Guest Thinkers

Big Data can become the key to unlocking growth for smaller companies throughout the U.S. economy.

Singularity University has spawned a group of start-ups with the ambitious goal of impacting one billion people in ten years. Big Think contributor Michael Raymond del Castillo profiles this group of entrepreneurs who are looking to change the world.

The Earth could end up with a permanent junk belt that could make space too dangerous to fly in, a situation a new start-up plans to address with laser technology. 

Before history is quickly re-written and the essentials forgotten, the vote that took on Monday night in the House of Commons on whether British voters should be allowed a referendum […]

The fascinating billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel (a Facebook guy, the PayPal guy etc.) seems to be carrying the day against the educational establishment in answering this question negatively. He’s teamed up […]

This past week Big Think published a post by Mark Roeder that compared the financial system to epilepsy. After reviewing reader comments, Mr. Roeder has published a corrected version, which […]

Earlier today Aaron Zelin over at Jihadology pointed me to a new release on the forums.  Ansar al-Shariah, the group we first heard about earlier this spring in a talk […]

At the New York Times’ Opinionator blog, Steven Mazie urges Occupy Wall Street to take inspiration from the late, great political philosopher John Rawls: Rawls’s boldest claim — that inequality […]

Allen Ginsberg, you fearless old goat, you shrewd, batshit agitator, you hedonist Buddhist, where are you now? Following Occupy Wall Street in the news has made me want to invoke […]

On October 19th, there was an event on Apple’s campus celebrating Steve Jobs’s life. This event was not secret, but the live video feed that connected all employees of Apple […]

I just got back from a vacation and during that time I got to do something I love – read all sorts of intellectually stimulating stuff. It re-affirmed some simple […]

–Guest post by Declan Fahy, American University. The interactive horror-themed websites Hotel626.com and Asylum626.com are the cornerstones of a complaint filed last week by a coalition of four consumer and […]

Have you seen “Miss Representation”, the documentary that challenges the sexist, demeaning way the information and entertainment media depict women? See it. It’s important, and spot on…even if it is […]

How could you possibly accept Herman Cain’s position on abortion if you are a conservative? I like Herman Cain’s position on abortion because he takes the government out of the […]

Public opinion about climate change, observes the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin, can be compared to “waves in a shallow pan,” easily tipped with “a lot of sloshing but not […]

Readers in the Washington, DC area may be interested in this free event coming up at American University this week Thurs. Oct. 27 and sponsored by the School of Communication.  […]

The high-tech parents from Silicon Valley are now sending their kids to a school—the Waldorf School of the Peninsula—that sells itself as computer-free. Why? Such technology is a distraction, turning […]

I’ve written in the past about the phenomenon of people who think that their religious beliefs excuse them from doing their job. The correct solution, of course, is to not […]

Often forgotten among our First Amendment rights are our rights to petition the government for a redress of grievances. And while the right, in principle, refers to an individual, well […]

Today, I would like to share some thoughts on social media, particularly about Facebook with you.  I started using Facebook in late 2007 but did not get much out of […]

Though people like to believe their convictions are purely rational, a growing body of research links political differences to deep-seated physiological traits.

This essay was previously published on AlterNet. In a campaign speech in September, Rick Perry hit upon some familiar Republican themes: Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, in an appeal to […]

Confidence in our own decision making abilities can be amazingly misplaced but remain strong even in the face of evidence that clearly shows the decisions we make are wrong. 

Wander through most major museums and you’ll find a remarkable number of works with no name. Either lost to the mists of time or never recorded because the work was […]

We generally assume that if we use more energy-efficient machines we will use less energy. If we install energy-efficient light bulbs in place of incandescent bulbs, for example, it will […]

With jobs legislation floundering in the Senate, Starbucks is creating a pool of cash for microlending to small businesses. The company claims every $3,000 represents a new job.  

William Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital, is an expert at making money. In his Floating University Lecture, Ackman says to be a successful investor you have to be able to avoid the natural human tendency to follow the herd.

The micro-lending revolution, which made it possible for community-based lending institutions to bundle together micro-donations of $25 into loans for entrepreneurs in emerging markets, is making its way to your […]

I debated the excellent libertarian author Ronald Bailey over this question at Wheaton College in Massachusetts.  Ron has already responded to me here.  Before I respond to him, I thought […]