What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty (Edge Question Series)

There are some fun-to-read essays on the nature of consciousnes, cosmos, biology, religion. Time travel and carbon based life excluded. The book is packed with short contributions from neuroscientists, computer scientists and psychologists. The essays on computer-science were a bit complex and hard to follow for non-experts. On page 199 there is an essay concerning the value of future predictions on society. The author holds the opinion that social science disciplines and humaniora contribute little of value to our understanding of the world or even their own research fields. And further below: A history professor is no more of a scholar than a cabdriver is. No example is given to substantiate these claims, except illfounded predictions on how the stock market will look next year. I think we all can agree that social science is not fortune telling, nor is it ment to be, at least when we're dealing with serious research. I find it strange that none of the other reviews have made this point. Stranger still is the inclusion of a somewhat ill-informed and insulting text-piece in a book concerning the edge of knowledge. "Brilliant thinkers" are not only restricted to experimental science. Cover Image......Page 1 Title Page......Page 3 Dedication Page......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Preface: The Edge Question......Page 9 Introduction by Ian McEwan......Page 13 Martin Rees......Page 19 Ray Kurzweil......Page 21 Douglas Rushkoff......Page 25 Richard Dawkins......Page 27 Chris Anderson......Page 28 Stephen Petranek......Page 29 Carolyn Porco......Page 32 Paul C. W. Davies......Page 35 Kenneth W. Ford......Page 37 Karl Sabbagh......Page 39 J. Craig Venter......Page 41 Leon Lederman......Page 43 Maria Spiropulu......Page 45 Philip W. Anderson......Page 47 Robert M. Sapolsky......Page 48 Jesse Bering......Page 50 Ian McEwan......Page 54 Michael Shermer......Page 55 Susan Blackmore......Page 58 Randolph M. Nesse, M.D.......Page 60 Tor Nørretranders......Page 63 Scott Atran......Page 65 David G. Myers......Page 66 Jonathan Haidt......Page 68 Sam Harris......Page 69 David Buss......Page 71 Seth Lloyd......Page 73 Denis Dutton......Page 74 Jared Diamond......Page 77 Timothy Taylor......Page 80 Judith Rich Harris......Page 82 John H. McWhorter......Page 86 Elizabeth Spelke......Page 89 Stephen H. Schneider......Page 91 Bruce Sterling......Page 93 Robert Trivers......Page 94 Verena Huber-Dyson......Page 95 Keith Devlin......Page 97 Freeman Dyson......Page 100 Rebecca Goldstein......Page 102 Stuart A. Kauffman......Page 104 Leonard Susskind......Page 106 Donald D. Hoffman......Page 109 Terrence Sejnowski......Page 113 John Horgan......Page 116 Arnold Trehub......Page 118 Ned Block......Page 120 Janna Levin......Page 121 Daniel Gilbert......Page 123 Todd E. Feinberg, M.D.......Page 125 Clifford Pickover......Page 127 Nicholas Humphrey......Page 129 Pamela McCorduck......Page 131 Charles Simonyi......Page 132 Alan Kay......Page 136 Steven Pinker......Page 138 Christine Finn......Page 141 Daniel C. Dennett......Page 142 Alun Anderson......Page 146 Joseph LeDoux......Page 150 George Dyson......Page 154 Alison Gopnik......Page 155 Paul Bloom......Page 158 William H. Calvin......Page 160 Robert R. Provine......Page 163 Stanislas Dehaene......Page 166 Stephen Kosslyn......Page 170 Alex Pentland......Page 172 Irene Pepperberg......Page 176 Howard Gardner......Page 179 David Gelernter......Page 182 Marc D. Hauser......Page 185 Gary Marcus......Page 187 Brian Goodwin......Page 189 Leo M. Chalupa......Page 192 Margaret Wertheim......Page 194 Gino Segrè......Page 197 Haim Harari......Page 199 Donald I. Williamson......Page 202 Ian Wilmut......Page 205 Daniel Goleman......Page 207 Esther Dyson......Page 210 James J. O’Donnell......Page 213 Jean Paul Schmetz......Page 215 Nassim Nicholas Taleb......Page 217 Simon Baron-Cohen......Page 219 Kevin Kelly......Page 221 Martin Nowak......Page 224 Tom Standage......Page 225 Steven Giddings......Page 227 Alexander Vilenkin......Page 230 Lawrence M. Krauss......Page 232 John D. Barrow......Page 234 Paul J. Steinhardt......Page 235 Lee Smolin......Page 238 Anton Zeilinger......Page 241 Gregory Benford......Page 243 Rudy Rucker......Page 245 Carlo Rovelli......Page 247 Jeffrey Epstein......Page 249 Howard Rheingold......Page 250 Jaron Lanier......Page 253 Marti Hearst......Page 257 Kai Krause......Page 259 Oliver Morton......Page 262 W. Daniel Hillis......Page 264 Martin E. P. Seligman......Page 266 Neil Gershenfeld......Page 268 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi......Page 269 About the Author......Page 271 Books by John Brockman......Page 272 Credits......Page 273 Copyright Notice......Page 274 About the Perfectbound......Page 275

More than one hundred of the world's leading thinkers write about things they believe in, despite the absence of concrete proof

Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone — yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable.

Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher of Edge (www.edge.org), John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers to answer the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors.

Thought-provoking and hugely compelling, this collection of bite-size thought-experiments is a fascinating insight into the instinctive beliefs of some of the most brilliant minds today.

Publishers Weekly

The title's question was posed on Edge.org (an online intellectual clearing house), challenging more than 100 intellectuals of every stripe-from Richard Dawkins to Ian McEwan-to confess the personal theories they cannot demonstrate with certainty. The results, gathered by literary agent and editor Brockman, is a stimulating collection of micro-essays (mainly by scientists) divulging many of today's big unanswered questions reaching across the plane of human existence. Susan Blackmore, a lecturer on evolutionary theory, believes "it is possible to live happily and morally without believing in free will," and Daniel Goleman believes children today are "unintended victims of economic and technological progress." Other beliefs are more mundane and one is highly mathematically specific. Many contributors open with their discomfort at being asked to discuss unproven beliefs, which itself is an interesting reflection of the state of science. The similarity in form and tone of the responses makes this collection most enjoyable in small doses, which allow the answers to spark new questions and ideas in the reader's mind. It's unfortunate that the tone of most contributions isn't livelier and that there aren't explanations of some of the more esoteric concepts discussed; those limitations will keep these adroit musings from finding a wider audience. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

"Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone - yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable." "Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher, John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers to answer the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors." "This collection of bite-size thought-experiments is an insight into the instinctive beliefs of some of the most brilliant minds today." "Here is Ian McEwan on absence of an afterlife; Richard Dawkins on the relationship between design and evolution; and Jared Diamond on when humans first reached the Americas. Other contributions from luminaries like Steven Pinker, Daniel C. Bennett, John Horgan, and Sir Martin Rees span the whole range of scientific endeavor and human experience, from the future of computing to the origins of intelligence, from insights into childhood behavior to cutting edge cosmology."--BOOK JACKET "Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone--yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable. Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher of Edge (www.edge.org), John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors. Here is Ian McEwan on the absence of an afterlife; Richard Dawkins on the relationship between design and evolution; and Jared Diamond on when humans first reached the Americas. Other contributions from luminaries like Steven Pinker, Daniel C. Dennett, John Horgan, and Sir Martin Rees span the whole range of scientific endeavor and human experience, from the future of computing to the origins of intelligence, from insights into childhood behavior to cutting-edge cosmology"--Page 4 of cover I believe that intelligent life may presently be unique to our Earth but has the potential to spread throughout the galaxy and beyond it-indeed, the emergence of complexity could be near its beginning.