Topics
Future
Kurzweil's Secrets of Eternal Life
Inventor, Author, Futurist
Futurist Ray Kurzweil reveals the health regimen that will let him live forever.
In Life & Death
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Wimpy Cars and Other Implications of Immortality
Anti-aging expert Aubrey de Grey speculates about how an ageless society would operate differently than the world does today; expect changes in preferred careers and religion, but don’t expect a new outlook on suicide. Watch
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Enrique Peñalosa outlines the way to rid New York of automobiles. Watch
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The Age of Media Patronage Is Coming
The new media consultant discusses the next phase of online media. Watch
Related Blogs
The Voice of Big Think
November 17, 2009 — 6:27 PM
Stewart Brand's latest book, "Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto," contains a dagger in its subtitle. To write a manifesto on behalf of "ecopragmatism" is to imply that the current environmental movement has become dangerously impractical. In his Big Think interview today, Brand—one of the intellectual godfathers of the modern green movement—confirmed that the thrust was intentional, citing nuclear power and biotechnology as two developments that activists have undermined their cause by rejecting. Read more
The Voice of Big Think
November 16, 2009 — 1:23 AM
Since the Republican Party's historic defeat in the 2008 elections, American conservatives have been seeking new ideas to rally around, new leaders to point the way forward. One year later, have they succeeded? Has President Obama's job performance helped or hurt their cause? Are the headline-grabbing "Tea Party" protests a sign of the GOP's weakness, or of its resurgent strength? And does Sarah Palin, whose hotly anticipated memoir debuts this week, have a political future? In a special series this week, Big Think poses these and other questions to four experts on "The Future of Conservatism." Read more
Latest Ideas
Stewart Brand's latest book, "Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto," contains a dagger in its subtitle. To write a manifesto on behalf of "ecopragmatism" is to imply that the current environmental movement has become dangerously impractical. In his Big Think interview today, Brand—one of the intellectual godfathers of the modern green movement—confirmed that the thrust was intentional, citing nuclear power and biotechnology as two developments that activists have undermined their cause by rejecting. Read More
November 17, 2009
Since the Republican Party's historic defeat in the 2008 elections, American conservatives have been seeking new ideas to rally around, new leaders to point the way forward. One year later, have they succeeded? Has President Obama's job performance helped or hurt their cause? Are the headline-grabbing "Tea Party" protests a sign of the GOP's weakness, or of its resurgent strength? And does Sarah Palin, whose hotly anticipated memoir debuts this week, have a political future? In a special series this week, Big Think poses these and other questions to four experts on "The Future of Conservatism." Read More
November 16, 2009
Cities Rise and Fall; Stories Are Forever
Paul Auster is associated with two things, both in constant flux: the novel and New York City. The author of "The New York Trilogy," "The Brooklyn Follies," and the new "Invisible" estimates in his Big Think interview that he's spent at least 55 total years in the Big Apple, during which he has witnessed countless changes to the "gracious place" of his childhood. Yet while he remains unsure as to whether the city is ascending or declining, he has no doubts about the future of his other passion: people, he says, will never stop telling stories. Read More
November 13, 2009
Fashion Week 2.0: Buy at the Runway!
Alexander McQueen has an idea that could transform the age-old parades of seasonal style, says Caroline Weber, a French literature professor at Barnard. Read More
October 19, 2009
Line2, a telecommunications startup hatched by Peter Sisson, hopes to change the way we communicate at work. Read More
October 8, 2009
Michael Porter On The future Of Health Care Delivery
Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter comments on the future of health care delivery and the need to make sure that any efforts to improve health care delivery in poor countries deliver true value to its citizens. His comments were taped on Sept. 21, 2009 during a panel discussion entitled "Reflections on Leadership for Social Change," part of the inauguration of Jim Yong Kim as 17th president of Dartmouth College. Read More
October 7, 2009
Anti-aging expert Aubrey de Grey came through Big Think Friday afternoon looking not a bit older than when he first appeared on our site, in December 2007. He was in New York for the two-day Singularity Summit at the 92nd Street Y. We interviewed him for an hour and then joined him for a pre-singularity soiree that lasted until early this morning. Among the many reasons he gave for devoting his career to defeating aging was a sobering economic one: in the last year of our lives, Americans spend as much on medical care as they spend on doctors in all the years up to then combined. Read More
October 2, 2009
The Yankee Approach to the Future
While New York may be a land for the dream-filled and ambitious, Big Think’s recent guest Mitchell Joachim is taking this stereotype to a new level—a level in which the Big Apple is entirely self-sufficient and its dull skyscrapers and wayward taxis have been brilliantly replaced with “nerf-like” soft cars, jet packs, vertical farms, and homes made from living organisms. Oh, and the suburbs…those ‘futureless’ plots have been uplifted and placed along a line that links our downtowns, never stops, and is “connected to a smart, renewable grid.” Sound sustainable? It’s not. Joachim’s projects are based on a much less ‘bland’ and defeatist notion that recognizes humanity’s capacity to not merely ‘scrape by’ in the future, but to answer our global challenges as an ‘evolving, intelligent, and heroic species.’ Let's not aim to be like the Chicago Cubs, Joachim warns--let's be like the Yankees. Read More
September 18, 2009
Big Think Sits Down with Ann Fudge
We're rolling out two videos today from our interview with Ann Fudge, former CEO and Chairman of Young and Rubicam Brands, a marketing and communications firm. At the time, Fudge was one of the highest ranking African American female executives. In these videos, she pontificates on what needs to happen for education reform to work, and the uncertain future of democracy. Fudge worries that as a country, "we are losing civility and openness." What do you think? Read More
September 15, 2009
Daily Ideafeed
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Stem Cells
Curing Blindness -
Permission to use embryonic stem cells has been requested by scientists developing a cure for blindness.
November 20, 2009
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Medical Breakthrough
A Downs Cure? -
Sufferers of the chromosomal disorder Downs syndrome could be helped by a new drug which increases the levels of message-carrying chemicals in the brain.
November 19, 2009
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Dark Flow
What’s Out There? -
Something big lies beyond the visible edge of our universe, according to the largest analysis to date of galaxy clusters.
November 18, 2009
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High Five
Right-Hand Chimp -
Research on chimpanzees suggests that human language has its roots in the gestural hand communications of our primate ancestors.
November 17, 2009
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Energetic
Pellet Power -
A tiny pellet the size of a multi-vitamin could provide an endless supply of safe, clean energy - But is this unrealistic optimism?
November 16, 2009
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E-Grammar
Literate PC? -
Exam-marking by computers shows that the rules of grammar can hamper good writing – but are machines qualified to make literary assessment?
November 16, 2009
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Contaminated?
Diluted Supplies -
Traces of cocaine, hormones and spices are among the things found in the drinking water of Puget Sound.
November 13, 2009
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Japan - USA
Bon Envoyage -
The Washington Post sets out the changing face of the US-Japan relationship ahead of Obama’s visit to Tokyo this week amid some complex politics.
November 12, 2009
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Anti-Toxin
Ricin Antidote -
An anti-toxin that protects people against ricin poisoning is about to go into production for the first time.
November 11, 2009
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EBF3 Machine
Not Far Trek -
A group of NASA engineers have perfected a replicating machine that resembles something out of Star Trek.
November 11, 2009
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Book Plan
Digital Library -
Google and copyright holders’ proposed digital library settlement has outraged its competitors.
November 10, 2009
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Deafness Gene
Say What? -
A gene thought to be responsible for causing deafness in the elderly has been discovered by scientists – and the discovery could prove cure.
November 10, 2009
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Dead Bread
Bird Dropping -
The world’s most powerful particle accelerator was shut down after a bird dropped some bread in it.
November 6, 2009
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Cellular Barrier
Nano Change -
Tiny metal particles can cause changes to DNA without crossing the cellular barrier, researchers have found.
November 6, 2009
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Virtual Pup
Cyber Pets -
All creatures “great and virtual” - the newest innovations in cyber kittens and pooches are investigated by The Independent.
November 4, 2009
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Patently Wrong
Gene Genie -
An application to challenge the patenting of human genes that could hamper diagnostic research has been upheld by a federal judge in New York.
November 3, 2009
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Drug Trials
Lupus Promise -
For the first time an experimental drug to treat lupus has been found to be effective in a second round of clinical trials.
November 2, 2009
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So Irradiating
Radioactive Monkeys -
For the first time in decades NASA will subject monkeys to radiation experiments to test the long-term effects of space travel on humans.
October 30, 2009
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Digging It
Down the Farm -
The Facebook game FarmVille is making agriculture sexy again. But are online farms warping our view of how food is made?
October 29, 2009
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Rich Species
Monetary Evolution -
The super rich could evolve into a different species from the poor, according to American futurologist Paul Saffo.
October 26, 2009
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Color Blind
Shrimp DVD? -
The mantis shrimp’s capability to see a wider color spectrum than a human’s could inspire a new generation of DVD player, scientists have found.
October 26, 2009
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Orbital
400 Extra-Solar Planets -
Astronomers have discovered 32 new planets outside the solar system, bringing the total to over 400.
October 20, 2009
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Cassini Photos
Saturnine Equinox -
Stunning new images of Saturn at Equinox cast new light on the beautiful and distant planet.
October 20, 2009