Edge 233 - January 14, 2008
[9,700 words]
This online EDGE edition is available at:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html
----------------------------------------------------
EDGE PUBLISHES "LIFE: WHAT A CONCEPT!" TRANSCRIPT AS DOWNLOADABLE PDF BOOK
----------------------------------------------------
"I just read the Life transcript book and it is fantastic. One of the better books I've read in a while. Super rich, high signal to noise, great subject." - Kevin Kelly, Editor-At-Large, WIRED
*
EDGE is pleased to announce the online publication of the complete transcript of this summer's Edge event, Life: What a Concept! as a 43,000- word downloadable PDF Edge book.
The event took place at Eastover Farm in Bethlehem, CT on Monday, August 27th. Invited to address the topic "Life: What a Concept!" were Freeman Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Robert Shapiro, Dimitar Sasselov, and Seth Lloyd, who focused on their new, and in more than a few cases, startling research, and/or ideas in the biological sciences.
Reporting on the August event, Andrian Kreye, Feuilleton (Arts & Ideas) Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote:
"Soon genetic engineering will shape our daily life to the same extent that computers do today. This sounds like science fiction, but it is already reality in science. Thus genetic engineer George Church talks about the biological building blocks that he is able to synthetically manufacture. It is only a matter of time until we will be able to manufacture organisms that can self-reproduce, he claims. Most notably J. Craig Venter succeeded in introducing a copy of a DNA-based chromosome into a cell, which from then on was controlled by that strand of DNA."
Jordan Mejias, Arts Correspondent of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, noted that:
"These are thoughts to make jaws drop...Nobody at Eastover Farm seemed afraid of a eugenic revival. What in German circles would have released violent controversies, here drifts by unopposed under mighty maple trees that gently whisper in the breeze."
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#life
----------------------------------------------------
DAWKINS & VENTER CONTINUE THE "LIFE: WHAT A CONCEPT" CONVERSATION AT DLD 08 IN MUNICH, JANUARY 21
http://www.dld-conference.com/
----------------------------------------------------
"LIFE: A GENE-CENTRIC VIEW"
Craig Venter & Richard Dawkins
(Moderator: John Brockman)
10:00am, January 21, Munich
10:00 AM Monday (Jan. 21st) Munich
The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and genomics researcher Craig Venter will discuss the gene-centric view of life at an EDGE event at DLD (Digital, Life, Design) in Munich on January 21. This event continues the exploration of the ideas explored at the EDGE "Life: What a Concept!" meeting in August.
Thirty-two years ago, Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene, one of the landmark books of the 20th Century. In it, he set forth the "gene's-eye" view of life. (See "The Selfish Gene: Thirty Years On" on EDGE). ...
Craig Venter, who decoded the human genome, is on the brink of creating the first artificial life form on Earth. "I have spent", he says, "the last fifteen years of his career doing, digitizing biology. That's what DNA sequencing has been about. I view biology as an analog world that DNA sequencing has taking into the digital world."...
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#dld
---------------------------------------------------
THE THIRD CULTURE
---------------------------------------------------
WHAT'S YOUR CONSUMPTION FACTOR?
By Jared Diamond
The population especially of the developing world is growing, and some people remain fixated on this. They note that populations of countries like Kenya are growing rapidly, and they say that's a big problem. Yes, it is a problem for Kenya's more than 30 million people, but it's not a burden on the whole world, because Kenyans consume so little. (Their relative per capita rate is 1.) A real problem for the world is that each of us 300 million Americans consumes as much as 32 Kenyans. With 10 times the population, the United States consumes 320 times more resources than Kenya does.
People in the third world are aware of this difference in per capita consumption, although most of them couldn't specify that it's by a factor of 32. When they believe their chances of catching up to be hopeless, they sometimes get frustrated and angry, and some become terrorists, or tolerate or support terrorists. Since Sept. 11, 2001, it has become clear that the oceans that once protected the United States no longer do so. There will be more terrorist attacks against us and Europe, and perhaps against Japan and Australia, as long as that factorial difference of 32 in consumption rates persists.
[More]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#diamond
---------------------------------------------------
THE EDGE ANNUAL QUESTION - 2008
----------
When thinking changes your mind, that's philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that's faith.
When facts change your mind, that's science.
WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?
Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?"
[166 contributors; 113,000 words]
----------
"The world's finest minds have responded with some of the most insightful, humbling, fascinating confessions and anecdotes, an intellectual treasure trove. ... Best three or four hours of intense, enlightening reading you can do for the new year. Read it now."
- Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle
"As in the past, these world-class thinkers have responded to impossibly open-ended questions with erudition, imagination and clarity."
- J. Peder Zane, The News & Observer
"A jolt of fresh thinking...The answers address a fabulous array of issues. This is the intellectual equivalent of a New Year's dip in the lake - bracing, possibly shriek-inducing, and bound to wake you up."
- Margaret Wente, The Globe and Mail
"Answers ring like scientific odes to uncertainty, humility and doubt; passionate pleas for critical thought in a world threatened by blind convictions."
- Sandro Contenta, The Toronto Star
"For an exceptionally high quotient of interesting ideas to words, this is hard to beat. ...What a feast of egg-head opinionating!"
- John Derbyshire, National Review Online
"Even the world's best brains have to admit to being wrong sometimes: here, leading scientists respond to a new year challenge."
- Lewis Smith, The Times
"Provocative ideas put forward today by leading figures."
- Roger Highfield, The Telegraph
"The splendidly enlightened Edge website (www.edge.org) has rounded off each year of inter-disciplinary debate by asking its heavy-hitting contributors to answer one question. I strongly recommend a visit."
- Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
"A remarkable feast of the intellect... an amazing group of reflections on science, culture, and the evolution of ideas. Reading the Edge question is like being invited to dinner with some of the most interesting people on the planet."
- Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Radar
"A great event in the Anglo-Saxon culture."
- El Mundo
"As fascinating and weighty as one would imagine."
- Comment (Leading Article), The Independent
"They are the intellectual elite, the brains the rest of us rely on to make sense of the universe and answer the big questions. But in a refreshing show of new year humility, the world's best thinkers have admitted that from time to time even they are forced to change their minds."
- James Randerson, The Guardian
PRESS COVERAGE: Arts & Letters Daily; bloggingheads.tv; boingboing; Canberra Times; Corriere Della Sera; The Globe and Mail; The Guardian; Il Giornale; Infectious Greed; The Independent; El Mundo; National Review Online; The News & Observer; News@ORF.at; O'Reilly Radar; San Francisco Chronicle; Slashdot; Spiegel Online; Süddeutsche Zeitung; Sunday Tribune; The Telegraph; The Times; Toronto Star; The Wall Street Journal; The Washington Post; Die Zeit
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#wqc
---------------------------------------------------
THIRD CULTURE NEWS
---------------------------------------------------
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
January 13, 2008
COVER STORY
The Moral Instinct
By STEVEN PINKER
Evolution has endowed us with ethical impulses. Do we know what to do with
them?
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#pinker
---------------------------------------------------
EDGE IN THE NEWS
---------------------------------------------------
THE NEW REPUBLIC
January 11, 2008
The TNR Q&A
by Isaac Chotiner
'Atonement' author Ian McEwan on Bellow, the Internet, atheism, and why his books are still scary.
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#tnr
---------------------------------------------------
CAPITAL TIMES (Madison, Wisconsin)
January 10, 2008
Think positive
Mary Bergin
"What Are You Optimistic About? Today's Leading Thinkers on Why Things Are Good and Getting Better," edited by John Brockman, Harper Perennial, $14.95, 374 pages.
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#ct
---------------------------------------------------
THE AGE (Melbourne, Australia)
January 10, 2008
What Are You Optimistic About?
QUESTIONS
Lorien Kaye
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#age
---------------------------------------------------
This online EDGE edition is available at:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
EDGE
John Brockman, Editor and Publisher
Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher
Karla Taylor, Editorial Assistant
Copyright (c) 2008 by EDGE Foundation, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Published by EDGE Foundation, Inc.,
5 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022
EDGE Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit private operating foundation under
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
---
You are currently subscribed to edge_editions as: wheresrhys@googlemail.com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-2848845-17333020S@sand.lyris.net
Or, you can use the web form at the following URL:
No comments:
Post a Comment