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The misleading title suggests that the reader will find a late model discussion from the online forum edge.org that Brockman, the editor runs. It is a pretty interesting site that features many heralded scientists as well as introducing new ones. They are often filmed in discussions informally and on topics sure to entertain and inform the viewer. It is noticeably superior to the formulaic “Ted Talks”. I have never seen Malcolm Gladwell included in discussions on this site. I take some comfort in this.
However this book with a copyright of 2016 features discussions and articles that are about 10 years old. The concept of CRISPR which fills scientific publications immensely these days, is not mentioned for instance. There is some discussion of genetic engineering but not depth on the subject. Many of the 18 chapters I had either read or viewed already.
The cover of the book includes names of various scientists that have appeared on edge.org but are not contributors to the book. Over all I think highly of edge.org but like any product, we cannot like everything. The compilation that Brockman put together follows that understanding.
None the less and complaints aside, it was pretty good reading. I want my thoughts to be provoked and this compendium satisfied that. Several of the contributors I have grown weary of over the last few years. The ego of Craig Venter has been irritating to me but he was there for many pages and though I read or saw much of what he said already, I did not find his ideas annoying but rather food for thought. Likewise Freeman Dyson’s prickliness about climate change has rubbed me the wrong way but I found his single chapter and contribution to another to be likewise interesting reading. Finally the futurist Ray Kurzweil has not convinced me that soon we will all have IQs of 175 and we will live to be 175 too. However, I found his part of the discussion on Biocomputation to be insightful and provide fuel for future research.
The intentions of Brockman’s choice of articles was to better describe evolution and while reading the book I kept thinking of the difference between the scientifically shunned notion of teleology and juxtaposed it with teleonomy. There is no design to evolutionary changes. Evolution does not involve a plan towards an ideal state it just keeps us animals fed and allows us to breed.
Richard Prum’s article about duck sex really got me thinking about why certain features of animal physiology and behavior have come to be. No details will be given away from this quarter but Prum writes about the uniqueness in mallards and leads the reader to think about how and why things develop. Teleonomy was the biggest take away I got from this book.
There you have it. Eighteen articles that included around twenty five contributors are all laid out to give readers some food for thought. Have at it.
- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial (April 19, 2016)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0062296051
- ISBN-13: 978-0062296054
- Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 5.2 x 7.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 36 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#615,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #877 in Environmental Studies
- #858 in Genetics (Books)
- #293 in Science Essays & Commentary (Books)
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