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Nr. 41 • 8. October 2001

Der Geist zu Geld macht
By Jochen Wegner
Photographs by Tobias Everke

It is surely for this reason that the brilliant string theorist [Brian Greene], whose bestseller The Elegant Universe was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, sits somewhat confused at a wooden table at Eastover Farm on an afternoon at the end of July and asks: "What are we doing here, John?"

German original

October 26, 2001 — Volume 7, Number 40

This feature from the nonprofit Edge Foundation, Inc. ... is an impressive collection of thoughtful words in response to the recent terrorist attacks and ensuing war..... Take time to peruse this collection of 44,000 words from 55 contributors and you'll be glad you did.

TIME OF GROWING PAINS FOR INFORMATION AGE [8.7.01]
By Dennis Overbye
(free registration required)
August 7, 2001

BETHLEHEM, Conn. —These would seem to be heady times to be a computer scientist. This is the information age, in which, we are told, biology is defined by a three-billion- letter instruction manual called the genome and human thoughts are analogous to digital bits flowing through a computer. And, we are warned, human intellect will soon be dwarfed by superintelligent machines.

"All kinds of people," said Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and musician, "are happy to tell us what we do is the central metaphor, the best explanation of everything from biology to economics to aesthetics to child rearing, sex, you name it. It's very ego-gratifying."

Mr. Lanier is the lead scientist of the National Tele-Immersion Initiative, a virtual reality system that has been designed for the Internet.

He and six other scientists were sitting under a maple tree one recent afternoon worrying whether this headiness was justified. They found instead that they could not even agree on useful definitions of their field's most common terms, like "information" and "complexity," let alone the meaning and future of this revolution.

The other scientists were two computer science professors, Dr. David Gelernter of Yale and Dr. Jordan Pollack of Brandeis University; three physicists, Dr. Brian Greene of Columbia, Dr. Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dr. Lee Smolin of the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Penn State; and a psychologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Marc Hauser of Harvard.

John Brockman, a literary agent who represents these scientists, had convened them at the country house here that he shares with his wife and partner, Katinka Matson. Mr. Brockman said he had been inspired to gather the group by a conversation with Dr. Seth Lloyd, a professor of mechanical engineering and quantum computing expert at M.I.T. Mr. Brockman recently posted Dr. Lloyd's statement on his Web site, www.edge.org: "Of course, one way of thinking about all of life and civilization," Dr. Lloyd said, "is as being about how the world registers and processes information. Certainly that's what sex is about; that's what history is about." .....

WHO KNOWS?
A Meeting of The Third Culture
By Jordan Mejias
August 1, 2001

[German version]

EASTOVER FARM, END OF JULY — Plato once sought out an olive grove in which he might finally bring the world its first academy. But olive trees are rare in New England. Instead, there are strong maples, and recently, beneath a knotty, especially old and venerable specimen on Eastover Farm in Connecticut, academics fled their laboratories and lecture halls and, in the tradition of their intellectual ancestors, conversed in nature about more than their surroundings.

THE BIG CHILL
April 23, 2001
By Michael Wolff

John Brockman, the literary agent and technology gadfly, formally surveyed a high flying group of his digerati associates recently on the question of what's next — and absolutely no one responded.

KULTURZEIT
February 9, 2001

Popular science and the Third Culture have established themselves in America. They have not replaced either hard science or the humanities. But they have become a platform for creative, unconventional, and interdisciplinary thought. For this reason they are an essential part of our knowledge about ourselves.

English Translation

At the end of 1998, for example, he asked readers to name the most important invention in 2,000 years; the question generated 117 responses as diverse as hay and birth control pills. This year, Mr. Brockman offered a question about questions: "What questions have disappeared, and why?"

Here are edited excerpts from some of the answers, to be posted today at www.edge.org.....