world question centre

the edge foundation. a collective of incredible minds whose mandate is to promote inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society.

the deeper mapped description of this comes from the writings of c.p. snow who posited two cultures - the intellectuals and the scientists. he further posited that at some point a “third culture” would emerge that would close the communications gap between the intellectuals and the scientists. it is from this that the edge describes its place in “the third culture (which) consists of 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.”

this is a heady mandate but if you dive into the edge site, you will find that they have taken the challenge on full force and are more than meeting it. if, when you visit their page you are intrigued then you might consider their offer of a free e-mail subscription which delivers a weekly article written by and about clever people thinking. what an idea!!
the world question centre is an offshoot of the edge and last year’s question was:

“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.”

respondents included (in the 160 or so listed) thinkers such as jaron lanier, brian eno, stewart brand, and ray kurzweil. it makes for worthy and stimulating reading.

this year’s question is:
“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?"

165 contributors including the people mentioned earlier have had a really good go at this one. i have not read every entry but i was especially interested in the writing of nick bostrom, director of the future of humanity institute at oxford university. a portion of his entry follows:
“For me, belief is not an all or nothing thing — believe or disbelieve, accept or reject. Instead, I have degrees of belief, a subjective probability distribution over different possible ways the world could be. This means that I am constantly changing my mind about all sorts of things, as I reflect or gain more evidence . . . . “

for the rest of nickj bostrom's response as well as the other one hundred and sixty four respondents go here.
in a world that so often demands positions, stances, or opinions and values them primarily for their arbitrary and intransigent qualities, it is delightful to read someone who acknowledges that in fact thinking and its offshoot understandings are dynamic and fluid. alive.