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Science at the Edge: Conversations with the Leading Scientific Thinkers of Today
As founder, editor, and publisher of the intellectual forum www.edge.org, John Brockman is well-positioned to initiate and cultivate an ongoing dialogue with today’s leading cutting-edge thinkers. The website is a virtual salon for every type of intellectual and scientific pursuit, from evolutionary biology and quantum physics, to crowd psychology and miniaturized computing. Through this vibrant and varied online community, Brockman has shifted sharply away from the stereotype of the introverted, out-of-touch scientist and introduced the reality of a fully aware and involved scientific society. Science at the Edge reflects this brave new world, and Brockman has assembled some of the today’s most revolutionary scholars from all scientific disciplines to discuss their unique contributions to the development of modern thought. Far from being a catalog of the marginal disputes of a quarrelsome scientific class, this is a thrilling and intellectually stimulating discussion that serves as an introduction to some of the best minds of the 21st century. This revised and updated version features additional conversations, as well as a new introduction written especially for this edition. The book contains Brockman’s discussions, many with bestselling authors, on the following
464 pages, Paperback
Published May 6, 2008
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About the author
John Brockman
66 books615 followersJohn Brockman is an American literary agent and author specializing in scientific literature. He established the Edge Foundation, an organization that brings together leading edge thinkers across a broad range of scientific and technical fields.
He is author and editor of several books, including: The Third Culture (1995); The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2000 Years (2000); The Next Fifty Years (2002) and The New Humanists (2003).
He has the distinction of being the only person to have been profiled on Page One of the "Science Times" (1997) and the "Arts & Leisure" (1966), both supplements of The New York Times.
He is author and editor of several books, including: The Third Culture (1995); The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2000 Years (2000); The Next Fifty Years (2002) and The New Humanists (2003).
He has the distinction of being the only person to have been profiled on Page One of the "Science Times" (1997) and the "Arts & Leisure" (1966), both supplements of The New York Times.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 16, 2014
SCIENCE AT THE EDGE is a compilation of summarized interviews edited by John Brockman, author of THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS: SCIENCE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. His emphasis is on cooperation between traditional scientist such as physicists and cosmologists with more humanistic scientists such as psychologists and philosophers.
The above may have been his intent, but the various essays tend to address artificial intelligence and possible theories unifying relativity and quantum mechanics. The most jaw-dropping essay is one done with Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and entrepreneur who belongs to the U.S. Patent Office’s National Inventors Hall of Fame. Kurzweil is high on artificial intelligence. He says “We’ll make 20,000 years of progress in the twenty-first century, which is about 1,000 times more technical change than we saw in the twentieth century.” He maintains artificial intelligence is increasing exponentially and that by mid century we ought to be able to create a human-like robot much more intelligent than we are. Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and musician, studying advanced applications for Internet 2, is much less impressed with the potential for artificial intelligence. He agrees the hardware is getting smarter, but he doubts we will be able to create software to run these machines. He bases this opinion on the bugginess and unreliability of current software. It’s always breaking down, freezing, and is prone to viruses and malware. After the recent Sony event one might side with Lanier.
The second battle of the minds involves the two theories concerning a unification theory of gravity and quantum theory. Paul Steinhardt is the Albert Einstein Professor in Science and a professor in both the Departments of Physics and the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton. He’s more of a string theory guy with a twist. Steinhardt believes the universe is infinite and other galaxies and clusters are racing away from us at a tremendous rate of speed. In Steinhardt’s theory, all known matter sits on something called a “brane,” short for membrane. There are two of them, but we can only see one. When the brane is completely barren of matter and radiation it bounces off the other brane, creating another “bang” and we start all over again. This happens every couple of trillion years or so. There’s another dimension or dimensions between the two branes, but Steinhardt doesn’t go into that much in this summary.
Lee Smolin is the founder of something called Loop Quantum Gravity. I’m sure you’ve heard it mentioned on “The Big Bang Theory.” Smolin doesn’t disagree with string theory. He even trades information with scientists who work in the field. Smolin is more concerned with unifying proven science. We have evidence relativity and quantum theory exists, but you can’t do experiments with something you can’t see, and you can’t see the extra dimensions predicted with string theory. He gets a little snarky at times, claiming string theorists are too concerned with “pretty” mathematics. String theorists have formulas that predict the extra dimensions.
Smolin and most of the other scientist in this book were interviewed prior to the opening of the Hadron Super Collider, which produced evidence that the Higgs boson particle exists, and that it degrades into even smaller particles, so that may have opened a new kettle of fish.
The above may have been his intent, but the various essays tend to address artificial intelligence and possible theories unifying relativity and quantum mechanics. The most jaw-dropping essay is one done with Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and entrepreneur who belongs to the U.S. Patent Office’s National Inventors Hall of Fame. Kurzweil is high on artificial intelligence. He says “We’ll make 20,000 years of progress in the twenty-first century, which is about 1,000 times more technical change than we saw in the twentieth century.” He maintains artificial intelligence is increasing exponentially and that by mid century we ought to be able to create a human-like robot much more intelligent than we are. Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and musician, studying advanced applications for Internet 2, is much less impressed with the potential for artificial intelligence. He agrees the hardware is getting smarter, but he doubts we will be able to create software to run these machines. He bases this opinion on the bugginess and unreliability of current software. It’s always breaking down, freezing, and is prone to viruses and malware. After the recent Sony event one might side with Lanier.
The second battle of the minds involves the two theories concerning a unification theory of gravity and quantum theory. Paul Steinhardt is the Albert Einstein Professor in Science and a professor in both the Departments of Physics and the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton. He’s more of a string theory guy with a twist. Steinhardt believes the universe is infinite and other galaxies and clusters are racing away from us at a tremendous rate of speed. In Steinhardt’s theory, all known matter sits on something called a “brane,” short for membrane. There are two of them, but we can only see one. When the brane is completely barren of matter and radiation it bounces off the other brane, creating another “bang” and we start all over again. This happens every couple of trillion years or so. There’s another dimension or dimensions between the two branes, but Steinhardt doesn’t go into that much in this summary.
Lee Smolin is the founder of something called Loop Quantum Gravity. I’m sure you’ve heard it mentioned on “The Big Bang Theory.” Smolin doesn’t disagree with string theory. He even trades information with scientists who work in the field. Smolin is more concerned with unifying proven science. We have evidence relativity and quantum theory exists, but you can’t do experiments with something you can’t see, and you can’t see the extra dimensions predicted with string theory. He gets a little snarky at times, claiming string theorists are too concerned with “pretty” mathematics. String theorists have formulas that predict the extra dimensions.
Smolin and most of the other scientist in this book were interviewed prior to the opening of the Hadron Super Collider, which produced evidence that the Higgs boson particle exists, and that it degrades into even smaller particles, so that may have opened a new kettle of fish.
January 5, 2009
What an amazing book!
A compilation of "conversations" (interviews, speeches, articles) with people working on the cutting edge of new idea in biology, computers, physics and cosmology. Instead of supporting a single point of view, the book includes competing viewpoints on multiple subjects.
I learned that there's even more I don't know than I realized before. And, that there's some brilliant women and men working on problems I didn't know existed.
For more info, check out http://www.edge.org.
Wow!
A compilation of "conversations" (interviews, speeches, articles) with people working on the cutting edge of new idea in biology, computers, physics and cosmology. Instead of supporting a single point of view, the book includes competing viewpoints on multiple subjects.
I learned that there's even more I don't know than I realized before. And, that there's some brilliant women and men working on problems I didn't know existed.
For more info, check out http://www.edge.org.
Wow!
May 29, 2009
Fascinating.
I had read The Next Fifty Years some time ago, and enjoyed the essay-structure and theme. This is just the next iteration, but very well done, there are some thought-provoking and insightful essays here. The first section seemed to lean towards a Darwin Love-Fest, which started to get on my nerves, but the second and third sections had very interesting, and often contradicting, positions on where things are and where they are going. Very well edited.
I had read The Next Fifty Years some time ago, and enjoyed the essay-structure and theme. This is just the next iteration, but very well done, there are some thought-provoking and insightful essays here. The first section seemed to lean towards a Darwin Love-Fest, which started to get on my nerves, but the second and third sections had very interesting, and often contradicting, positions on where things are and where they are going. Very well edited.
May 23, 2014
Usually I really like science books, but this one was a solid 'Mehh'. Too much of the information was stuff I already knew, and some of the essays were repeated in slightly different form later in the book.
September 9, 2008
Not bad, but I didn't care for the author's tone. And there was way too much on high energy physics.
January 5, 2011
Some really interesting chapters others less so. I would pick and choose.
October 28, 2010
There are some interesting studies and commentary. The author certainly does not believe there is a place for a divine order.
March 24, 2012
For a broad mix of papers, this is a good place to start. Compelling arguments and definitive answers. Makes you think!
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April 15, 2010nonfiction,science,transhumanism
August 15, 2013
Interesting - a sort of glimps into the world of theoretical scientists
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews