The U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has the unique mission of protecting national security by maintaining technological superiority. If the new DARPA-funded “cheetah” robot is any indication, the agency is […]
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What’s the Big Idea? Some genius at marketing giant BBH decided to outfit 13 volunteer homeless people in Austin, Texas with 4G Wi-Fi transmitters, turning them into human Wi-Fi hotspots […]
While private enterprise is not going to take us back to the Moon or to Mars, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson says there is still a role for these companies to play.
A forthcoming paper explores the biomedical modification of humans in order to stop us from consuming red meat. This would have a mitigating effect on climate change.
A survey for Birmingham Science City amongst 500 15 year-olds across the UK came up with some pretty telling numbers about how technology changes society at its roots. When asked […]
A new mobile service uses location data, i.e. where you are, to create a social network with like-minded people in your immediate vicinity. Would you be willing to meet a stranger this way?
‘Personal clouds’ will replace the primacy of the PC by 2014, says the technology research firm Gartner. The future promises a world of decentralized computing across multiple devices.
Sharing so much information online may have knock on effects when its comes to government search and seizure law, expanding government power, says Yale’s Information Society Project.
When you read a news story about a threat or danger or hazard, what do you want to know? Most likely, you want to know if it’s a risk […]
In an interview with Big Think, Michael Ellsberg talks about the importance of using eye contact to establish your social presence. Then there’s Susan Cain, author of the recent bestseller, QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking . . .
Like many others I mistook the first John Carter trailer I saw for a Pepsi commercial. And like so many others, I did not go to see the film when it opened […]
Michael Ellsberg’s “eye contact revolution” is aimed not only at careerists, but at the social and spiritual heart of our glowing screen-obsessed world.
Intelligence Squared U.S. (IQ2US) will hold a debate to hash out and answer the question: Does China do capitalism better than America? “China seems to have emerged unscathed from the […]
A new book, Coming Apart by Charles Murphy, cites statistics that suggest the class divide in America is growing. But why? And what to do about it? Gary Becker and Richard Posner weigh in.
What is the Big Idea? Eating meat or fish can make a crab out of you, according to a study published by Nutrition Journal. Omnivorous diets are high in arachidonic […]
They should just rename Fox News the “Black Presidents Scare The Shit Out Of Us” network. If nothing else, Sean Hannity is consistent—he inundates the airwaves every day with “Obama […]
Welcome to an ongoing feature on the Floating University blog, FU Asks, where we open up the academic debate on our e-learning platform to the Big Think community. This week […]
Not long ago one of the writers I follow on Twitter posted something like this: “My apologies for the totally un-clever nature of this tweet, but does anyone have a […]
There are few American art festivals bigger than the Whitney Biennial, which has run as either an annual or biennial since 1932. Where art fairs such as Art Basel Miami […]
As China’s economy grows, money is refining the Chinese palate and American products are flowing into Chinese markets like never before. Milk, soybeans, nuts—practically everything.
In November, I wrote about Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, the Egyptian student and atheist who posted nude photos of herself as a protest against Islamist suppression of women’s bodies and voices. […]
The cost of crude oil is already 16 percent higher than at the beginning of 2012. How much of a threat do rising oil prices pose to the gradual economic recovery? And what about Iran?
The love for globalization that pervades some American circles often overlooks just how unfair income redistribution is under global trade networks, says a Harvard political economy professor.
A year after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, surveys show that more people around the world oppose nuclear power than ever before. Yet industry is pushing ahead. Who will prevail?
So we read in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and elsewhere that one in four divorces now separate people over fifty. The divorce rate as a whole has plateaued or has […]
Human irrationality is an important and fascinating subject, especially when it’s pitted against the assumption that people are rational, which still dominates modern life. Sometimes though evidence of human irrationality […]
“It is a sentimental error, therefore, to believe that the past is dead; it means nothing to say that it is all forgotten, that the Negro himself has forgotten it. […]
As long-time readers know, except on rare occasions, I don’t write about my personal life on this blog. This isn’t because I’m trying to be mysterious; I just don’t think […]
U of Mass Psychology PhD Tony McCaffrey advises us to seek the obscure in finding a creative solution to a vexing problem. What does he mean exactly? It is a two part process…