Culture: Leading Scientists Explore Societies, Art, Power, and Technology

by John Brockman

Overview

"Theway Brockman interlaces essays about research on the frontiers of science withones on artistic vision, education, psychology and economics is sure to buzzany brain." —Chicago Sun-Times, on This Will Change Everything 

Launchinga hard-hitting new series from Edge.org and Harper Perennial, editor JohnBrockman delivers this cutting-edge master class covering everything you needto know about Culture. With original contributions by the world’sleading thinkers and scientists, including Jared Diamond, Daniel C. Dennett,Brian Eno, Jaron Lanier,Nicholas Christakis, and others, Culture offers a mind-expanding primeron a fundamental topic. Unparalleled in scope, depth, insight and quality, Edge.org’s Culture is not to be missed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062023131
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/16/2011
Series:	Best of Edge Series
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

The publisher of the online science salon Edge.org, John Brockman is the editor of Know This, This Idea Must Die, This Explains Everything, This Will Make You Smarter, and other volumes.

Table of Contents

Introduction John Brockman ix

1 The Evolution of Culture Daniel C. Dennett 1

2 Why Do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions? Jared Diamond 27

3 Art and Human Reality Denis Dutton Steven Pinker 43

4 A Big Theory of Culture Brian Eno Stewart Brand 57

5 We Are As Gods and Have To Get Good At It Stewart Brand 71

6 Turing's Cathedral: A Visit to Google on the Occasion Of the 60th Anniversary of John Von Neumann's Proposal for a Digital Computer George Dyson 87

7 Time to Start Taking The Internet Seriously David Gelernter 97

8 Indirect Reciprocity, Assessment Hardwiring, and Reputation Karl Sigmund 111

9 Digital Maoism: The Hazards of The New Online Collectivism Jaron Lanier 125

10 On Jaron Lanier's "Digital Maoism" An Edge Conversation 143

11 Social Networks Are Like the Eye Nicholas A. Christakis 171

12 The Next Renaissance: Keynote Address at the Personal Democracy Forum Douglas Rushkoff 191

13 Digital Power and its Discontents Evgeny Morozov Clay Shirky 197

14 Does Technology Evolve? W. Brian Arthur 219

15 Aristotle: The Knowledge Web W. Daniel Hillis 237

16 The Pancake People vs. The Gödel-to-Google Net Richard Foreman George Dyson 255

17 The age of the informavore Frank Schirrmacher 263

Editorial Reviews

John Brockman, founder and publisher of the online think tank Edge.org, compiled some of the site's best essays into this dense, but thought-provoking examination of technology, the impact of groupthink, and the evolution of culture. One of the stronger essays is Jared Diamond's "Why Do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions?" which is accessible, insightful, and informative even for a general audience. A sizeable chunk of the book is given to computer scientist Jaron Lanier's "Digital Maoism," and the fallout that resulted after its publication in 2006. In Lanier's intriguing essay, he examines the positive and negative impacts of the "hive mind." Nine others were inspired to chime in with their thoughts, edits, and refinements on Lanier's concept. The essays aren't all winners—professor David Gelernter's 2010 essay "Time to Start Taking the Internet Seriously," is a 36-point circular discussion with few conclusions—but the hits outnumber the misses. Readers hoping for an easily digestible Gladwell-esque take on the evolution of culture will likely be frustrated by the book's academic slant, but those who enjoy philosophical dissection will find a few essays that strike a chord. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Prominent thinkers examine the many facets of culture over time and in the present age of the Internet.

A champion of the "third culture" formed at the intersection of art and science, literary agent Brockman (editor: Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?: The Net's Impact on Our Minds and Future, 2011, etc.) publishes original work by leading scientists in many disciplines at edge.org. This latest collection from the site offers the expertise and speculations of 17 mathematicians, musicians, computer scientists and others who have contemplated the meaning, role and evolution of culture. Artist and composer Brian Eno wonders why humans have always engaged in cultural activity, and whether there is one language for discussing the components of culture, from shoe design to fine art. UCLA biologist Jared Diamond suggests a road map of factors that can lead to disastrous societal decision-making, from failing to anticipate a problem to failing in the attempt to solve it. Harvard physician and social scientist Nicholas A. Christakis describes studies indicating that the nation's obesity epidemic is actually a form of "social contagion," in which a friend's weight gain makes you put on weight. Many pieces consider the Internet's impact on how we live. MIT computer scientist David Gelertner says it is time to think about what we want the Internet to do instead of "just letting it happen," and his colleague Jaron Lanier warns of the dangers of a new belief in an all-wise online collectivism. Publisher Frank Schirrmacher argues that modern technology is "changing the way people behave, people talk, people react, people think, and people remember," and turning us all into "informavores" who eat information. The Santa Fe Institute's W. Brian Arthur discusses his years working in seclusion on unanswered technology-related questions—most notably, Does technology as a whole evolve?

A welcome gathering of intriguing ideas.

Kirkus Reviews