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Well, that web site goes straight to the favorites index. Thanks, Eric.
How many of you read Jared Diamond's " Guns, Germs and Steel"?
Well he just came out with another must-read book: "Collapse- How
Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" in which he looks at past
societies that had a collapse and looks at our present societies danger
of collapse and the consequences thereof.
One little kernel of wisdom from it:
"Science is often misrepresented as "the body of knowledge acquired
by performing replicated controlled experiments in the laboratory."
Actually, science is something much broader: the acquisition of
reliable knowledge about the world."
That is the clearest definition of science I've ever heard; one worthy
of conveying to our visitors.
Clifford Wagner
On Jan 23, 2005, at 12:01 PM, Eric Siegel (home) wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> ***********************************************************************
> ******
>
> This is a thought provoking site, if you haven't seen it you might find
> of interest. The Edge's annual question and responses from assorted
> scientific heavies http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_print.html
>
> Eric Siegel
> Executive VP
> Programs and Planning
> Connections Project Director
> New York Hall of Science
> 47-01 111th Street
> Queens, NY 11368
> [log in to unmask]
> www.nyscience.org
>
> More info from the site:
>
> =================================
>
> "WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?"
>
> Great minds can sometimes guess the truth before they have either the
> evidence or arguments for it (Diderot called it having the "esprit de
> divination"). What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove
> it?
>
> The 2005 Edge Question has generated many eye-opening responses from a
> "who's who" of third culture scientists and science-minded thinkers.
> The
> 120 contributions comprise a document of 60,000 words.
>
> ....
> We are in the age of "searchculture", in which Google and other search
> engines are leading us into a future rich with an abundance of correct
> answers along with an accompanying naοve sense of certainty. In the
> future, we will be able to answer the question, but will we be bright
> enough to ask it?
>
> This is an alternative path. It may be that it's okay not to be
> certain,
> but to have a hunch, and to perceive on that basis. There is also
> evidence here that the scientists are thinking beyond their individual
> fields. Yes, they are engaged in the science of their own areas of
> research, but more importantly they are also thinking deeply about
> creating new understandings about the limits of science, of seeing
> science not just as a question of knowing things, but as a means of
> tuning into the deeper questions of who we are and how we know.
>
> It may sound as if I am referring to a group of intellectuals, and not
> scientists. In fact, I refer to both. In 1991, I suggested the idea of
> a
> third culture, which "consists of those scientists and other thinkers
> in
> the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are
> taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible
> the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are. "
>
> I believe that the scientists of the third culture are the pre-eminent
> intellectuals of our time. But I can't prove it.
>
> Happy New Year!
>
> John Brockman
> Publisher & Editor
>
> This year's Edge Question was suggested by Nicholas Humphrey.
>
> (120 contributors; 60,000 words:) Howard Gardner Nicholas Humphrey
> Marc D. Hauser Daniel Gilbert George Dyson Daniel C. Dennett
> William Calvin Lawrence Krauss Neil Gershenfeld Joseph LeDoux
> Stephen Kosslyn Philip W. Anderson Kevin Kelly Paul Davies Haim
> Harari Janna Levin Steven Pinker Alison Gopnik Martin E. P.
> Seligman John McWhorter Freeman Dyson Robert Sapolsky Leonard
> Susskind Keith Devlin Susan Blackmore Clifford Pickover Piet
> Hut
> Gino Segre Roger Schank Alan Kay Bruce Sterling Judith Rich
> Harris Arnold Trehub Gregory Benford Lynn Margulis Sam Harris
> Elizabeth Spelke Kai Krause Todd Feinberg Nassim Nicholas Taleb
> Irene Pepperberg Jesse Bering Scott Atran Karl Sabbagh Gary
> Marcus Stuart A. Kauffman Ray Kurzweil John Barrow Jaron Lanier
> Alex Pentland Richard Dawkins Jean Paul Schmetz Thomas
> Metzinger
> John R. Skoyles John Horgan David Gelernter Jordan Pollack
> Lee
> Smolin Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Jeffrey Epstein Michael Shermer
> Leon Lederman Tom Standage Simon Baron-Cohen Stephen Petranek
> J.
> Craig Venter Maria Spiropulu David Buss Esther Dyson David
> Myers
> Denis Dutton Donald Hoffman Kenneth Ford Margaret Wertheim
> Alun Anderson Philip Zimbardo Paul Bloom Robert Provine W.
> Daniel Hillis Martin Nowak Seth Lloyd Donald I. Williamson
> Jonathan Haidt Rebecca Goldstein Ned Block Christine Finn
> Rupert
> Sheldrake Rudy Rucker Douglas Rushkoff Verena Huber-Dyson Chris
> W. Anderson Charles Simonyi Carolyn Porco Martin Rees Pamela
> McCorduck James O'Donnell John McCarthy Carlo Rovelli Leo
> Chalupa Howard Rheingold Steve Giddings Tor Nψrretranders
> Stanislas Deheane Benoit Mandelbrot Ellen Winner Paul Steinhardt
>
> Oliver Morton Alexander Vilenkin Terrence Sejnowski Brian Goodwin
> Stephen H. Schneider Randolph Nesse Timothy Taylor Marti Hearst
> Daniel Goleman Jared Diamond Anton Zeilinger Ian Wilmut
> Robert
> Trivers Ian McEwan
>
> Eric Siegel
> Executive VP
> Programs and Planning
> Connections Project Director
> New York Hall of Science
> 47-01 111th Street
> Queens, NY 11368
> [log in to unmask]
> www.nyscience.org
>
> ***********************************************************************
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at
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More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
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To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
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