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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Meditations on the relationship between consciousness and culture.
I just got back from leading a 9-day meditation retreat in the wild and cactus-filled desert of Arizona. And I feel exuberant, inspired, and powerfully awake to the presence of immanent and seemingly infinite potential--simply because I took a sustained break from our modern world and its unspoken ...
The first day of the new year always represents the potential for profound renewal—a new cycle in relationship to the passing of time, a precious moment in which many of us feel we are getting a chance to start over. And for most of us, that chance is usually connected to our highest ...
I recently read an excerpt from the controversial number one bestseller Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Into the Afterlife by Dr. Eben Alexander in Newsweek magazine. In it he describes, with a powerful self-confidence, a dramatic near-death experience that occurred after suffering from ...
Last weekend I published a post titled, “The World is Getting Worse (And Other Lies)” in which I shared some inspiring data and anecdotes that have helped me to embrace what I consider to be “The Good News of Progress.” What does that mean? In short, the world is getting better—not worse, as ...
Like millions of other Americans over Thanksgiving weekend, I went to see Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, Lincoln . I was mesmerized by Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of the great statesman. I was also deeply moved by the thrilling depiction of the moral awakening at the film’s climax, in which the ...
For those of us who are committed to creating a better world how do we respond to the evil and heinous acts of our violent past? I just got back from Germany where, being Jewish, I always find this question to be particularly relevant. I was born into a secular Jewish family fifty-seven years ...
Many people are concerned about terrible fates that await us in the not-too-distant future. Some believe that in December 2012, the world will come to an end. Others point to the near and present dangers of climate change, overpopulation, environmental degradation, and nuclear war in the Middle ...
When most people think of evolution, they think of the growth and development of the exterior dimensions of reality—the biological evolution of natural species, the development of the cosmos from the Big Bang to the present, or the rapidly accelerating advancement of technology. But much less often ...
In her new romantic comedy, 2 Days in New York , musician, actress, and screenwriter Julie Delpy proclaims, “You know why I don’t believe in the soul? Because the soul would probably mean an afterlife. And if there was something, my (late) mom would have tried to communicate with me somehow . . .” ...
I’ve been thinking quite a lot lately about what spiritual development and spiritual attainment actually mean these days. What is the purpose of being on a spiritual path for the most progressive people on the planet today—those of us who have grown up in an environment of unprecedented wealth ...
In recent years, the term "emergence" has become popular among scientists to describe the seemingly inexplicable leaps that occur in the evolutionary process when greater complexity bursts forth from lesser complexity. For example, the material universe miraculously burst forth from primordial ...
After I finished giving a lecture at the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, an American rabbi approached me. “I’ve been following your work for some years now,” he said, “and you’re doing something very important. You are defining a new position for spiritual aspirants, uniquely ...
The traditional teachings of spiritual enlightenment tell us that in order to be one with Spirit we need to shrink our egos down to the size of a pea. Those rare beings who are considered to be saints are said to be “selfless.” Higher spiritual development, whether Eastern or Western, is generally ...
There’s a lot of talk about transparency these days. In the internet age we are letting it all hang out—whatever it is—for better and for worse. And it looks like there’s no going back. Democrats want to know about Mitt Romney’s bank accounts and tax returns, while many government agencies from ...
It’s a big challenge being a spiritual teacher in a secular culture. What could be more disconcerting than being a religious authority in a world where there is no consensus about whether God actually exists! In traditional cultures at least, there was some agreement as to who God was and where He ...