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.
The co-evolution of humans and technology
Hybrid Reality has just spent a week in one of our favorite places: Singapore. As the city-state celebrates its 45th birthday, it continues to enjoy a unique status as an icon of economic growth and political stability under the leadership of its founder and still “Minister Mentor” Lee Kuan Yew ...
Bioengineered humans are people who have been biologically upgraded through machine implants, genetic manipulation and drugs. Together, they herald what is popularly known as the coming post-human or Human 2.0 era. Augmentation is any bodily intervention that enhances human function and was not ...
What does it mean to have our lives watched by an invited guest who never forgets anything he sees? Mr. Internet comes in many guises – Count Facebook, Mssr Twitter, Professor LinkedIn, Herr Amazon – but essentially he’s doing the same thing every time: recording everything we do and noting every ...
What does the future look like? We essentially rely on science fiction thrillers to give us a taste of what lies ahead for humanity: Avatar; Iron Man; I, Robot; Surrogates; Star Wars; and I am Legend. But these films only give us part of the picture both in terms of the science and the social ...
Fact: over half the world’s population lives in cities. Fact: all developed cities like New York, Tokyo, Singapore and London, are in a race to become “wired”. Fact: the most wired city in the world is Seoul, Korea with 97% broadband penetration. Ergo if we want to imagine life in a digital city ...
Recently we wrote about emerging models for Research (the "R" in R&D) and how the US government can encourage and support them. But what about Development - the “D” in R&D? The majority of spending in R&D is in fact allocated to development, which includes costs associated with market analysis ...
Thanks to the Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s runaway hit, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” we tend to think of undercover operative agents as not only being uncommonly good looking but also having in their possession the most sophisticated technology available. Yet the recent arrest of 11 Russian spies show ...
Football fever surrounds the Fortune Global Forum here in Cape Town, South Africa! Amidst the fascinating discussions about finding high-tech solutions to Africa’s problems, one can’t help but appreciate the power of spectator sports to entertain and provide a collective cathartic release for ...
Economists have long touted the importance of research and development (R&D) – investment in science and technology -- in driving economic growth and innovation. If you compare the top 20 countries which are top spenders in R&D* as percent of GDP with the top 20 innovators**, you'll find the list ...
If your mother is elderly, requires 24-hour attention, and has Alzheimers, would you care for her yourself at home, hire a nurse, or put her in a nursing home? These are questions that plague many couples who must decide how to take care of an aging parent. Now there’s a new option to further ...
When Facebook’s privacy woes hit the webosphere, people quickly fell into two camps: those who believed that we now “live in public” and should accept it, and those who were filled with distaste at the idea. The “public” for most people is actually their private world: friends, colleagues, and ...
Many of us are addicted to Starbucks, but as any European will attest, it’s not because the coffee is delicious. We like the routine of the morning caffeine jolt, the congenial yuppie ambiance, and the gingerbread flavors in festive red cups at Christmas: it’s not cool, but it’s home. Now we have ...
In November 2009, nine researchers from MIT’s prestigious Media Lab were among the eleven authors of a paper* that espoused the value of programming as an essential skill for all. For those who cannot program in the 21st century, they declared solemnly, “It’s as if they can ‘read’ but not ‘write ...
In the Matrix trilogy, God is portrayed as a software Architect. The fact that the first movie was released in 1999 is appropriate since software code had begun to exert a profound impact on our daily narrative. Nothing captured the importance of the software engineer better than the fact that the ...
Last week our narcoleptic Lenovo laptop dozed off into permanent slumber. Not terribly saddened at its untimely demise, we nonchalantly recycled it (using Gazelle.com) and bought ourselves a shiny new Mac. Five years ago, the scene would have unfolded far more dramatically: panic about lost work ...