mail, The Guardian; Infectious Greed; The
Independent; El Mundo; National Review Online; The News & Observer;
O'Reilly Radar; Slashdot; The Telegraph, The Times, Toronto Star,
The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Die Zeit
________________________________________________________________


THE NEWS & OBSERVER -- Raleigh-Durham
January 6, 2008
Zane:
The changing of the mind
By J. Peder Zane, Staff Writer

... As in the past, these world-class thinkers have responded to Web
site editor John Brockman's impossibly open-ended questions with
erudition, imagination and clarity.

In explaining why they have cast aside old assumptions, the
respondents' short essays tackle an array of subjects, including the
nature of consciousness, the existence of the soul, the course of
evolution and whether reason will ultimately triumph over
superstition.

Two of the most interesting answers may signal a cease-fire in the
gender wars.

In 2005, Harvard President Lawrence *. Summers was assailed for
suggesting that innate differences might explain why there are few
top women scientists. Now Diane F. Halpern, a psychology professor
at Claremont Mc-Kenna College and a self-described "feminist," says
Summers was onto something.

"There are real, and in some cases sizable, sex differences with
respect to cognitive abilities," she writes.

Her views are echoed by Helena Cronin, a philosopher at the London
School of Economics.

"Females," she writes, "are much of a muchness, clustering around
the mean." With men, "the variance -- the difference between the
most and the least, the best and the worst -- can be vast."
Translation: There may be fewer female geniuses in certain fields,
but there are also fewer female morons...
...
________________________________________________________________

BLOGGINGHEADS TV
January 5, 2008
Science Saturday: New Beliefs for a New Year

John and George's New Year resolutions; John softens his pessimism
about neuroscience ; The soccer club theory of terrorism; The
trouble with relying on experts; How George got hooked on
garage-band science; Happiness is a burning bridge.

...
________________________________________________________________

THE GLOBE AND MAIL
January 5, 2008
OPINIONS

Hark! A shriek-inducing wake-up call; Culture can change our genes.
Men really do outperform women. We can't predict the future ...
Margaret Wente Comment Column; Second Thoughts

If you want to start your year with a jolt of fresh thinking, I have
just the thing. Each year around this time, a Web-based outfit
called the Edge Foundation asks a few dozen of the world's brightest
scientific brains one big question. This year's question: What have
you changed your mind about?

The answers address a fabulous array of issues, including the
existence of God, the evolution of mankind, climate change and the
nature of the universe. Some of the most provocative responses deal
with the bonanza of new evidence from the fast-evolving fields of
genetics, neuroscience and evolutionary biology. This is the
intellectual equivalent of a New Year's dip in the lake - bracing,
possibly shriek-inducing, and bound to wake you up. For the full
menu, go to www.edge.org. Meantime, here's a taste. ...
________________________________________________________________

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 5, 2008
The Informed Reader
CULTURE
Change of Mind Could Spur A Hardening of the Heart
o EDGE -- JAN. 4

When scientists and other prominent intellectuals change their mind
about important things, their new outlook often is gloomier.

That, at least, is the theme of responses to a survey conducted by
online science-and-culture publication the Edge, which asked some
influential thinkers: "What have you changed your mind about? Why?"
... d

...Fittingly, Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert says he
has changed his mind about the benefits of changing one's mind. In
2002, a study showed him that people are more satisfied with
irrevocable decisions than with ones they can reverse. Acting on the
data, he proposed to his now-wife. "It turned out that the data were
right: I love my wife more than I loved my girlfriend."
________________________________________________________________

TORONTO STAR
January 5, 2008
CHANGING YOUR MIND
In praise of the flip
Ralph Waldo Emerson called consistency the hobgoblin of little
minds, yet we live in a world where 'flip-floppers' are treated with
contempt. An ambitious new survey of top thinkers, however, serves
as a reminder of how healthy it is to change one's mind

Sandro Contenta
Staff Reporter

...Challenging this complacency is a project by the Edge Foundation,
a group promoting discussion and inquiry into issues of our time. To
kick off the New Year, the group put this statement and question to
many of the world's leading scientists and thinkers:

"When thinking changes your mind, that's philosophy. When God
changes your mind, that's faith. When facts change your mind, that's
science. What have you changed your mind about?"

Answers, posted on the website www.edge.org, came from 164 people,
many of them physicists, philosophers, psychologists and
anthropologists. They ring like scientific odes to uncertainty,
humility and doubt; passionate pleas for critical thought in a world
threatened by blind convictions. In short, they're calls for more
people who can change their minds. ...
________________________________________________________________

WASHINGTON POST
January 4, 2008
RAW FISHER
Marc Fisher
RFQ: What Have You Changed Your Mind About? (Plus: Last Chance on
the Coin Contest)

...University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt says he used
to consider sports and fraternities to be the height of American
celebration of stupidity. "Primitive tribalism, I thought.
Initiation rites, alcohol, sports, sexism, and baseball caps turn
decent boys into knuckleheads. I'd have gladly voted to ban
fraternities, ROTC, and most sports teams from my university." But
Haidt has changed his mind: "I had too individualistic a view of
human nature. I began to see us not just as chimpanzees with
symbolic lives but also as bees without hives. When we made the
transition over the last 200 years from tight communities
(Gemeinschaft) to free and mobile societies (Gesellschaft), we
escaped from bonds that were sometimes oppressive, yes, but into a
world so free that it left many of us gasping for connection,
purpose, and meaning. I began to think about the many ways that
people, particularly young people, have found to combat this
isolation. Rave parties and the Burning Man festival are spectacular
examples of new ways to satisfy the ancient longing for communitas.
But suddenly sports teams, fraternities, and even the military made
a lot more sense." ...
________________________________________________________________

INFECTIOUS GREED
January 1, 2008

What Have You Changed Your Mind About?
by Paul Kedrosky

This year's Big Question at Edge from John Brockman, et al., is
this, What have you changed your mind about? This is, at least, an
interesting question, so I'll start by saying that what I've changed
my mind about is whether, in general, the Edge's annual question is
worth reading. Okay, sometimes it is.

That said, are any specific answers to this year's Big Question
worth reading? Somewhat surprisingly, yes. Granted, some of the
answers are just wankery, scientists and others saying that they
used to think we wouldn't solve Problem X, and now they think we
will, someday, etc. Or, worse yet, there is a passel of
up-with-the-environment puffery, where the previously unconverted
become carbon holy-rollers. ...

Here are a couple worth reading. Feel free to add more.

Economist Dan Kahneman on the aspiration treadmill
Clay Shirky on science and religion
Nassim Taleb on .... nothing (okay, incomplete, but I still like the
semiotic pun)...
________________________________________________________________

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE
January 3, 2008

the corner

Plato Had a Bad Year [John Derbyshire]
For an exceptionally high quotient of interesting ideas to words,
this is hard to beat. ... What a feast of egg-head opinionating!

If there's a common tendency running through many of these pieces,
it is the fast-rising waters of naturalism, released by a
half-century of discoveries in genetics, evolutionary biology, and
neuroscience, submerging every other way of looking at the human
world.

We are part of nature, a twig on the tree of life. If we are to have
any understanding of ourselves, we must start from that. Final
answers to ancient questions are beginning to come in. You may not
be happy about the answers; but not being happy about them will be
like not being happy about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.
________________________________________________________________

DIE ZEIT
January 2, 2008

Small issue, big answers
Even the best minds of this world sometimes have to accept that they
were wrong. Scientists to answer the question of Edge Foundation,
which they change their mind -- and why.

The responses of the intellectuals are personal, sometimes very
technical, but also political. They cover a wide range of what
people employed: Climate change, the difference between men and
women, but also the question of the existence of God.
________________________________________________________________

Correre Della Sera -- Italy
January 2, 2008

UN'ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE HA CHIESTO A LUMINARI E
FILOSOFI DI RACCONTARE I PROPRI ERRORI
Quando lo scienza confessa: ho sbagliato
Dalle teorie sull'evoluzione alle differenze tra razze,
in rete i mea culpa degli studiosi

LONDRA -- «Quando pensare modifica la tua opinione è filosofia,
quando Dio ti fa cambiare idea è fede. Quando i fatti ti fanno
vedere le cose in modo diverso è scienza». Questa l'introduzione al
quesito per l'anno posto da un'associazione culturale cui aderiscono
i principali pensatori del momento, da Richard Dawkins, lo zoologo
britannico autore del libro culto Il gene egoista e più recentemente
L'illusione di Dio, allo psicologo Steven Pinker passando per il
musicista produttore Brian Eno.

Se nel 2006 aveva domandato ai suoi iscritti quale fosse l'idea più
pericolosa e nel 2007 su che cosa si sentissero ottimisti, per il
2008 Edge (il sito è www.edge.org) ha lanciato una provocazione: su
cosa avete cambiato idea? E perché? L'obiettivo era spingere gli
scienziati, gli scrittori e i ricercatori che utilizzano
regolarmente il sito ad ammettere, in un certo senso, i propri
errori.

Centinaia di loro hanno raccolto l'invito (a tanta solerzia ha forse
contribuito il fatto che le ultime edizioni delle risposte sono
state pubblicate sotto forma di libro), rivelando una gamma di
dietro front tra il clamoroso e il simpatico.
________________________________________________________________

EL MUNDO -- Spain
January 2, 2008

ZOOM: Edge Question
At the beginning of each year is a great event in the Anglo-Saxon
culture, or rather, in the social life of that culture...The event
is called the Edge Annual Question, bringing together much of the
most interesting thinkers of our world. ...
Anthropologist Richard Wrangham has introduced a subtle shift in the
explanation of the evolutionary history of man: he once believed it
to be caused by eating meat, now he believes that the decisive
factor is the kitchen, ie, changing from raw to cooked. The response
from the musician Brian Eno explains how he went from revolution to
evolution, and how he left Maoism for Darwin. ...
________________________________________________________________

THE TIMES
January 1, 2008

Science has second thoughts about life
Even the world's best brains have to admit to being wrong sometimes:
here, leading scientists respond to a new year challenge
Lewis Smith, Science Reporter

The new year is traditionally a time when people tend to look back
and try to work out where it all went wrong - and how to get it
right in the future.

The new year is traditionally a time when people tend to look back
and try to work out where it all went wrong - and how to get it
right in the future.

This time the Edge Foundation asked a number of leading scientists
and thinkers why they had changed their minds on some of the pivotal
issues in their fields. The foundation, a chat forum for
intellectuals, posed the question: 'When thinking changes your mind,
that's philosophy. When God changes your mind, that's faith. When
facts change your mind, that's science. What have you changed your
mind about? Why?"

The group's responses covered controversial issues, including
climate change, whether God or souls exist and defining when
humanity began.

This time the Edge Foundation asked a number of leading scientists
and thinkers why they had changed their minds on some of the pivotal
issues in their fields. The foundation, a chat forum for
intellectuals, posed the question: 'When thinking changes your mind,
that's philosophy. When God changes your mind, that's faith. When
facts change your mind, that's science. What have you changed your
mind about? Why?"

The group's responses covered controversial issues, including
climate change, whether God or souls exist and defining when
humanity began.
________________________________________________________________

Ask Slashdot: What Did You Change Your Mind About in 2007?

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 01, @12:41PM
from the read-dawkins'-it's-awesome dept.

chrisd writes

"The Edge 2008 question (with answers) is in.
This year, the question is: 'What did you change your mind about
and why?'. Answers are featured from scientists as diverse as
Richard Dawkins, Simon Baron-Cohen, George Church, David Brin, J.
Craig Venter and the Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, among
others. Very interesting to read. For instance, Stewart Brand
writes that he now realizes that 'Good old stuff sucks' and Sam
Harris has decided that 'Mother Nature is Not Our Friend.' What
did Slashdot readers change their minds about in 2007?"
________________________________________________________________

GUARDIAN UNLIMITED
January 1, 2008

Change of heart

What did you change your mind about in 2007? The world's
intellectual elite spread some New Year humility.
James Randerson, science correspondent

Since I wrote my piece on this year's show of scientific humility
for the New Year's day paper some big names have added their
thoughts to the mix.

Here's evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins on how being a
"flip-flopper" is no bad thing in science...

The controversial geneticist Craig Venter has had a change of heart
about the capacity of our planet to soak up the punishment humanity
is throwing at it...

There are also interesting contributions from Simon Baron-Cohen, the
University of Cambridge autism researcher who has changed his mind
about equality; psychologist Susan Blackmore, who has gone from
embracing the paranormal to debunking it; and artist and composer
Brian Eno, who was once seduced by Maoism, but now believes it is a
"monstrosity".

What did you change your mind about in 2007?
________________________________________________________________

THE INDEPENDENT
January 1, 2008

Deep thinkers reveal that they, too, can change their minds
Steve Connor

Helena Cronin, a philosopher at the London School of Economics,
turns her attention to why men appear far more successful than
women, by persistently walking off with the top positions and prizes
in life -- from being heads of state to winning Nobels.

Dr Cronin used to think it was down to sex differences in innate
talents, tastes and temperament. But now she believes it has also
something to do with the fact that women cluster around a
statistical average, whereas men are more likely to be represented
at the extreme ends of the normal spectrum -- both at the top and
the bottom.

Some replies to the Edge question ponder the perennial problem of
God. Professor Patrick Bateson of Cambridge University has changed
his mind on what to call himself after meeting a virulent
creationist. He is no longer an agnostic but an atheist. Meanwhile
the actor and writer Alan Alda said that he has changed his mind
about God -- twice.

What have you changed your mind about? Why?
________________________________________________________________

O'REILLY RADAR
January 1, 2008

What Have You Changed Your Mind About?
By Tim O'Reilly
...I eventually offered some ideas and he jumped on one: my
skepticism about the term "social software" after Clay Shirky's
"Social Software Summit" in November 2002. As it turns out, Clay was
right and I was wrong. This was a powerful meme indeed, just five
years early.
Here's what I wrote for the 2008 Edge question. As I suspected, it's
a meager offering at a remarkable feast of the intellect. Use it, if
you must, as an entry point to an amazing group of reflections on
science, culture, and the evolution of ideas. Reading the Edge
question is like being invited to dinner with some of the most
interesting people on the planet.
________________________________________________________________

THE GUARDIAN
January 1, 2008

Second thoughts on life, the universe and everything by world's best
brains
The changes of mind that gave philosophers and scientists new
insights
James Randerson, science correspondent

They are the intellectual elite, the brains the rest of us rely on
to make sense of the universe and answer the big questions. But in a
refreshing show of new year humility, the world's best thinkers have
admitted that from time to time even they are forced to change their
minds.

When tackling subjects as diverse as human evolution, the laws of
physics and sexual politics, scientists and philosophers, including
Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Paul Davies and Richard Wrangham, all
confessed yesterday to a change of heart.

The display of scientific modesty was brought about by the annual
new year's question posed by the website edge.org, which drew
responses from more than 120 of the world's greatest thinkers.
________________________________________________________________

THE INDEPENDENT
31 December 2007

Boyd Tonkin: This year, how about some new year's irresolution?
Changes of mind lie at the core of almost every breakthrough in
science, art and thought

>   From tomorrow morning, we can all sample the reasoning that drives
shifts in position by a selection of leading scientists and social
thinkers. Since 1998, the splendidly enlightened Edge website
(www.edge.org) has rounded off each year of inter-disciplinary
debate by asking its heavy-hitting contributors to answer one
question. This time, the new-year challenge runs: "What have you
changed your mind about? Why?". I strongly recommend a visit to
anyone who feels browbeaten by fans of that over-rated virtue: mere
consistency.
________________________________________________________________

ARTS & LETTERS DAILY
January 1 2008

Articles of Note
What have you changed your mind about, and why? John Brockman's Edge
put the question to over a hundred scientists and scholars... more»
________________________________________________________________

THE INDEPENDENT
January 1 2008
COMMENT

Leading article: Why, oh why?

It's becoming something of a New Year ritual. For almost a decade,
the website www.edge.org has been asking a selection of eminent
thinkers and scholars to answer a single question and publishing the
results on 1 January.

In the past it has presented such posers as "What do you believe is
true, even though you cannot prove it?" and "What is the most
important invention of the past 2,000 years?"

This year Edge wanted to know: "What have you changed your mind
about and why?" As usual, it's a good question. And the responses of
the likes of Steven Pinker and Helena Cronin are as fascinating and
weighty as one would imagine.
________________________________________________________________

THE TELEGRAPH
December 31, 2007

Scientists reveal what changed their minds
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

The best men really do outperform the best women, drugs should be
used to enhance our mental powers, and marriages suffer from a 'four
year itch", not a seven year one.

These are among the provocative ideas put forward today by leading
figures who have been asked what has changed their minds about some
of the biggest issues.

The poll of Nobel laureates, scientists, futurists and creative
thinkers is published by John Brockman, the New York-based literary
agent and publisher of The Edge website.
________________________________________________________________

SUMMARIES
____________________________________________________________________

MARTIN SELIGMAN
Psychologist, University of Pennsylvania, Author, Authentic
Happiness

We Are Alone
________________________________________________________________

JOSEPH LEDOUX
Neuroscientist, New York University; Author, The Synaptic Self

Like many scientists in the field of memory, I used to think that a
memory is something stored in the brain and then accessed when used.
________________________________________________________________

KARL SABBAGH
Writer and Television Producer; Author, The Riemann Hypothesis

I used to believe that there were experts and non-experts and that,
on the whole, the judgment of experts is more accurate, more valid,
and more correct than my own judgment.
________________________________________________________________

DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF
Media Analyst; Documentary Writer; Author, Get Back in the Box:
Innovation from the Inside Out

The Internet
________________________________________________________________

PIET HUT
Professor of Astrophysics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Explanations
________________________________________________________________

HOWARD GARDNER
Psychologist, Harvard University; Author, Changing Minds

Wrestling with Jean Piaget, my Paragon
________________________________________________________________

DONALD HOFFMAN
Cognitive Scientist, UC, Irvine; Author, Visual Intelligence
Veridical Perception
________________________________________________________________

MICHAEL SHERMER
Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific
American; Author, Why Darwin Matters

The Nature of Human Nature
________________________________________________________________

JAMES O'DONNELL
Classicist; Cultural Historian; Provost, Georgetown University;
Author, Augustine: A New Biography

I stopped cheering for the Romans
________________________________________________________________

COLIN TUDGE
Science Writer; Author, The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees
Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter

The Omniscience and Omnipotence of Science
____________________________________________________________________

IRENE PEPPERBERG
Research Associate, Psychology, Harvard University; Author, The Alex
Studies

The Fallacy of Hypothesis Testing
________________________________________________________________

MARCELO GLEISER
Physicist, Dartmouth College; Author, The Prophet and the Astronomer

To Unify or Not: That is the Question
________________________________________________________________

FREEMAN DYSON
Physicist, Institute of Advanced Study, Author, A Many Colored Glass

When facts change your mind, that's not always science. It may be
history. I changed my mind about an important historical question:
did the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bring World War
Two to an end?
________________________________________________________________

ED REGIS
Science Writer, Author, Nano

Predicting the Future
________________________________________________________________

DAVID BRIN
Physicist; Technical Consultant; Science Fiction Writer; Author, The
Transparent Society

Sometimes you are glad to discover you were wrong. My best example
of that kind of pleasant surprise is India. I'm delighted to see its
recent rise, on (tentative) course toward economic, intellectual and
social success.
________________________________________________________________

RUDY RUCKER
Mathematician, Computer Scientist; CyberPunk Pioneer; Novelist;
Author, Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul

Can Robots See God?
________________________________________________________________

NICK BOSTROM
Philosopher, University of Oxford; Author,

Everything
________________________________________________________________

GINO SEGRE
Physicist, University of Pennsylvania; Author: Faust In Copenhagen:
A Struggle for the Soul of Physics

The Universe's Expansion
________________________________________________________________

ARNOLD TREHUB
Psychologist, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Author: The
Cognitive Brain

I have never questioned the conventional view that a good grounding
in the physical sciences is needed for a deep understanding of the
biological sciences. It did not occur to me that the opposite view
might also be true.
________________________________________________________________

MARK PAGEL
Evolutionary Biologist, Reading University, England

We Differ More Than We Thought
____________________________________________________________________

CHARLES SEIFE
Professor of Journalism, New York University; formerly journalist,
Science magazine; Author, Zero: The Biography Of A Dangerous Idea

I used to think that a modern, democratic society had to be a
scientific society.
________________________________________________________________

DAVID BODANIS
Writer; Consultant; Author, Passionate Minds

The Bible Is Inane
________________________________________________________________

HAIM HARARI
Physicist, former President, Weizmann Institute of Science

Clear and simple is not the same as provable and well defined
________________________________________________________________

TIMOTHY TAYLOR
Archaeologist, University of Bradford; Author, The Buried Soul

Relativism
________________________________________________________________

LEON LEDERMAN
Physicist and Nobel Laureate; Director Emeritus, Fermilab; Coauthor,
The God Particle

The Obligations and Responsibilities of The Scientist
________________________________________________________________

DAN SPERBER
Social and cognitive scientist; Directeur de Recherche, CNRS, Paris;
Author, Rethinking Symbolism

How I Became An Evolutionary Psychologist
________________________________________________________________

THOMAS METZINGER
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Author, Being No One

There are No Moral Facts
________________________________________________________________

MARC D. HAUSER
Psychologist and Biologist, Harvard University: Author, Moral Minds

The Limits Of Darwinian Reasoning
________________________________________________________________

ROBERT PROVINE
Psychologist and Neuroscientist, University of Maryland; Author,
Laughter

In Praise of Fishing Expeditions
________________________________________________________________

TODD E. FEINBERG, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine; Author, Altered Egos

Soul Searching
____________________________________________________________________

KEITH DEVLIN
Mathematician; Executive Director, Center for the Study of Language
and Information, Stanford; Author, The Millennium Problems

What is the nature of mathematics?
________________________________________________________________

DAVID G, MYERS
Social psychologist, Hope College; author, Psychology, 8th edition

Reading and reporting on psychological science has changed my mind
many times....
________________________________________________________________

DANIEL EVERETT
Researcher of Pirahã Culture; Chair of Languages, Literatures, &
Cultures, Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology, Illinois State
University

Homeopathic Bias and Language Origins
________________________________________________________________

DAVID DALRYMPLE
Student, MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms; Researcher, Internet 0,
Fab Lab Thinner Clients for South Africa, Conformal Computing

Maybe MBAs Should Design Computers After All
________________________________________________________________

MAX TEGMARK
Physicist, MIT; Researcher, Precision Cosmology

Do we need to understand consciousness to understand physics?  I
used to answer "yes", thinking that we could never figure out the
elusive "theory of everything" for our external physical reality
without first understanding the distorting mental lens through which
we perceive it.
________________________________________________________________

ROBERT SAPOLSKY
Neuroscientist, Stanford University, Author, A Primate's Memoir

I'm both a neurobiologist and a primatologist, and I've changed my
mind about plenty of things in both of these realms. But the most
fundamental change is one that transcends either of those
disciplines -- this was my realizing that the most interesting and
important things in the life sciences are not going to be explained
with sheer reductionism.
________________________________________________________________

TOR NØRRETRANDERS
Science Writer; Consultant; Lecturer, Copenhagen; Author, The
Generous Man

Permanent Reincarnation
________________________________________________________________

HELEN FISHER
Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University;
Author, Why We Love

Planned Obsolescence?  The Four-Year Itch
________________________________________________________________

STEVE NADIS
Science writer; Contributing Editor, Astronomy Magazine
The Myth Of The "Open Mind"
________________________________________________________________

PAUL STEINHARDT
Physicist; Albert Einstein Professor of Science, Princeton
University; Coauthor, Endless Universe: A New History of the Cosmos

What created the structure of the universe?
____________________________________________________________________

RODNEY A. BROOKS
Panasonic Professor of Robotics, MIT, and CTO, iRobot Corp; author
Flesh and Machines

Computation as the Ultimate Metaphor
________________________________________________________________

ROBERT TRIVERS
Evolutionary Biologist, Rutgers University; Coauthor, Genes In
Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements

The Science of Self-deception Requires a Deep Understanding of
Biology
________________________________________________________________

LAURENCE C. SMITH
Professor of Geography, UCLA

Rapid climate change
________________________________________________________________

LEE M. SILVER
Professor of Molecular Biology and Public Policy,  Woodrow Wilson
School, Princeton; Author, Challenging Nature
"If we could just get people to understand the science, they'd agree
with us." Not.
________________________________________________________________

GARY MARCUS
Psychologist, New York University; Author, The Birth of the Mind

What's Special About Human Language
________________________________________________________________

LEE SMOLIN
Physicist, Perimeter Institute; Author, The Trouble With Physics

Although I have changed my mind about several ideas and theories, my
longest struggle has been with the concept of time.
________________________________________________________________

A. GARRETT LISI
Independent Theoretical Physicist; Author, "An Exceptionally Simple
Theory of Everything"

I Used To Think I Could Change My Mind
________________________________________________________________

JOHN BAEZ
Mathematical Physicist

Should I be thinking about quantum gravity?
________________________________________________________________

KEN FORD
Retired Physicist & Writer; Coauthor (with John Archibald Wheeler),
Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics

I used to believe that the ethos of science, the very nature of
science, guaranteed the ethical behavior of its practitioners. As a
student and a young researcher, I could not conceive of cheating,
claiming credit for the work of others, or fabricating data.
________________________________________________________________

JEFFREY EPSTEIN
Science Philanthropist

The question presupposes a well defined "you", and an implied
ability that is under "your" control to change your "mind". The
"you" I now believe is distributed amongst others (family friends ,
in hierarchal structures,)....
____________________________________________________________________

LAWRENCE KRAUSS
Physicist, Case Western Reserve University; Author, Atom

What is the Universe Made of and How Will it End?
________________________________________________________________

STEPHEN M. KOSSLYN
Psychologist, Harvard University; Author, Wet Mind

The World in the Brain
________________________________________________________________

GARY KLEIN
Research Psychologist; Founder, Klein Associates; Author, The Power
of Intuition

Exchanging Your Mind
________________________________________________________________

ALAN KRUEGER
Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton
University; Author, What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots
of Terrorism

I used to think the labor market was very competitive, but now I
think it is better characterized by monopsony, at least in the short
run.
________________________________________________________________

SETH LLOYD
Quantum Mechanical Engineer, MIT, Author, Programming the Universe

I have changed my mind about technology.
________________________________________________________________

JOHN MCCARTHY
Computer Scientist; 1st Generation Artificial Intelligence Pioneer,
Stanford University

Attitudes Trump Facts
________________________________________________________________

ERNST PÖPPEL
Neuroscientist, Chairman, Board of Directors, Human Science Center
and Department of Medical Psychology, Munich University, Germany;
Author, Mindworks

Being Caught In The Language Trap -- Or Wittgenstein's Straitjacket
________________________________________________________________

SCOTT SAMPSON
Chief Curator, Utah Museum of Natural History; Associate Professor,
University of Utah; Host, Dinosaur Planet TV series

The Death of the Dinosaurs
________________________________________________________________

PETER SCHWARTZ
Futurist, Business Strategist; Cofounder. Global Business Network, a
Monitor Company; Author, The Long Boom

In the last few years I have changed my mind about nuclear power.
________________________________________________________________

MARCEL KINSBOURNE, M.D.
Neurologist & Cognitive Neuroscientist, The New School; Coauthor,
Children's Learning and Attention Problems

The Impressionable Brain
________________________________________________________________

KEVIN KELLY
Editor-At-Large, Wired; Author, New Rules for the New Economy

Much of what I believed about human nature, and the nature of
knowledge, has been upended by the Wikipedia.
____________________________________________________________________

MARTI HEARST
Computer Scientist, UC Berkeley, School of Information

Computational Analysis of Language Requires Understanding Language
________________________________________________________________

ALAN KAY
Computer Scientist; Personal Computer Visionary, Senior Fellow, HP
Labs

A Big Mind Change At Age 10: Vacuums Don't Suck!
________________________________________________________________

DIANE F. HALPERN
Professor, Claremont McKenna College; Past-president, American
Psychological Association; Author, Sex Differences in Cognitive
Abilities

> From A Simple Truth To "It All Depends"
________________________________________________________________

STEPHEN H. SCHNEIDER
Biologist; Climatologist, Stanford University; Author, Laboratory
Earth

Climate Change: Warming Up To The Evidence
________________________________________________________________

XENI JARDIN
Tech Culture Journalist; Co-editor, Boing Boing; Commentator, NPR;
Host, Boing Boing tv

Online Communities Rot Without Daily Tending By Human Hands
________________________________________________________________

CARLO ROVELLI
Physicist, Universite' de la Mediterrane' (Marseille, France);
Author: What is time? What is Space?

There is nothing to add to the standard interpretation of quantum
mechanics.
________________________________________________________________

ROGER C. SCHANK
Psychologist & Computer Scientist; Engines for Education Inc.;
Author, Making Minds Less Well Educated than Our Own

AI?
________________________________________________________________

JOHN HORGAN
Director, the Center for Science Writings, Stevens Institute of
Technology; Author, Rational Mysticism

Changing My Mind About the Mind-Body Problem
________________________________________________________________

SHERRY TURKLE
Psychologist, MIT; Author, Evocative Objects: Things We Think With

What I've Changed My Mind About
________________________________________________________________

DANIEL GILBERT
Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University;
Author, Stumbling on Happiness

The Benefit of Being Able to Change My Mind
____________________________________________________________________

STEWART BRAND
Founder, Whole Earth Catalog, cofounder; The Well; cofounder, Global
Business Network; Author, How Buildings Learn

Good Old Stuff Sucks
________________________________________________________________

OLIVER MORTON
Chief News and Features Editor, Nature; Author, Mapping Mars

Human Spaceflight
________________________________________________________________

JUDITH RICH HARRIS
Independent Investigator and Theoretician; Author, No Two Alike:
Human Nature and Human Individuality

Generalization
________________________________________________________________

GEORGE CHURCH
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Director, Center for
Computational Genetics

Evolution of Faith In Experiments
________________________________________________________________

TERRENCE SEJNOWSKI
Computational Neuroscientist, Salk Institute, Coauthor, The
Computational Brain

I have changed my mind about cortical neurons and now think that
they are far more capable than we ever imagined.
________________________________________________________________

JON HAIDT
Psychologist, University of Virginia, author The Happiness
Hypothesis

Sports and fraternities are not so bad
________________________________________________________________

PATRICK BATESON
Professor of Ethology, Cambridge University, author Design for a
Life

Changing my Mind
________________________________________________________________

ALAN ALDA
Actor, writer, director, and host of PBS program "Scientific
American Frontiers."

So far, I've changed my mind twice about God
________________________________________________________________

STEVEN PINKER
Psychologist, Harvard University; Author, The Stuff of Thought

Have Humans Stopped Evolving?
________________________________________________________________

PAUL DAVIES
Physicist, Arizona State University; Author, The Cosmic Jackpot

I used to be a committed Platonist
____________________________________________________________________

GEORGE B. DYSON
Science Historian; Author, Project Orion

Russian America
________________________________________________________________

JUAN ENRIQUEZ
CEO, Biotechonomy; Founding Director, Harvard Business School's Life
Sciences Project; Author, The Untied States of America
The source of long term power
________________________________________________________________

REBECCA GOLDSTEIN
Philosopher, Harvard University; Author, Betraying Spinoza
Falsifiability
________________________________________________________________

EDUARDO PUNSET
Scientist; Spanish Television Presenter; Author, The Happiness Trip
The soul is in the brain
________________________________________________________________

JOHN ALLEN PAULOS
Professor of Mathematics, Temple University, Philadelphia; Author,
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments ofr God Just
Don't Add Up

The Convergence of Belief Change
________________________________________________________________

LEO CHALUPA
Ophthalmologist and Neurobiologist, University of California, Davis

Brain plasticity
________________________________________________________________

SCOTT ATRAN
Anthropologist, University of Michigan; Author, In God's We Trust

The Religious Politics of Fictive Kinship
________________________________________________________________

MARCO IACOBONI
Neuroscientist, UCLA Brain Mapping Center; Author, Mirroring People

The eradication of irrational thinking is (not) inevitable (it will
require some serious work)
________________________________________________________________

RICHARD WRANGHAM
Professor of Biology and Anthropology, Harvard University' Coauthor
(with Dale Peterson), Demonic Males: Apes, and the Origins Of Human
Violence

The Human Recipe
________________________________________________________________

SEAN CARROLL
Theoretical Physicist, Cal Tech

Being a Heretic is Hard Work
____________________________________________________________________

LINDA STONE
Former VP, Microsoft & Co-Founder & Director, Microsoft's Virtual
Worlds Group/Social Computing Group

Breathtaking New Technologies
________________________________________________________________

STANISLAS DEHEANE
Cognitive Neuropsychology Researcher, Institut National de la Santé,
Paris; Author, The Number Sense
The brain's Schrödinger equation
________________________________________________________________

MARY CATHERINE BATESON
Anthropologist, visiting professor Harvard Graduate School of
Education; Author, Full Circles, Overlapping Lives

Making and Changing Minds
________________________________________________________________

WILLIAM CALVIN
Professor, The University of Washington School of Medicine; Author,
A Brain For All Seasons

Greenland changed my mind
________________________________________________________________

CAROLYN PORCO
Planetary Scientist; Cassini Imaging Science Team Leader; Director
CICLOPS, Boulder CO; Adjunct Professor, University of Colorado

I've changed my mind about the manner in which our future on this
planet might evolve.
________________________________________________________________

BRIAN GOODWIN
Biologist, Schumacher College, Devon, UK; Author, How The Leopard
Changed Its Spots

I have changed my mind about the general validity of the mechanical
worldview that underlies the modern scientific understanding of
natural processes.
________________________________________________________________

LISA RANDALL
Physicist, Harvard University; Author, Warped Passages

When I first heard about the solar neutrino puzzle, I had a little
trouble taking it seriously.
________________________________________________________________

NICHOLAS CARR
Author, The Big Switch

The Radiant and Infectious Web
________________________________________________________________

AUBREY de GREY
Gerontologist; chairman and chief science officer of the Methuselah
Foundation; author, Ending Aging

Curiosity is addictive, and this is not an entirely good thing
________________________________________________________________

HELENA CRONIN
Philosopher, London School of Economics; director and founder
Darwin at LSE; author, The Ant and the Peacock

More dumbbells but more Nobels: Why men are at the top
____________________________________________________________________

DANIEL C. DENNETT
Philosopher; University Professor, Co-Director, Center for Cognitive
Studies, Tufts University; Author, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a
Natural Phenomenon

Competition in the brain
________________________________________________________________

NICHOLAS A. CHRISTAKIS
Physician and social scientist, Harvard
Culture can change our genes
________________________________________________________________

RUPERT SHELDRAKE
Biologist, London; Author, The Sense of Being Stared At

The skepticism of believers
________________________________________________________________

CHRIS ANDERSON
Editor in Chief, Wired Magazine; Author, The Long Tail

Seeing Through a Carbon Lens
________________________________________________________________

FRANK WILCZEK
Physicist, MIT; Recipient, 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics; Author,
Fantastic Realities

The Science Formerly Known as Religion
________________________________________________________________

PHILIP CAMPBELL
Editor-in Chief, Nature

I've changed my mind about the use of enhancement drugs by healthy
people.
________________________________________________________________

TIM O'REILLY
Founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc.

I was skeptical of the term "social software"....
________________________________________________________________

JAMES GEARY
Former Europe editor, Time Magazine; Author, Geary's Guide to the
World's Great Aphorists

Neuroeconomics really explains human economic behavior
________________________________________________________________

DANIEL GOLEMAN
Psychologist; Author, Social Intelligence

The Inexplicable Monks
________________________________________________________________

ANDRIAN KREYE
Feuilleton (Arts & Ideas) Editor, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Munich
The empirical data of journalism are no match for the bigger picture
of science
____________________________________________________________________

DAVID BUSS
Psychologist, University of Texas, Austin; Author, The Murderer Next
Door

Female Sexual Psychology
________________________________________________________________

YOSSI VARDI
Chairman, International Technologies

Life experience changed my mind
________________________________________________________________

SAM HARRIS
Neuroscience Researcher; Author, Letter to a Christian Nation

Mother Nature is Not Our Friend
________________________________________________________________

ROBERT SHAPIRO
Chemist, New York University; Author, Planetary Dreams

Smothering Science with Silence
________________________________________________________________

HANS ULRICH OBRIST
Curator, Serpentine Gallery, London

The question of objects
________________________________________________________________

BRIAN ENO
Artist; Composer; Recording Producer: U2, Talking Heads, Paul Simon;
Recording Artist

> From Revolutionary to Evolutionary
________________________________________________________________

SEIRIAN SUMNER
Research Fellow, Institute of Zoology, London

Reassessing Relatedness
________________________________________________________________

PAUL EWALD
Professor of Biology, Amherst College; Author, Evolution of
Infectious Disease

Trusting Experts
________________________________________________________________

NICHOLAS HUMPHREY
Psychologist, London School of Economics; Author, Seeing Red

The hardness of the problem of consciousness is the key to its
solution
________________________________________________________________

ADAM BLY
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Seed

Technology is Not So Bad
____________________________________________________________________

SUSAN BLACKMORE
Psychologist and Skeptic; Author, Consciousness: An Introduction

The Paranormal
________________________________________________________________

PZ MYERS
Biologist, University of Minnesota; blogger, Pharyngula

I always change my mind about everything, and I never change my mind
about anything.
________________________________________________________________

GERD GIGERENZER
Psychologist; Director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and
Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in
Berlin; Author, Gut Feelings

The Advent of Health Literacy
________________________________________________________________

ANTON ZEILINGER
University of Vienna and Scientific Director, Institute of Quantum
Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences

I used to think what I am doing is "useless"
________________________________________________________________

ESTHER DYSON
Editor, Release 1.0; Trustee, Long Now Foundation; Author, Release
2.0

What have I changed my mind about? Online privacy.
________________________________________________________________

MARTIN REES
President, The Royal Society; Professor of Cosmology & Astrophysics;
Master, Trinity College, University of Cambridge; Author, Our Final
Century: The 50/50 Threat to Humanity's Survival

We Should Take the 'Posthuman' Era Seriously
________________________________________________________________

JANNA LEVIN
Physicist, Columbia University; Author, A Madman Dreams of Turing
Machines

I used to take for granted an assumption that the universe is
infinite.
________________________________________________________________

JARON LANIER
Computer Scientist and Musician; Columnist, Discover Magazine

Here's a happy example of me being wrong.
________________________________________________________________

DIMITAR SASSELOV
Astrophysicist, Harvard

I change my mind all the time -- keeping an open mind in science is
a good thing.
________________________________________________________________

FRANCESCO DE PRETIS
Journalist, La Stampa; Italy Correspondent, Science Magazin

A book on "What is really Science?"
____________________________________________________________________

ROGER HIGHFIELD
Science Editor, The Daily Telegraph; Coauthor, After Dolly

Science as faith
________________________________________________________________

DANIEL ENGBER
Science editor, Slate Magazine

It's hard to perform ethical research on animals
________________________________________________________________

AUSTIN DACEY
philosopher, Center for Inquiry; author, The Secular Conscience

What Matters
________________________________________________________________

SIMON BARON-COHEN
Psychologist, Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University; Author,
The Essential Difference

Equality
________________________________________________________________

DAVID SLOAN WILSON
Biologist, Binghamton University; Author, Evolution for Everyone

I Missed the Complexity Revolution
________________________________________________________________

J. CRAIG VENTER
Human Genome Decoder; Director, The J. Craig Venter Institute

The importance of doing something now about the environment.
________________________________________________________________

NEIL GERSHENFELD
Physicist, MIT; Author, FAB

I've long considered myself as working at the boundary between
physical science and computer science; I now believe that that
boundary is a historical accident and does not really exist.
________________________________________________________________

PAUL SAFFO
Technology Forecaster

The best forecasters will be computers
________________________________________________________________

ALISON GOPNIK
Psychologist, UC-Berkeley; Coauthor, The Scientist In the Crib

Imagination is Real
________________________________________________________________

JORDAN POLLACK
Computer Scientist, Brandeis University

Electronic Mail
____________________________________________________________________

CHRIS DIBONA
Open Source Programs Manager, Google
Oversight and Programmer productivity
________________________________________________________________

BEATRICE GOLOMB, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine & Associate Professor of Family and
Preventive Medicine at UCSD
Reasoning from Evidence: A Call for Education
________________________________________________________________

STEPHON ALEXANDER
Assistant Professor of Physics, Penn State
The Light Side of Locality
________________________________________________________________

GEORGE JOHNSON
Science writer; Author, Miss Leavitt's Stars

Experimental Physics
________________________________________________________________

GEOFFREY MILLER
Evolutionary Psychologist, University of New Mexico; Author, The
Mating Mind
Asking for directions
________________________________________________________________

STEVE CONNOR
Science Editor, The Independent in London
The 21st Century
________________________________________________________________

BARRY SMITH
Philosopher, School of Advanced Study, University of London;
Coeditor, Knowing Our Own Minds

The Experience of the Normally Functioning Mind is the Exception
________________________________________________________________

JESSE BERING
Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queens
University, Belfast
I Have No Destiny (and Neither Do You)
________________________________________________________________

ROGER BINGHAM
Cofounder and Director, The Science Network; Neuroscience
Researcher, Center for Brain and Cognition, UCSD; Coauthor, The
Origin of Minds; Creator PBS Science Programs
Changing My Religion
________________________________________________________________

RICHARD DAWKINS
Evolutionary Biologist, Charles Simonyi Professor For The
Understanding Of Science, Oxford University; Author, The God
Delusion
A flip-flop should be no handicap
____________________________________________________________________

GREGORY BENFORD
Physicist, UC Irvine; Author, Deep Time

Evolving the law s of physics
________________________________________________________________

LERA BORODITSKY
Cognitive Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience, Stanford University

Do our languages shape the nuts and bolts of perception, the very
way we see the world?
________________________________________________________________

JAMSHED BHARUCHA
Professor of Psychology, Provost, Senior Vice President, Tufts
University

Education as Stretching the Mind
________________________________________________________________

DENIS DUTTON
Professor of the philosophy of art, University of Canterbury, New
Zealand, editor of Philosophy and Literature and Arts & Letters
Daily

The Self-Made Species
________________________________________________________________

CLAY SHIRKY
Social & Technology Network Topology Researcher; Adjunct Professor,
NYU Graduate School of Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)

Religion and Science
________________________________________________________________

KAI KRAUSE
Software and Design Pioneer

Software is merely a Performance Art
________________________________________________________________

LINDA S. GOTTFREDSON
Sociologist, University of Delaware; co-director of the Project for
the Study of Intelligence and Society.
The Calculus of Small but Consistent Effects
________________________________________________________________

RANDOLPH M. NESSE
Psychiatrist, University of Michigan; Coauthor, Why We Get Sick

Truth does not reside with smart university experts
________________________________________________________________

BART KOSKO
Information Scientist, USC; Author, Noise

The Sample Mean
________________________________________________________________

DAVID GELERNTER
Computer Scientist, Yale University; Chief Scientist, Mirror Worlds
Technologies; Author, Drawing Life

Users Are Not Reactionary After All
________________________________________________________________

MARK HENDERSON
Science Editor. The Times, London

Consulting the public about science isn't always a waste of time --
but consulting bioethicists often is
________________________________________________________________

DAVID GOODHART
Founder & Editor, Prospect Magazine

The nation state is too big for the local things, too small for the
international things and the root of most of the world's ills
________________________________________________________________

W.DANIEL HILLIS
Physicist, Computer Scientist; Chairman, Applied Minds, Inc.;
Author, The Pattern on the Stone

Trust the Experiment Yourself
________________________________________________________________

NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB
Epistemologist of Randomness and Applied Statistician; Author, The
Black Swan

The Irrelevance of "Probability"
________________________________________________________________

DANIEL KAHNEMAN
Psychologist, Princeton; Recipient, 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic
Sciences

The sad tale of the aspiration treadmill

________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

[Click the URL to get the full essays. None are long.]