We live in a time of information abundance, which far too many of us see as information overload. With the sum total of human knowledge, past and present, at our fingertips, we’re faced with a crisis of attention: which ideas should we engage with, and why? Big Think is an evolving roadmap to the best thinking on the planet — the ideas that can help you think flexibly and act decisively in a multivariate world.
A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think
Big ideas are lenses for envisioning the future. Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable. We’re sifting the noise for the questions and insights that have the power to change all of our lives, for decades to come. For example, reverse-engineering is a big idea in that the concept is increasingly useful across multiple disciplines, from education to nanotechnology.
Themes are the seven broad umbrellas under which we organize the hundreds of big ideas that populate Big Think. They include New World Order, Earth and Beyond, 21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.
Browse videos featuring experts across a wide range of disciplines, from personal health to business leadership to neuroscience.
Big Think’s contributors offer expert analysis of the big ideas behind the news.
Big Think’s Edge learning platform for career mentorship and professional development provides engaging and actionable courses delivered by the people who are shaping our future.
A Critical Look at the Ideas We Fear Most
Any defence of normalcy by definition enforces an opposition to, or even the concept of, the ‘abnormal’. But who or what is abnormal? Women – in various ‘non-feminine’ roles were and are regarded as abnormal – whether indulging in the delights of other women, equal rights, independence, a ...
Like many others, I watched a man shoot himself on “Live TV”, days after it went live. I watched Fox News anchor Shepard Smith react too late to an incident he could not have predicted. Will Oremus summarises the event: Live coverage of a car chase on Fox News turned into a grisly spectacle ...
Doctor and journalist Ben Goldacre, reinforced by Stuart Armstrong, is calling attention to what might be the worst, biggest example of intentional confirmation bias in recent history, that is killing and harming many of us. This is the problem of much medical drug research. Writes Goldacre ...
I want to put an end to this argument, since I’m seeing it frequently touted and pointed to and nodded at like a mantra. Phrase it however you want: “it’s natural”, “it’s a biological urge”, or the corollary, “it’s unnatural”, “not even animals do it”, etc. There are variations - but the essential ...
I'll be posting another actual ATNT post tomorrow. For now, I just want to indicate other posts I've written recently. 1. MAKING MONSTERS [link] At my friend Martin Pribble's blog, I contributed a little essay dealing with why it hurts proper inquiry, as well as ourselves, to turn people into ...
Dear Paris Hilton You probably don’t remember me. We met briefly once, years ago. It was when you bought a book on numerology and astrology from a store I worked at, in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa. You wore a black hoodie, bug-eyed glasses and were in the company of the ...
This is a lengthy post but I want to do justice to Adam Lee, Big Think and the arguments. These are my initial thoughts. Fellow Big Think blogger and friend, Adam Lee, has expressed his concern over Big Think providing a platform for psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa. Kanazawa is infamous for many ...
Drew Nelles has written a fascinating article detailing our species’ history of tackling “criminal activity” of animals. Today, we commonly hear of everyday stories of dangerous animals being “put down”. “The discussion surrounding these attacks has been limited to the immediate and the pragmatic ...
Salman Rushdie has an excerpt in The New Yorker from his third-person narrated memoir Joseph Anton – the name he lived under during his time with the Fatwa*. There are few things I can definitely point to that changed my life, so please forgive this brief sojourn into autobiography. One of these ...
I'm happy to report that my post on the moral significance of sex workers and people with disabilities has made it into the nominees for the 3 Quarks Daily Philosophy Prize 2012. While I want to urge you to vote for my post - obviously, I'm not going to pretend otherwise - I also think you should ...
In Part I, I introduced the idea that we should employ the principle of charity when engaging with ideas (particularly online) – especially from new and unknown interlocutors. Many problems could be prevented from occurring – such as using emotive, threatening, bullying tactics – if we read ...
In ‘On Liberty’, one of John Stuart Mill’s concerns was the best way to conduct ourselves, since conduct in expression was central to his moral claims about individual liberty. Mill was passionate about correct conduct in the exchange of ideas since it was for him the most powerful way for ...
An unnamed 16-year old in the Dominican Republic has died from leukaemia complications. The “complications” were as a result of a “dilemma”: the girl was pregnant and chemotherapy, which she needed, would kill the foetus. Under Article 37 of the Constitution, it states “the right to life is ...
US Rep. Todd Akin is a Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri, USA. Akin thinks the US should not support the “morning after pill” (you’ll see why I’ve put that in scare quotes) – even for rape victims. I want to look at at his claims about rape and then about abortion. Rape and ...
I’m looking at Jonathan Jones’ incredibly bizarre article in The Guardian (of all places), which undermines and short-circuits an important moral discussion, about Tony Nicklinson and the right to die. I’ve previously written about Tony Nicklinson and the ethical justifications for his decision. It ...