Readers familiar with the Edge organization know of their “annual questions” which draw responses from 100s of prominent scientists. Last year was the last entry in this long-running series, and the final question was simply: what should be the last question? There were 284 widely-varying responses (including some mathematical ones) that can be perused here:
Among my own favorites were these, but check them all out to find your own:
Anthony Aguirre:
Are complex biological neural systems fundamentally unpredictable?
Dorsa Amir:
Are the simplest bits of information in the brain stored at the level of the neuron?
Emanuel Derman:
Are accurate mathematical theories of individual human behavior possible?
George Dyson:
Why are there no trees in the ocean?
David Eagleman:
Can we create new senses for humans—not just touch, taste, vision, hearing, smell, but totally novel qualia for which we don't yet have words?
Nick Enfield:
Is the cumulation of shared knowledge forever constrained by the limits of human language?
W. Daniel Hillis:
What is the principle that causes complex adaptive systems (life, organisms, minds, societies) to spontaneously emerge from the interaction of simpler elements (chemicals, cells, neurons, individual humans)?
Kai Krause:
What will happen to religion on earth when the first alien life form is found?
Antony Garrett Lisi:
What is the fundamental geometric structure underlying reality?
Martin Rees:
Will post-humans be organic or electronic?
Rene Scheu:
Is a human brain capable of understanding a human brain?
Bruce Sterling:
Do the laws of physics change with the passage of time?
Dustin Yellin:
Will the frontiers of consciousness be technological or linguistic?
---------------------------
---------------------------
[...on Wednesday another month-ending wrap-up of some favorite postings from January]
No comments:
Post a Comment