Sean Jones
Recent Activity
Ted Kennedy: Is Love the Answer?
During our interview with him, Big Think asked Ted Kennedy to give his counsel: the primary lesson he had learned, the key insight one should take away from his historic life. It is a question we ask often, and usually one that sends interviewees through stages of stuttering, dithering, and occasional fraught silence. You can’t blame most people for being slow to respond to such a loaded question, but Ted was different: he had his answer instantly. … Read More
August 26, 2009 | In Love, Sex, & Happiness
A group of Scottish scientists are beginning one of the biggest computer backup projects in history: they’re creating an “accurate to within 3mm” 3D model of Mount Rushmore, so it can be recreated in case it is ever ruined by climate change, natural disaster, or war. The Guardian reports that this is only the fist in a series of efforts to create and archive 3D models of hundreds of at-risk heritage sites throughout the world. The fact that this effort with allow future generations to meticulously recreate these sites is impressive, but in my opinion it is only one of many interesting possibilities of the project. … Read More
August 24, 2009 | In Future
The Most Effective Pickup Line?
It may be, "I'm taken." The New Scientist reports today on a Journal of Experimental Social Psychology study finding that single heterosexual women prefer men who are identified as taken by a wide margin over men identified as single. Single men were far less picky in their choices generally, but their preferences were not affected by whether or not a woman was single. Big Think has enlisted several experts to weigh in on the mysteries of relationships. … Read More
August 21, 2009 | In Love, Sex, & Happiness
I'm a freelance writer as well as an editor and interviewer at Big Think. I'm primarily interested in arts & culture and have interviewed writers from Edmund White to R.L. Stine for a variety of national publications. Previously, I've worked with writers at Hachette Book Group as an editor and the Endeavor Agency as an agent. I live in Brooklyn, New York.
Sean Jones commented on Capitalists, Governments, and Charity on October 1, 2009, 12:50 PM
The idea that it is a good thing that capitalists are in charge of charity harkens back to the old aristocracy, where the lucky few felt a true sense of responsibility to the poor due to their positions. But today's capitalism may be worse than aristocracy. There's a myth in capitalism that those "winners" of society have "done it on their own", when that really is the exception rather than the rule--therefore, our richest tend to think they deserve their money far more aristocrats did. It is good to see that a few are realizing that they essentially society's new kings, I suppose.