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We are Big Idea Hunters…

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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Browse videos featuring experts across a wide range of disciplines, from personal health to business leadership to neuroscience.

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Big Think’s contributors offer expert analysis of the big ideas behind the news.

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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.

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Politeia Posts

American politics and the big picture

Politeia

Taxes in the U.S. Are Low and Progressive

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about 1 year ago

Nobody seems to really like the U.S. tax system. Conservatives complain that taxes are too high, while liberals say the system isn’t progressive enough. Both may well be right. But, as Lucy Barnes recently explained, the surprising truth is that taxes in the U.S. are both relatively low and ...

Politeia

Election Notes: The Battle for Michigan

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about 1 year ago

The latest Quinnipiac poll has Rick Santorum ahead of Mitt Romney 35-26 among Republicans and voters who lean Republican. National polls are not by themselves be good indicators of who will win the nomination. Futures traders at Intrade still give Romney a 75% chance of being the Republican nominee ...

Politeia

Evolution and the Meaning of Life

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about 1 year ago

In an aside to his contribution to our recent discussion of same-sex marriage (my contribution is here), Big Think’s Peter Lawler wrote that Darwinists agree with many religiously observant people in “thinking that the main point of any social animal is to generate replacements and raise them right ...

Politeia

Marriage Equality Is a Civil Right

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about 1 year ago

In an interview last year, Focus on the Family head Jim Daly seemed to concede that same-sex marriage would be legal sooner or later. As I wrote earlier this week, that’s because younger Americans largely support the idea. In his interview, Daly suggested that Christians should focus on what ...

Politeia

Election Notes: Will Romney Lose Michigan?

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over 1 year ago

It has been a bad week for Mitt Romney. He did win both the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll and the Maine Caucus over the weekend. But neither of those results matter much. The winner of the CPAC straw poll is arguably determined by who can afford to pay registration fees for ...

Politeia

Election Notes: Santorum Wins

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over 1 year ago

Rick Santorum beat Mitt Romney in all three Republican contests on Tuesday. Santorum won by sizable margins in both Missouri and Minnesota—where Romney came in third behind Ron Paul—although Missouri was a non-binding “beauty contest” with no delegates at stake. Santorum also won Colorado, a key ...

Politeia

Why More Republicans Aren't Voting

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over 1 year ago

In Florida four years ago about 1.95 million people voted in the Republican primary. This year 1.66 million people voted in the same primary. That’s 300,000 fewer people, a 14% drop in a state that has only been growing. Of course, part of the reason for the drop could be that four years ago the ...

Politeia

Election Notes: What Mitt's Victory Means

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over 1 year ago

Mitt Romney looks more and more like the Republican nominee after soundly defeating the Republican field in the Florida Primary. Romney managed to get more votes than Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum combined, and has moved back into the lead in national polling. The futures traders at Intrade now ...

Politeia

Election Notes: Mitt Is Still the Favorite

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over 1 year ago

The chance that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee fell since last week after Newt Gingrich beat him by 12 points in Saturday’s South Carolina primary. After the primary, Romney fell behind Gingrich in the polls both nationally and in Florida, where the next primary is being held. While the ...

Politeia

Obama Frames the Economic Debate

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over 1 year ago

It has been clear for some time that the presidential election would be about economics. The killing of Osama bin Laden, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and the fall of Muammar Qaddafi were all obviously significant events, but with unemployment still at 8.5% national security issues will ...

Politeia

Countries Are Not Like Corporations

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over 1 year ago

Mitt Romney has experience that Barack Obama doesn’t. For all his obvious gifts, Obama has no real experience running private companies, while Romney is one of the most accomplished business people of his generation. As a management consultant at Bain, Romney was at the forefront of a revolution in ...

Politeia

U.S. Election Notes, January 19

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over 1 year ago

As we approach Saturday's Republican primary in South Carolina, Mitt Romney’s nomination is looking more and more likely. Political futures market Intrade now gives Romney an almost 90% chance of winning the Republican nomination—up 4 points from a week ago—as conservative opposition to him remains ...

Politeia

U.S. Election Notes, January 12

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over 1 year ago

Mitt Romney’s convincing victory in New Hampshire—exit polls showed him winning in a wide variety of key groups—made him the first non-incumbent Republican in years to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. Conservative South Carolina seems like the last chance for a credible alternative to Romney ...