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John Brockman

What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything (Edge Question Series) Paperback – May 20, 2014

by John Brockman (Author)

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Even geniuses change their minds sometimes.

Edge (www.edge.org), the influential online intellectual salon, recently asked 150 high-powered thinkers to discuss their most telling missteps and reconsiderations: What have you changed your mind about? The answers were brilliant, eye-opening, fascinating, sometimes shocking, and certain to kick-start countless passionate debates.

Read Steven Pinker on the future of human evolution  Richard Dawkins on the mysteries of courtship  Sam Harris on the indifference of Mother Nature  Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the irrelevance of probability  Chris Anderson on the reality of global warming  Alan Alda on the existence of God  Lisa Randall on the secrets of the Sun  Ray Kurzweil on the possibility of extraterrestrial life  Brian Eno on what it means to be a "revolutionary"  Helen Fisher on love, fidelity, and the viability of marriage  Irene Pepperberg on learning from parrots. . . and many others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this wide-ranging assortment of 150 brief essays, well-known figures from every conceivable field demonstrate why it's a prerogative of all thoughtful people to change their mind once in a while. Technologist Ray Kurzweil says he now shares Enrico Fermi's question: if other intelligent civilizations exist, then where are they? Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan) reveals that he has lost faith in probability as a guiding light for making decisions. Oliver Morton (Mapping Mars) confesses that he has lost his childlike faith in the value of manned space flight to distant worlds. J. Craig Venter, celebrated for his work on the human genome, has ceased to believe that nature can absorb any abuses that we subject it to, and that world governments must move quickly to prevent global disaster. Alan Alda says, So far, I've changed my mind twice about God, going from believer to atheist to agnostic. Brockman, editor of Edge.org and numerous anthologies, has pulled together a thought-provoking collection of focused and tightly argued pieces demonstrating the courage to change strongly held convictions. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

Series: Edge Question Series
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Edition edition (May 20, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780061686542
ISBN-13: 978-0061686542
ASIN: 0061686549
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 22 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #169 in Science Essays & Commentary (Books)

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Bruce G. Frykman

Shallow, unoriginal, predictable.

May 20, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I'm about 1/4 of the way through these short essays and find most of them a predictable one-sided shallow defense of academia, academic degrees, government funded research of questionable value, scientism, expert-ism etc. Scientific myth should always trump religious myth - why? Science is the answer - why? Why should I care if some Berkeley magazine editor changed his mind about "The Satan Gas" Why not some counterpoint such as Judith Curry changing her mind about CO2, but only after she was safely retired from the vengeance of her fellow academicians by signing up for her retirement annuity.

It's not that great essayists (Bacon, Johnson, Swift, Paine, Orwell etc) are not worth reading, it's only that they are remarkably rare as original thinkers. Sadly I've heard far more original thinking in bar rooms than in this book. Some of these 'quips' are worth the read, most are not. The book would have better served us if it offered counterpoint, most of these people are not qualified to give us the gospel according to them.

12 people found this helpful

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Chad M

A collection of essays that are first-rate, innovative, as relevant today as in 2009

December 6, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

When I started to read the John Brockman books about ten years ago, I would pick them up, read an essay, and think something to the effect, "Wow, that was good". Then I would read another essay and sometimes think "The first one was good, this one is even better", or "Who is writing this?". The science and current trends books published by Edge.org and edited by Mr. Brockman are a genre unto themselves. He and the staff pose a major question to a select group of authors, who each get to submit a concise essay (usually five pages or less). The winners of the competition are published in these books, which come out about once a year.

In "What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything" the book is up to standard. The essay responses provide a high-level overview background and then the innovative, particular, or contrarian view of the author. For example, in "The Greater Risk" by Peter Schwartz, p. 173, he writes about the trend against nuclear energy being worse than G-20 nations actually building new reactors ("economics are increasingly favorable" …. "The average French citizen produces 70 percent less CO2 than the average American" p. 175). In "Greenland Changed My Mind" by William H. Calvin, he writes that "When the summer earthquakes associated with glacial movement doubled and then redoubled in a mere ten years … that bigger things could happen any time" (p. 137), events consistent with and accelerated by extreme droughts and large forest fires. In "Optimizing Our Design" by Sam Harris (p. 5), he writes "... what is the alternatives to our taking charge of our biological destiny?" as some people in the gender equality movement would demand, and "We are in many respects ill-suited to the task of building a global civilization. This is not a surprise …" (p. 6).

One of the nice things about these science books is that, even when you disagree with an essay, you find some truth in each one. As the old saying goes, "Everyone has a piece of the truth". In these books, Brockman, the staff at Edge.org, and the contributing authors pursue this vision, of the world being a mosaic of people and ideas, with no one person or group having a monopoly on what is right and best, but that, through fair and open debate, we can together achieve a greater truth and quality of life.

On a more optimistic note, scientists Lee Smolin and Ray Kurzweil write about the nature of time, destiny, and extraterrestrial life (p. 147 and 53). This reminds me of an old topic from "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan. The last chapter is about who speaks for Earth? I can think of several people with world-class integrity, beauty, and kindness, and with the kind of public accomplishments and courage who would be good as speakers on an audio recording to the stars. If the US, UN, or other nations are ever going to send an advanced radio message other Solar Systems in our region of the Galaxy, let's hope this includes summaries of our scientific, historic, and academic achievements, as well as some of the kindness and beauty that makes our lives special.

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Old Jim

Good, but....

February 20, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a very interesting book with a lot of creative ideas by a lot of creative people. Of course, in a book of this type the writing is somewhat variable in readability since all people, especially scientists do not write well. Several write in such obscure language that, unless you are an expert in their field, you probably won't get much out of it. Nevertheless, the good writers provide a wealth of ideas and make the book more than valuable to make you think.

9 people found this helpful

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Jazzmandan

It's a Mixed Bag

June 23, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Each book in this series has a sizable number of (supposed) great thinkers responding to the same (supposedly) provocative question.

Of the three books I've seen, this one contains the fewest interesting responses, and I lost interest about half way through

14 people found this helpful

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Just a reader ...

Kind of a "read it on the bus" book.

October 24, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Some, not all, interesting short essays by reknowned people who've undergone a change of mind regarding various issues. Nothing earth-shattering, but some of the essays are a nice reference against which to compare one's own thoughts and beliefs.

3 people found this helpful

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Excellent Idea, Well-executed

December 15, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Each of the answers to the core question are very clear and well-written. The book provides interesting insights into how opinions morph based on new, compelling ideas and information. It will appeal to your curiosity and inner geek. I think it just didn't help me better understand the overall process of changing one's thinking - probably an unrealistic expectation on my part.

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Dave Crisp

Short pieces by many experts make you think

February 8, 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I found this very helpful to get at some of the current debates among thinkers. I found points to agree with in most of the short pieces and only a few that seemed irrelevant or not accurate in my view.

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José Maria Matias

Five Stars

September 12, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Very good

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