MetaFilter posts tagged with Edge

What's The Question About Your Field That You Dread Being Asked?

the man of twists and turns — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 07:19:35 -0800

"Maybe it's a sore point: your field should have an answer (people think you do) but there isn't one yet. Perhaps it's simple to pose but hard to answer. Or it's a question that belies a deep misunderstanding: the best answer is to question the question."

What, Me Worry?

the man of twists and turns — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 03:13:56 -0800

Every year, Edge.org asks a question. This year's is:"What *Should* We Be Worried About?" The responses are things like "Chinese Eugenics," "We Are In Denial About Catastrophic Risks," "Worry About Internet Drivel," "The Patience Deficit," "The Power Of Bad Incentives," "The Complex, Consequential, Not-So-Easy Decisions About Our Water Resources," and "The Cultural And Cognitive Consequences Of Electronics." They are from people like Nassim Nicholas Taleb, David Rowan, Evgeny Morozov, Kate Jeffery, Vernor Vinge, Bruce Schneier, Alison Gopnik, Steven Pinker, Virginia Heffernan and Simon Baron-Cohen. There are 154 answers. 2012:What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant or Beautiful Explanation? 2011:What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit? 2010: How Is The Internet Changing The Way You Think? All the way back to 1998: What Questions Are You Asking Yourself?

Baby we were born to run.

noway — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 19:05:44 -0800

In this sprightly talk (transcript and video) Daniel Lieberman describes why our bodies are so good at running long distances, how our social intelligence developed and how modernity and capitalism require us to learn (or relearn) how to use our bodies. (May inspire tolerance for people who wear five-fingered shoes.) Prof. Lieberman studies human evolution at Harvard where he focuses on heads and feet. (via Tyler Cowen)

Looking Back With Virtual Boy Tinted Glasses

The Whelk — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:50:47 -0800

Do Go On - A tumblr celebration of totally rad 90s video game magazines [via mefi projects]

Elegant Explanations

Gyan — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:08:39 -0800

What Is Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, Or Beautiful Explanation? - Edge 2012 Annual Question (earlier)

The Marvels and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking

AceRock — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:26:40 -0800

The Marvels and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking, an Edge Master Class with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman. Follow-up discussion with Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, and Steven Pinker. (previously)

It's the first time completely around, eh?

bwg — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:48:50 -0800

CN Tower EdgeWalk, June 2011; YouTube, 2.00. For CAD175 you can harness up and walk around the five-foot-wide edge of Toronto's CN Tower, 356 metres/1,168 feet above ground level. This is similar to Macau Tower's Skywalk, only much higher (Skywalk is 233 metres up). Macau's Mast Climb is closer to the height but is a much different thrill. Related: Dar Robinson jumps off the CN Tower and Super Dave Osborne jumps off the CN Tower.

Album Falls From Internet

hippybear — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:47:11 -0800

The Original Cast Recording for Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark is currently available for a free listen thanks to MSN. (approx 51 minutes) The track listing shows that it's not only the cast members performing the songs. Album description from Amazon:

The album, featuring 14 new tracks, is composed of songs co-authored by Bono and The Edge of U2 and was produced by frequent U2 collaborator Steve Lillywhite. Recorded by the talented cast of the Broadway production, this long player also features a single version from the musical entitled, "Rise Above." This track showcases Reeve Carney who plays the role of Spider-Man in the Broadway production. The track also features performances by its composers Bono and The Edge. The Original Cast Recording will be released on the same day the show officially opens on Broadway, June 14th, 2011 at the Foxwoods Theatre in New York City.

What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?

AceRock — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:01:04 -0800

What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit? (The Edge.org Question of 2011) 158 CONTRIBUTORS (109,600 words): V.S. Ramachandran, Richard Thaler, Brian Eno, J. Craig Venter, Martin Rees, Mahzarin Banaji, Stefano Boeri, Nigel Goldenfeld, Gary Marcus, Andrew Revkin, Stuart Firestein, Beatrice Golomb, Diane Halpern, Kevin Hand, Barry Smith, Kevin Hand, Garrett Lisi, David Dalrymple, Xeni Jardin, Seth Lloyd, Brian Knutson, Carl Page, Victoria Stodden, David Rowan, Hazel Rose Markus & Alana Conner, Fiery Cushman, David Eagleman, Joan Chiao, Max Tegmark, Tecumseh Fitch, Joshua Greene, Stephon Alexander, Gregory Cochran, Tor Norretranders , Laurence Smith, Carl Zimmer, Roger Highfield, Marcelo Gleiser, Richard Saul Wurman, Anthony Aguirre, Sam Harris, P.Z. Myers, Sue Blackmore, Bart Kosko, David Buss, John Tooby, Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran, Paul Bloom, Evgeny Morozov, Mark Pagel, Kathryn Schulz, Ernst Pöppel, Tania Lombrozo, Paul Saffo, Jay Rosen, Timothy Taylor, Jonah Lehrer, Marco Iacoboni, Dave Winer, George Church, Kai Krause, Gloria Origgi, Tom Standage, Vinod Khosla, Dan Sperber, Geoffrey Miller, Satyajit Das, Alun Anderson, Eric Topol, Amanda Gefter, Scott D. Sampson, John McWhorter, Jon Kleinberg, Christine Finn, Nick Bostrom, Robert Sapolsky, Adam Alter, Ross Anderson, Paul Kedrosky, Mark Henderson, Thomas A. Bass, Gerald Smallberg, James Croak, Greg Paul, Susan Fiske, Marti Hearst, Keith Devlin, Gerd Gigerenzer, Matt Ridley, Andrian Kreye, Don Tapscott, David Gelernter, Linda Stone, Matthew Ritchie, Joel Gold, Helen Fisher, Giulio Boccaletti, Daniel Goleman, Donald Hoffman, Richard Foreman, Lee Smolin, Thomas Metzinger, Lawrence Krauss, William Calvin, Nicholas Christakis, Alison Gopnik, Kevin Kelly, Clay Shirky, Andy Clark, Neil Gershenfeld, Jonathan Haidt, Marcel Kinsbourne, Douglas Rushkoff, Lisa Randall, Frank Wilczek, Jaron Lanier, Jennifer Jacquet, Daniel Dennett, Stephen M. Kosslyn, Carlo Rovelli, Juan Enriquez, Terrence Sejnowski, Irene Pepperberg, Michael Shermer, Samuel Arbesman, Douglas Kenrick, James O'Donnell, David G. Myers, Rob Kurzban, Richard Nisbett, Samuel Barondes, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nicholas Carr, Emanuel Derman, Aubrey De Grey, Nassim Taleb, Rebecca Goldstein, Clifford Pickover, Charles Seife, Rudy Rucker, Sean Carroll, Gino Segre, Jason Zweig, Dylan Evans, Steven Pinker, Martin Seligman, Gerald Holton, Robert Provine, Roger Schank, George Dyson, Milford Wolpoff, George Lakoff, Nicholas Humphrey, Christian Keysers, Haim Harari, W. Daniel Hillis, John Allen Paulos, Bruce Hood, Howard Gardner

Words of Warcraft

Artw — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:18:19 -0800

This week the BBC broadcast a Panorama special (UK only link, YouTube links here and here) on what it presented as the alarming rise of game addiction. Thoughtful responses from Rock, Paper, Shotgun and EDGE, both of whom point out a number of problems with it.

We Think The Body Electric

grumblebee — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:47:58 -0800

Edge.org's 2010 Question: how is the Internet changing the way you think?

36 Arguments

vronsky — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:33:37 -0800

36 Arguments for the Existence of God

Faith has nothing on this guy.

Cool Papa Bell — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:02:18 -0800

Real-Life Mirror's Edge. (SLYT)

Now have you found what you're looking for?

Joe Beese — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:04:34 -0800

Only 325 days until Broadway's Hilton Theater hosts the first preview of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a $40 million musical directed by Juliet Taymor with music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge of U2. Investors hope it will fare better than another big-budget pulp adaptation.

Not Obama ?!?!

Gyan — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:10:45 -0800

What Will Change Everything? - the 2009 Edge Annual Question [the editions of 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002]

Social networks are like the eye

sveskemus — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:43:45 -0800

Social networks are like the eye: A talk with Nicholas A. Christakis. Dr. Christakis' current work is principally concerned with health and social networks. This work takes seriously the contention that because people are inter-connected, their health is inter-connected. Christakis, like a group of other scholars researching social science questions, uses Facebook to gather data about how people form social relationships. From the Edge article:

We are thus at a moment where a leap forward in the methodology for the study of social networks has been made, firstly by building on past work. But secondly, we are at a moment where — because of modern telecommunications technologies and other innovations — people are leaving digital traces of where they are, who they are interacting with, and what they are saying or even thinking. All of these types of data can be captured by the deployment of what I call "massive passive" technologies and used to engage social science questions in a way that our predecessors could only dream of. We have vast amounts of data that can be reapplied to investigate fundamental questions about social organization and about morality and other concerns that have perplexed us forever.

"When the world's great scientific thinkers change their minds"

stbalbach — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:55:33 -0800

"When the world's great scientific thinkers change their minds". Some Big Name thinkers (Dyson, Pinker, Venter, ...) change their minds on some Big Ideas (race, evolution, global warming,..) and explain why in about a paragraph each. Via Edge.

Should I post this?

Gyan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:56:18 -0800

What have you changed your mind about? Why? - the latest installment of The Edge Annual Question [FPPs for 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002]

A DNA-driven world

sushiwiththejury — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:53:45 -0800

Transcript and video of the 32nd Richard Dimbleby lecture by Craig Venter.

Reflection's Edge

Pants! — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:34:13 -0800

Reflection's Edge, a monthly fiction zine (back issues), has many resources for writers, including slang/dialect (don't miss the links to Texas Talk, the Internet Guide to Jazz Age Slang, or the 1736 Canting Dictionary), writing advice and interviews, and advice on how to sell your story.

Cheers, Big Ears!

chuckdarwin — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:25:15 -0800

The first known film of the long-eared jerboa, an endangered Mongolian rodent with legs like a kangaroo, was released today by the owners of London Zoo. Previously

The 3-1-3 is 1-2-3

fusinski — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:49:57 -0800

Latest news out of the auto industry: Buick ties Lexus as top auto brand in vehicle dependability. Cadillac is #2. Mercury is #3. If you haven't seen the new Buicks, you should take a look at what they've been doing lately (see: Enclave, Lucerne). Also, the new (sort of) Taurus gets rave reviews. The Ford Edge, also new for 2007, has captured 16% of the crossover market, and owners seem to love it. Finally, for the greenies, GM is ready to test the electric Chevy Volt--says it is on schedule for production in 2010. Is it time to consider buying American again? And not just for the sake of it?

a natural edge

nickyskye — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:30:12 -0800

..."imagine a painter who could, like Vermeer, capture the quality of light that a camera can, but with the color of paints...scanned with an ordinary office scanner"....Katinka Matson is cofounder of the brilliant and very readable ezine, Edge. Her digital art is featured there. Thumbnails of her 40 flowers. 12 flowers. Five flowers. Red anemone.

In Defense of Uncommon Sense

homunculus — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 09:59:24 -0800

In Defense of Uncommon Sense. The Edge Reality Club responds to an op-ed by John Horgan (previously discussed here.) (Via)

A Dog for All Seasons

nthdegx — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 03:45:52 -0800

A Dog for All Seasons. A wonderful Flash game. From Orisinal. Via Edge.