Edge Video Library

What is your Question from SciFoo 2013?

Questions from
Tyler Cowen, Joseph "Yossi" Vardi, Carl Page, Fiery Cushman, Lee Smolin, Linda Stone, Paul Davies, Paul J. Steinhardt, Peter Norvig, Richard Potts, Steve Fuller, Stuart Firestein
[6.27.13]

Questions from Sci Foo 2013


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THINK ABOUT NATURE

Lee Smolin
[5.14.13]

Feynman once told me, "Whatever you do—you're going to have to do crazy things to think about quantum gravity—but whatever you do, think about nature. If you think about the properties of a mathematical equation, you're doing mathematics and you're not going to get back to nature. Whatever you do, have a question that an experiment could resolve at the front of your thinking." So I always try to do that.

LEE SMOLIN is a founding and senior faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. He is also Adjunct Professor of Physics at the University of Waterloo and is a member of the graduate faculty of the Department of Philosophy of the University of Toronto. His is the author od Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe. Lee Smolin's Edge Bio Page

 


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DISFLUENCY

A Conversation with
Adam Alter
[2.25.13]

We've shown that disfluency leads you to think more deeply, as I mentioned earlier, that it forms a cognitive roadblock, and then you think more deeply, and you work through the information more comprehensively. But the other thing it does is it allows you to depart more from reality, from the reality you're at now. ..

ADAM ALTER is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Stern School of Business, NYU. He is the author of Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave. Adam Alter's Edge Bio Page 


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ENCAPSULATED UNIVERSES

Lera Boroditsky
[2.19.13]

Think about it this way. We have 7,000 languages. Each of these languages encompasses a world-view, encompasses the ideas and predispositions and cognitive tools developed by thousands of years of people in that culture. Each one of those languages offers a whole encapsulated universe. So we have 7,000 parallel universes, some of them are quite similar to one another, and others are a lot more different. The fact that there's this great diversity is a real testament to the flexibility and the ingenuity of the human mind. 

LERA BORODITSKY is an assistant professor of psychology, neuroscience, and symbolic systems at Stanford University. Lera Boroditsky's Edge Bio Page

 


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The Normal Well-Tempered Mind

Daniel C. Dennett
[1.8.13]

The vision of the brain as a computer, which I still champion, is changing so fast. The brain's a computer, but it's so different from any computer that you're used to. It's not like your desktop or your laptop at all, and it's not like your iPhone except in some ways. It's a much more interesting phenomenon. What Turing gave us for the first time (and without Turing you just couldn't do any of this) is a way of thinking about in a disciplined way and taking seriously phenomena that have, as I like to say, trillions of moving parts. Until late 20th century, nobody knew how to take seriously a machine with a trillion moving parts. It's just mind-boggling. 

DANIEL C. DENNETT is University Professor, Professor of Philosophy, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. His books include Consciousness Explained; Darwin's Dangerous Idea; Kinds of Minds; Freedom Evolves; and Breaking the Spell. Daniel C. Dennett's Edge Bio Page


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