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.
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Big ideas in the news from around the web
Jim Titus, the Environmental Protection Agency's resident expert on sea-level rise, calculates that a three-foot rise in sea level will push back East Coast shorelines an average of 300 to 600 feet in the next 90 years, threatening to submerge densely developed areas inhabited by some 3 million ...
"The fraction of New York’s garbage that requires disposal should be processed in waste-to-energy plants — which not only produce energy but are also cheaper and less polluting than landfills," write Norman Steel and Benjamin Miller. "If all of the city’s nonrecycled waste were sent to local energy ...
Despite the claims of advertisers, most orange juice is neither fresh nor natural (not in the way most of us would define those terms). "It may be 'not from concentrate,' but raw juice is often heated, stripped of its volatile compounds and flavor-rich oils, and stored for as long as a year before ...
"Maybe it’s time to admit that we may never find a way to reconcile consumers who want free entertainment with creators who want to get paid," writes Megan McArdle. "We have yet to figure out how to make IP work in the new era. Even if we don’t, people will still make pictures, sing songs, and write ...
Former President Jimmy Carter writes that Sudan's recent elections, despite the condemnation of many critics, "will permit this war-torn nation to move toward a permanent peace and strengthen its quest for true democracy." He writes that it is imperative that the United States and the international ...
"For decades, TV has depicted teens as angst-ridden and rebellious, and parents as out-of-touch and unhip. Then network executives realized that popular shows that tapped into the defiant-youth subculture were losing viewers. ... This less-defiant generation is influencing plots, changing what types ...
"Approximately 50 million years ago, some Amazonian ant species discovered that raising fungi could provide a more stable food source than just foraging on the rainforest floor. Thus, they became farmers. Now, more than 200 species of New World ants cultivate crops, fastidiously fertilizing ...
"Of all classic capitalist problems—income inequality, imperialism, the class character of the state, and so on—mass unemployment has probably been the one to trouble living Americans least," writes Benjamin Kunkel. But "the American approximation to 'full employment' has now collapsed," and will ...
Evgeny Morozov writes that the Internet hasn't lived up to its promise "as the ultimate tool to foster tolerance, destroy nationalism, and transform the planet into one great wired global village." Certainly the Internet has transformed many things about the world, but it is unlikely to bring the ...
Researchers have discovered that mammals may have the biochemical machinery to produce their own morphine. Scientists found traces of morphine in the urine of mice after injecting chemical precursors of the drug. Mammals have specialized receptors in the brain that respond to morphine, and ...
Genetic scientists are discovering hundreds of genes involved in human disorders by looking at the DNA of distantly-related species. "In our distant, amoeba-like ancestors, clusters of genes were already forming to work together on building cell walls and on other very basic tasks essential to life ...
Two new studies suggest that chimpanzees face death in human-like ways, from holding deathbed vigils to comforting the dying. The studies indicate that their awareness of death is likely more developed than previously thought. As such, the researchers assert that "it might be more humane to allow ...
Eliot Spitzer wonders whether investment banks do anything that helps America anymore—and, as such, whether they deserved the government bailouts they received. He gives a list of questions that the Senate and the SEC should consider, writing that "we need to get a real measure of the social value ...
Stanley Fish writes that the recent Supreme Court decision striking down a statute criminalizing the production and sale of videos depicting animal cruelty in a manner intended to satisfy a particular “sexual fetish” is no surprise. Previous cases found speech to be a value in and of itself, no ...
People who are driven by rewards tend to be the ones who win at games—even when the reward has been removed. Neuroscientists at Washington University tested 31 randomly selected subjects with word games, some of which had monetary rewards of either 25 or 75 cents per correct answer, others of which ...