(9,678 words)
This online EDGE edition with links and streaming video is available at: http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge241.html
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THE THIRD CULTURE
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LA NACION — Buenos Aires
Domingo 30 de marzo de 2008 | Publicado en la Edición impresa
Enfoques — La entrevista
("Week In Review" Sunday Supplement — Back Page)
"LOS CIENTIFICOS SON NATURALMENTE OPTIMISTAS"
Por Juana Libedinsky
NUEVA YORK — "Era julio y hacía tanto calor que se podía freír un huevo sobre Park Avenue. Salí a hacer unos mandados y, encerrado en el taxi para no dejar escapar el aire acondicionado, escuchaba distraído por la radio que la guerra en Irak iba peor que nunca, que Bush estaba haciendo todo lo que Bush estaba haciendo -y aclaro que en mi grupo casi todos pensamos igual, no hay más que un par de republicanos-, y entonces tuve la idea: ¡la pregunta del año sólo podía ser sobre qué es optimista uno!".
Sentado en su magnífico despacho sobre Central Park, con los desfiles del día de San Patricio que alborotaban la entrada, John Brockman, escritor, editor y agente detrás de casi todos los grandes best sellers científicos de los últimos años (como los libros de Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond y Nassim Taleb, entre otros) cuenta así cómo nació la idea para su última compilación, titulada, evidentemente " What are you optimistic about ?"
En ella, una buena parte de los pensadores hoy más destacados (el músico Brian Eno, el pionero de la inteligencia artificial Marvin Minsky, el decodificador del genoma humano Craig Venter, el premio Nobel George Smoot y el escritor Ray Kurtzweil entre muchos otros) contestan a qué miran con esperanza. Brockman les pidió específicamente que "sorprendieran" en sus respuestas, y vaya que lo lograron. ...
...Todas las respuestas fueron publicadas originariamente en www.edge.org , el sitio web que reúne a estos grandes pensadores y del cual Brockman también es editor.
La Fundación Edge, cuyo objeto fue definido como "una expresión colectiva de maravilla ante el mundo animado e inanimado... un extraordinario coloquio permanente" por el escritor Ian McEwan en The Telegraph y que según The New York Times "da hoy la visión de la ciencia del mañana", desde hace unos años que propone una pregunta que luego es editada en forma de libro. En la página online ya se puede ir viendo el material para el próximo libro, que saldrá en diciembre, con un tema que, como siempre, dará para el debate: "¿Sobre qué ha cambiado de idea?". ...
Spanish original PDF: http://www.edge.org/documents/press/la_nacion.pdf
English Translation: http://www.edge.org/documents/press/La_Nacion.html
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge241.html#nacion
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MODELING THE FUTURE
A Talk with Stephen Schneider
Edge Interview by Russell Weinberger
Warming is unequivocal, that's true. But that's not a sophisticated question. A much more sophisticated question is how much of the climate Ma Earth, a perverse lady, gives us is from her, and how much is caused by us. That's a much more sophisticated, and much more difficult question.
STEPHEN H. SCHNEIDER, a climatologist, is Professor in the Biological Sciences Department at Stanford University. He is internationally recognized as one of the world's leading experts in atmospheric research and its implications for environment and society. He is author of Laboratory Earth: The Planetary Gamble We Can't Afford to Lose.
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge241.html#schneider
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IN THE NEWS
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THE GUARDIAN March 15, 2008
THE ATHEIST DELUSION By John Gray
The notion that religion is a primitive version of science was popularised in the late 19th century in JG Frazer's survey of the myths of primitive peoples, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. For Frazer, religion and magical thinking were closely linked. Rooted in fear and ignorance, they were vestiges of human infancy that would disappear with the advance of knowledge. Dennett's atheism is not much more than a revamped version of Frazer's positivism. The positivists believed that with the development of transport and communication - in their day, canals and the telegraph - irrational thinking would wither way, along with the religions of the past. Despite the history of the past century, Dennett believes much the same. In an interview that appears on the website of the Edge Foundation (edge.org) under the title "The Evaporation of the Powerful Mystique of Religion", he predicts that "in about 25 years almost all religions will have evolved into very different phenomena, so much so that in most quarters religion will no longer command the awe that it does today". He is confident that this will come about, he tells us, mainly because of "the worldwide spread of information technology (not just the internet, but cell phones and portable radios and television)". The philosopher has evidently not reflected on the ubiquity of mobile phones among the Taliban, or the emergence of a virtual al-Qaida on the web. ...
[MORE]
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge241.html#guardian
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This online EDGE edition with links and graphics is available at: http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge241.html
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Edge Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit private operating foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
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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
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