In the early days of social media, idealists dreamed of a digital market place for ideas, the kind that might help rejuvenate a democracy too often given over to distractions.
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“Hell is other people.” Have you had moments when you agreed with Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous quote? Do you find those moments happening more often than you care to admit? Learn […]
Think the Olympic Games and the World Cup are just about sports? Olympian Kelly Clark can attest to the goodwill that these global tournaments promote. “It’s been amazing as an […]
Kant’s proposal may seem implausible, but it’s good advice: give up the search.
The business world today bears little resemblance to that of 40-50 years ago. Yet for some reason many companies still clutch to the archaic dogmas of strategy developed during that […]
How you get to work, and how long that journey takes, generally determine the level of satisfaction you have with your commute, according to British and Canadian researchers.
Arthur Chu made waves earlier this year when he won nearly $300,000 on Jeopardy. Like Ken Jennings before him, Chu knows that he has to branch out if he hopes to remain relevant.
Do religious institutions have an obligation to fight for social change? The Civil Rights movement sprung from the Baptist churches of the South. Without the congregations and the organizing power […]
Losang Samten escaped Tibet in 1959, when he was only five years old. After growing up in India, he came to the United States in 1988, and shared the teachings […]
“Regulation” need not be a dirty word. When new technologies emerge that shift the paradigms under which an industries operate, it’s important for legislative authorities to prudently adjust the rules without stifling further innovation.
And how we’re about to take the amazing scientific leap from “we think” to “we know” when it comes to its history. “Mars once was wet and fertile. It’s now […]
The scientific study of happiness has for years recommended that people use their money to purchase experiences–dinner with friends or a vacation with a loved one–rather than material goods.
All things being equal, the simplest explanation is usually the best. But we don’t all agree on what “simple” means. “It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” –Amelia […]
Consciousness is what it’s like and how it feels to be you. Thus, consciousness exists in a realm of irreducible subjectivity with which science isn’t always comfortable.
IBM and USAA have joined forces to introduce supercomputer Watson to veterans in need of guidance as they transition back into society.
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” said John Lennon. The most important details in life can pass us by if we’re not careful. Noticing […]
A new study shows that while the vast majority of American teens are using Facebook, less than 10% of them trust the social media site to protect their personal information.
Do you want to be more effective and attract desired outcomes? The ancient Chinese did, too. They devoted themselves to understanding wu wei—effortless action, or spontaneity. They saw it as […]
The average Facebook user now has about 338 friends, though the median number is quite a bit lower: 200. This means that while half of all Facebook users have 200 […]
Spoiler: NO, not a chance. Now find out why. “There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best […]
Statesmen and philosophers have grappled with the question of what it means to live a good life for millennia. The question of what it means to be a good company is certainly newer but perhaps no easier to answer.
Just as Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet is more often bedeviled by his own thoughts, enhancing your brain might one day mean shutting parts of it down, not getting it to fire on all cylinders.
By actively interrogating our own desires, we can mediate our basic wants (and fears) by compensating for our psychological blind spots with practical insight.
These cosmic monsters make the LHC look like child’s play, and yet even they have their limits. “Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.” –Bill Bryson You […]
A study of 4,000 professionals across the U.S. and 300 international leaders has found that there is a check list that bosses look for in grooming and promoting their staff.
Introducing Big Think @ GESF. Today, we’re releasing the first set of interviews consisting of answers to questions that you, our audience, sent us over Twitter and Facebook.
Plato recently confessed his 10 biggest mistakes on twitter. They came via his current spokesperson Rebecca Goldstein author of the entertaining and educational Plato at the Googleplex. Here they are in reverse order: 10. […]
From what we know about the limits of human cognition, we appear ill-suited to sift through the thousands, if not millions, of potential dates waiting for us out there.
The massive damage humans have done to the natural world has provoked a backlash that could be just as dangerous, or more. There is a growing global rejection of technology and almost anything human-made in favor of whatever is more ‘natural’. But a simplistic rejection of modern technologies eliminates many of our best options for solving the problems we’ve created.
Black Friday is a symbol of American over-consumption and classist judgement. It’s a good thing that retailers want to do away with the event.