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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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A conservative take on the world
Ronald Reagan would have been 100 on February 6. If they had a cure for Alzheimer's, you know he would have made it. Health-obsessed Americans today (disproportionally sophisticated liberals) should at least look to Reagan for longevity tips. He was one of our more vigorous presidents, despite ...
The modern world may have been inaugurated with the thought that we can and should make ourselves happy in this world. No longer should we be, as St. Augustine wrote, happy in hope for God’s gracious deliverance from our otherwise inescapable misery. Our new goal is to work to change ourselves ...
BIG THINK has done has the big service of presenting many, many excellent and expert views on what happiness is and how to be happy. Surely, we increasingly think, this is the kind of self-help advice we need the most. Eventually, I'll get around to commenting on some of those expert opinions ...
So, in the wake of the boring--yet annoying--Golden Globes, I've been asked what movies of last year I'd recommend that the foreign correspondents slighted. Let me say, to begin with, that my list of last year's bests probably wouldn't include the award-winning The Social Network. How ...
BIG THINK displays a large number wonderful accounts of how science today is transforming our lives--appealing to our hopes, our pride, and, occasionally, our humility. I thought I'd share with you somethng I wrote along those lines in one of the most illuminating scientific journals around--The ...
Most of you won't believe this, but I've actually gotten several requests to say more about Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, rightly called the best book ever written on America and on democracy. This two-volume study, written by a French aristocrat on the basis of his journey to our ...
Here's the most thoughtful conservative appreciation of the President's speech. And here are some points I want to emphasize: 1. The president did not blame the shooting on "inflammatory rhetoric." There's no evidence whatsoever that political rhetoric or tone was the cause of the act of a ...
I thought I'd call attention to one conservative appreciation among many of the President Obama's speech in Tuscon. From Peter Wehner's post on the Commentary magazine blog "Contentions": The president resisted the temptation to offer simplistic explanations for the existence of evil or how ...
So say some of our leading scientists. Of course, not all experts agree. Carl Sagan, the inspiration behind the films ET and Contact, thought that we should spend big bucks combing the cosmos for much more intelligent life somewhere else. He even thought that such life, being benign and ...
The leading Darwinian conservative has done me the honor of responding to my previous post, including the excellent comment by Brendan Foht. According to Larry, the criticism of him for rejecting the idea of eternity of the human species is misguided. The basis of the objection comes from the ...
Country Strong hasn't been taken seriously by film critics. I'm not going to review what they've said or speculate on why they said it. I'm just going to explain why I enjoyed this very thoughtful film. The four major characters---two men and two women--are all extremely attractive. The women ...
There's a lot of talk on BIG THINK about evolutionary explanations of this or that human behavior. They're all pretty fascinating, although far from completely convincing. Darwinian explanations, for what its worth, usually strike me as pretty conservative. In fact, the best Darwinian ...
1. The study of great books is usually contrasted with the use of textbooks and other technical books. It is contrasted, in other words, with study of the studies that show us what we most need to know as productive beings in a free, middle-class society. 2. It’s inevitable on our society that ...
Three books showed up this week with chapters by ME in them. Even without those chapters, each would still be a fabulous (although somewhat diminished) book. So as not to test your patience, I will feature them one at a time. Bradley C. S. Watson edited The Idea of the American University. ...
The good news is, of course, is that the old are living longer and healthier than ever. But, as I explained, the news in not all good for us old guys in a techno-world full of preferential options for the young. Here's the first half, for those who aren't up to clicking: The standard of ...