Drawing from the horizons of science, today's leading thinkers reveal the hidden threats nobody is talking about-and expose the false fears everyone else is distracted by. What should we be worried about? That is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ("The world's smartest website"-The Guardian), posed to the planet's most influential minds. He asked them to disclose something that, for scientific reasons, worries them-particularly scenarios that aren't on the popular radar yet. Encompassing neuroscience, economics, philosophy, physics, psychology, biology, and more-here are 150 ideas that will revolutionize your understanding of the world.
- Steven Pinker uncovers the real risk factors for war
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi peers into the coming virtual abyss
- Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek laments our squandered opportunities to prevent global catastrophe
- Seth Lloyd calculates the threat of a financial black hole
- Alison Gopnik on the loss of childhood
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains why firefighters understand risk far better than economic "experts"
- Matt Ridley on the alarming re-emergence of superstition
- Daniel C.Dennett and george dyson ponder the impact of a major breakdown of the Internet
- Jennifer Jacquet fears human-induced damage to the planet due to "the Anthropocebo Effect"
- Douglas Rushkoff fears humanity is losing its soul
- Nicholas Carr on the "patience deficit"
- Tim O'Reilly foresees a coming new Dark Age
- Scott Atran on the homogenization of human experience
- Sherry Turkle explores what's lost when kids are constantly connected
- Kevin Kelly outlines the looming "underpopulation bomb"
- Helen Fisher on the fate of men
- Lawrence Krauss dreads what we don't know about the universe
- Susan Blackmore on the loss of manual skills
- Kate Jeffery on the death of death
- plus J. Craig Venter, Daniel Goleman, Virginia Heffernan, Sam Harris, Brian Eno, Martin Rees, and more
