The most cutting-edge ideas of today are being generated from the scientific community. Now more than ever, scientists are reaching out to the general audience, seeking vehicles through which they might communicate their revolutionary ideas. Harnessing the intellectual energy of more than 50 of our most influential and distinguished scientists, scholars and thinkers, this book challenges current belief and conventional wisdom, to seek "truth" wherever it may be found. This is the first in a series of annual companion books. Beginning in th early spring of 2000, this television series presents 28 half-hour episodes in five categories: brain and mind, health and sex; creativity and thinking, technology and society, and universe and meaning. The book will be organised according to episode, with 28 chapters making up to 5 sections. In each episode, moderator Robert Lawrence Kuhn facilitates and synthesises a lively round-table discussion of today's most profound issues. Presented here in transcript, each chapter goes further than the television show, with commentary by Kuhn, and additional dialogue and "out-takes" not available on TV. With bios placing each contributor into the "big picture" context, this work is a veritable Who's Who of our most renowned scholars and where they stand on the "knowledge" issues that are most important today. Each year, as a new season of the television series airs, we will present a new volume of "Closer Truth", the companion book, building an entire library. These books, like the TV series, will entertain, enlighten and inspire while revealing the mysteries of mind, matter, and the meaning of it all.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
CONTRIBUTORS Paul R. Abramson W. French Anderson Francisco Ayala Gregory Benford Barry Beyerstein Edward de Bono Todd Boyd Warren S. Brown Charles Buchanan Vern Bullough Stephen J. Cannell David J. Chalmers Bruce Chapman Patricia Smith Churchland Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Arthur S. De Vany Edward Feigenbaum Timothy Ferris Wendy Freedman Robert Freeman Francis Fukuyama George Geis Rochel Gelman Barbara Marx Hubbard Rhoda Janzen Saru Jayaraman John Kao Steven Koonin Bart Kosko George Kozmetsky Ray Kurzweil Leon Lederman Andrei Linde John H. McWhorter Marvin Minsky Graham T. Molitor Richard Mouw Nancey C. Murphy Bruce C. Murray Sherwin Nuland Clifford Penner Joyce Penner Dean I. Radin Marilyn Schlitz John R. Searle Todd Siler Brian Skyrms Gregory Stock Charles Tart Frank J. Tipler Allan J. Tobin James Trefil Neil de Grasse Tyson Roy Walford Fred Alan Wolf
From the Back Cover
An insatiable desire to fathom the workings of the natural world and the meaning of existence is as fundamental to our species as walking upright or having the capacity to love. Yet, throughout most of human history, only a select handful of people in each generation had the ability and good fortune to participate in the grand discourses of philosophy and science.
Closer to Truth harnesses the intellectual energy of more than fifty of today's most influential minds to offer an exciting, in-depth exploration of today's most important trends in science, philosophy, and human understanding. Over the course of twenty-eight lively roundtable discussions, these scientists, philosophers, and visionaries share their intriguing insights on a vast array of timely intellectual issues ranging from consciousness to cosmology, sexuality to soul, evolution to education. No other source brings you inside the major debates now raging within lecture halls and research labs around the world with such immediacy or candor. Nor does any feature such an impressive roster of contributors.
In orchestrating Closer to Truthboth the public television series and the bookDr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn has assembled a veritable Who's Who in the world of ideas, from the mainstream to the avant-garde, all brought together in electric combinations that spark with light and heat. In so doing, he has provided us with an unparalleled opportunity to watch these intellectual all-stars in action and discover where each stands on many of today's most controversial "knowledge" issues, including the workings of the brain and mind, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, longevity, sex and gender, the beginnings and endings of the universe, the nature of consciousness, and the beauty of quantum physics.
Closer to Truth is pioneering a new genre of media called "Knowledge Affairs," and is the program of record for new knowledge. While this book does not claim to provide ultimate answers to the great questions, by affording a unique opportunity to sample from the "competitive marketplace of ideas," it will bring you Closer to Truth.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Closer To Truth is Closer To Science,
By
This review is from: Closer to Truth: Challenging Current Belief (Hardcover)
The Book Closer To Truth has rejuvenated my excitement for science. Dr. Robert Kuhn is brilliant to bring such a diverse group of people togther.I was elated to see that his roundtable discussions were not limited to scientists. Seated at these roundtable discussions are poets, philosophers, musicians, educators,as well as some of the greatest scientists of our time. The focus of the discussions in this book are in-depth. Science is about asking questions and challanging those questions for the quest of the truth.I think my college-aged children would be more excited about science if they were exposed to a book like Closer To Truth. This book kept has me up at night. Every aspect of our life in some way is revolved around science.Closer To Truth addresses some compelling topics in science today. Closer To Truth has reminded me of how important science is to mankind.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Closer to Truth: Challenging Current Belief,
By A Customer
This review is from: Closer to Truth: Challenging Current Belief (Hardcover)
When I was in college, I took copious notes in every class, since in those exhausting days my memory seemed little more than a vestigial organ . Viewing Closer to Truth on television is like sitting in a classroom with some of the greatest minds of our time. The book Closer to Truth provides for the note-taking function. I can look up any show in the book and find a summary of its contents. Before the shows air, I can know who the players will be and what issues they will discuss. I can bone up on the topics ahead of time and be a more informed viewer. After the fact, I can review the book and recalled who said what, when. This book is an ideal companion to the 28 shows that are scheduled to air on Public Television stations across the country. Wouldn't be without it. Nobody, with the possible exception of the host, is fully informed on all of the topics that are covered in these fascinating shows. This book clues me in to the issues and why they are important. To fully explore the subject matter of the shows, the book would have to be encyclopedic. For the purposes it serves, the present book is just the right size and format. As they say, it's a "boon companion" to the shows.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too superficial and lacking in focus,
By
This review is from: Closer to Truth: Challenging Current Belief (Hardcover)
This book has a lot going for it: a superb cast of players and a list of fascinating topics. Unfortunately, the format does not lend itself to depth and focus. The chapters are in the form of dialogs, the transcripts from a TV series, actually. Pit five or six world-renowned scientists together in the same room, give them a fascinating topic, and watch the fireworks. Unfortunately, not much can happen in this kind of a forum. Just as one of the participants starts getting into the meat of something, someone who disagrees interjects with his own agenda and they are off in another direction before the idea can be explored in any depth. In chapter after chapter I came away with the feeling of not being any more enlightened than I was at the beginning. There are an incredible number of interesting ideas discussed in this book that simply are not followed through in enough detail to let you feel that you've actually heard a well-rounded argument. I'd much rather have a single author of wide vision and open mind such as John D. Barrow write a book covering these topics than this diffuse presentation. A waste of the serious seeker's time.
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