Octarine
The Eighth Colour
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2007
- Messages
- 1,351
- MBTI Type
- Aeon
- Enneagram
- 10w
- Instinctual Variant
- so
The Edge foundation asks its members annually to answer a (generalised) question deemed to be important in today's society.
http://edge.org/annual-question
The previous questions have been:
2010 : HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK?
2009 : WHAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING?
2008 : WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?
2007 : WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT?
2006 : WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
2005 : WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?
2004 : WHAT'S YOUR LAW?
2003 : WHAT ARE THE PRESSING SCIENTIFIC ISSUES FOR THE NATION AND THE WORLD, AND WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE ON HO?
2002 : WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION? ... WHY?
2001 : WHAT NOW ?
2001 : WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE DISAPPEARED?
2000 : WHAT IS TODAY'S MOST IMPORTANT UNREPORTED STORY?
1999 : WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?
1998 : WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF?
With the answers to those questions being published in books since 2005.
The Edge Question asked in 2011 was:
What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?
http://edge.org/annual-question/what-scientific-concept-would-improve-everybodys-cognitive-toolkit
See the answers here:
http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_1.html
I had planned on discussing this a while ago, but I never actually got around to finishing reading all the responses, because there are a lot of them...
As you'd expect, the responses are mostly from the fields of interest of the respondents. Some you might already be familiar with, some should be common sense (but aren't) and some are quite novel or unexpected.
The responses themselves aren't that long, it's just that there are a lot of them.
I think it is worth reading few some of the responses each day and perhaps discuss any interesting ones here.
Edit - I moved one of the examples I had quoted to a later post, for clarity.
http://edge.org/annual-question
The previous questions have been:
2010 : HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK?
2009 : WHAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING?
2008 : WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?
2007 : WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT?
2006 : WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
2005 : WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?
2004 : WHAT'S YOUR LAW?
2003 : WHAT ARE THE PRESSING SCIENTIFIC ISSUES FOR THE NATION AND THE WORLD, AND WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE ON HO?
2002 : WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION? ... WHY?
2001 : WHAT NOW ?
2001 : WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE DISAPPEARED?
2000 : WHAT IS TODAY'S MOST IMPORTANT UNREPORTED STORY?
1999 : WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?
1998 : WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF?
With the answers to those questions being published in books since 2005.
The Edge Question asked in 2011 was:
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.
http://edge.org/annual-question/what-scientific-concept-would-improve-everybodys-cognitive-toolkit
See the answers here:
http://www.edge.org/q2011/q11_1.html
I had planned on discussing this a while ago, but I never actually got around to finishing reading all the responses, because there are a lot of them...
As you'd expect, the responses are mostly from the fields of interest of the respondents. Some you might already be familiar with, some should be common sense (but aren't) and some are quite novel or unexpected.
The responses themselves aren't that long, it's just that there are a lot of them.
I think it is worth reading few some of the responses each day and perhaps discuss any interesting ones here.
Edit - I moved one of the examples I had quoted to a later post, for clarity.
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