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    This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress
    This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress
    This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress
    Audiobook16 hours

    This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress

    Written by John Brockman

    Narrated by David Colacci and Susan Ericksen

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook



    Each year, John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, challenges some of the world's greatest scientists, artists, and philosophers to answer a provocative question crucial to our time. In 2014, he asked 175 brilliant minds to ponder: What scientific idea needs to be put aside in order to make room for new ideas to advance? The answers are as surprising as they are illuminating. In This Idea Must Die:

    Steven Pinker dismantles the working theory of human behavior
    Sherry Turkle reevaluates our expectations of artificial intelligence
    Andrei Linde suggests that our universe and its laws may not be as unique as we think
    Martin Rees explains why scientific understanding is a limitless goal
    Nina Jablonski argues to rid ourselves of the concept of race
    And much more.

    Profound, engaging, thoughtful, and groundbreaking, This Idea Must Die will change your perceptions and understanding of our world today . . . and tomorrow.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 17, 2015
    ISBN9781494578985
    Author

    John Brockman

    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.

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    Reviews for This Idea Must Die

    3.5/5

    58 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Other books I've read in this series have not impressed me, but this year's question - what one idea is holding back progress and should be retired? - does well in this format. Editor John Brockman collects one to six page answers to the question from 174 academics, researchers, science writers, and a handful of non-scientist cultural figures. In general, the non-scientists' pieces are a little fuzzy and embarrassing. A handful of really well known scientists phone it in, and pieces in several of the disciplines break down on opposite sides of some predictable questions: is string theory misguided? Can we study consciousness in any meaningful way? But there are also some real gems in the collection, chapters that warrant putting the book down and walking away to go think about them.Some of my favorites, and the ideas they recommend ditching, included Nigel Goldenfeld (discrete individuality); Lee Smolin (that time started with the Big Bang0; Max Tegmark (infinity); Kevin Kelly (that genetic mutations are random); Eric Topol (that a person has a single genome); Richard Nesbitt (regression analysis as a means of discovering causality); Ernst Poppel (that time is continuous); and Neil Gershenfeld (that 'computer science' as currently taught is a real discipline). Some of these made arguments I've felt for a while without being able to articulate them; others are exactly opposite my intuitions, and have forced me to think my views through again. That's perhaps the best stimulation one can ask from a book like this.
    • 2/5
      Just a bunch of whining about people disagreeing with that person's pet viewpoint. No doubt some are accurate, but the contempt for anyone who cares ask a question or disagree with the authors viewpoint is so thick you could cut it with the proverbial knife.
    • 5/5
      I will listen again and again. I also bought the ebook from Scribd as a reference resource.
    • 3/5
      An anthology of very short essays by various hands about terminology or processes that to the authors are hindering the further progress of the Sciences, Mathematics and some of the Social sciences. With so many writers, the work is very variable in quality, both in style and in thought. Overall, not to be read consistently but to be dipped into as a measure of anti-pompous works in a chosen field.
    • 3/5
      The question asked is, "What scientific idea is ready for retirement?" This collection of short essays provides answers from "175 of the world's most influential scientists, economists, artists, and philosophers" (according to the blurb on the back cover). I found it to be a mixed bag, as you might expect. A few were insightful. Several were interesting. Others were informative, obvious, uninspired, flawed, straw-man attacks, semantic rants, or (in one case) loony. Most, however (even the loony one) were, in some way, thought provoking. (Although, to be honest, my first thought after reading the loony one was 'What fairy tale universe is this guy calling in from?') These, of course, are my personal, subjective impressions. Your opinions may vary. Regardless, the collection does provide insights into what some of the top experts in fields ranging from physics to psychology are thinking about, including issues on which they agree and disagree. (I imagine there are some lively...discussions between physicists during breaks at conferences about String Theory).
    • 4/5
      A good book filled with interesting perspectives, "This Idea Must Die" shows a variety of viewpoints on a multitude of subjects. I enjoyed the fact that multiple individuals from different disciplines discussed the same ideas, as it gives a very well rounded commentary of scientifically controversial topics. The reader likely won't agree with each writer's viewpoint, but this forces them to consider their own views and explore for themselves many of the topics.