All Articles

I feel this tendency to come up with an evolutionary explanation for basically everything under the sun is not needed.

The ultimatum game is the ultimate test of fairness, and chimpanzees passed the test by going for the fair options.  

Introducing Thomas Cathcart’s new Big Think blog series, Why Philosophize?

A life well-lived is likely to serve others while satisfying our inner passions. When people get lost in their lives and careers, Sir Ken Robinson would argue, they’re usually serving one at the expense of the other.

I neglected the obvious answer to the question of why there exists a useless, contrived, poorly phrased cliche which does not meet good principles of reasoning and serves only to cloud issues.

Billed by some as “Facebook for cops,” BlueLine will allow officers to share and collaborate in a much more secure environment.

Advances in cell engineering are clearing the way for what one scientist believes may be the first successful human head transplant.

Expanding access to education and research tools, Ramez Naam says, “is accelerating this process of the Darwinian evolution of ideas.”

One of my favorite BIG THINKERS, Dave Berreby, criticizes our Declaration of Independence.  Here’s the Declaration’s theory:  We have the right to life, and we have the right to the […]

What do Eckhart Tolle, Amy Chua, Cesar Millan and Barack Obama all have in common? They are all idea entrepreneurs. 

“If you answer yes to 10 or more of these you are a human.” If not, “more tests are needed.”

Modern technology has done nothing to make humans more humble. Quite the contrary. So secure are we in our confidence of our superiority to ancient cultures that discoveries like the […]

Human beings are fallible, politicians perhaps most of all, and Republicans ought to know this.

For many of us, adult life is an extension of middle school awkwardness, mitigated only by a cultivated apathy. Sir Ken Robinson says it doesn’t have to be that way.

The wakefulness drug modafinil, dubbed “Professor’s little helper” has in some circles become the go-to drug for pushing the clock back. Much of the distribution is conducted illicitly, meaning the patient […]

Fordism, engineered assembly line production that stresses the integration of man and machine for the purpose of increased efficiency of production, stands out as one of America’s greatest ideas. 

One of the ideas ranking among the top ten in American history, is the creation of public schools and the public education system. 

Interested people can now apply to take the Trekker — basically a “42-pound backpack” with 15 camera lenses attached — someplace Google hasn’t been yet.

A recent study showed how using the software to identify struggling students could help teachers stay attuned to their needs, whether they’re in the room with them or at a remote location many miles away.

A proposal by Rep. Eric Swalwell, a freshman House Democrat, would allow Congress to vote remotely, the advantage being that they could attend to affairs in their home district instead of having to physically be in Washington D.C.

Is the pursuit of happiness, which we Americans will celebrate later this week, a worthy goal? Many have said no, on the grounds that happiness comes only to those who […]

I think the test of a truly intelligent machine is if you really had an intelligent machine, it would not reveal it’s intelligence to us. 

What does this phrase even possibly mean?

We are only creating the mansions for the souls that only He can create. 

Siri’s underlying technology is designed “to solve a different, simpler variant of the human language problem” than Watson. 

There’s a million apps out there, and if you look through all of them they’re doing remarkable things. 

Intelligence actually involves things like being funny, being sexy or expressing a loving sentiment, maybe in a poem or in a musical piece. 

The so-called maintained or controlled freedom, which is very evil, will not succeed.

If the art cannot sell, that is fine. 

Thomas Jefferson’s metaphor of “a wall between church and state” remains as sturdy and impenetrable as ever, even as it is dangerously ignored.