This Idea Must Die

by John Brockman

Blurb

The bestselling editor of This Explains Everything brings together 175 of the world’s most brilliant minds to tackle Edge.org’s 2014 question: What scientific idea has become a relic blocking human progress?

Each year, John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org—”The world’s smartest website” (The Guardian)—challenges some of the world’s greatest scientists, artists, and philosophers to answer a provocative question crucial to our time. In 2014 he asked 175 brilliant minds to ponder: What scientific idea needs to be put aside in order to make room for new ideas to advance? The answers are as surprising as they are illuminating. In :

  • Steven Pinker dismantles the working theory of human behavior
  • Richard Dawkins renounces essentialism
  • Sherry Turkle reevaluates our expectations of artificial intelligence
  • Geoffrey West challenges the concept of a “Theory of Everything”
  • Andrei Linde suggests that our universe and its laws may not be as unique as we think
  • Martin Rees explains why scientific understanding is a limitless goal
  • Nina Jablonski argues to rid ourselves of the concept of race
  • Alan Guth rethinks the origins of the universe
  • Hans Ulrich Obrist warns against glorifying unlimited economic growth
  • and much more.

Profound, engaging, thoughtful, and groundbreaking, This Idea Must Die will change your perceptions and understanding of our world today . . . and tomorrow.

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