All Annotations of THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2007[Preview]

saved by11 people, first byPhil on 2007-01-02, last byoddity odd on 2008-06-17

• WHAT
  ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY?

  
  

  As
  an activity, as a state of mind, science is fundamentally
  optimistic. Science figures out how things work and
  thus can make them work better. Much of the news is
  either good news or news that can be made good, thanks
  to ever deepening knowledge and ever more efficient
  and powerful tools and techniques. Science, on its
  frontiers, poses more and ever better questions, ever
  better put.

• The Edge Annual
  Question — 2007

  
  

  WHAT
  ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY?

• As
  an activity, as a state of mind, science is fundamentally
  optimistic. Science figures out how things work and
  thus can make them work better. Much of the news is
  either good news or news that can be made good, thanks
  to ever deepening knowledge and ever more efficient
  and powerful tools and techniques. Science, on its
  frontiers, poses more and ever better questions, ever
  better put.

  
  

  What
  are you optimistic about? Why? Surprise us!

• As
  an activity, as a state of mind, science is fundamentally
  optimistic.
• Science figures out how things work and
  thus can make them work better.
• Much of the news is
  either good news or news that can be made good, thanks
  to ever deepening knowledge and ever more efficient
  and powerful tools and techniques. Science, on its
  frontiers, poses more and ever better questions, ever
  better put.
• While
  conventional wisdom tells us that things are bad and getting
  worse, scientists and the science-minded among us see good
  news in the coming years. That's the bottom line of an outburst
  of high-powered optimism gathered from the world-class scientists
  and thinkers who frequent the pages of Edge, in an
  ongoing conversation among third culture thinkers (i.e., 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.)
• The 160 responses to this year's Edge Question span
  topics such as string theory, intelligence, population growth,
  cancer, climate and much much more. Contributing their optimistic
  visions are a who's who of interesting and important world-class
  thinkers.
• January 1, 2007