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"Time Warp" all the way back to 1800s spiritualism, magic performances, and spook shows.

The Source Family, a radical 1970s utopian commune, still impacts what we eat today.

Isolation and empathy are by no means mutually exclusive.

Despite being free to users, Facebook seems to have a monopoly on our speech, our data, and our lives.

As more intellectuals seek a common ground between the left-right divide, these ten books offer insights on how to navigate challenging topics.

Spontaneous talk on surprise topics. Jace Clayton AKA DJ/Rupture on sleuthing for beauty and surprise in the digital-musical landscape. 

"The starting point for understanding inequality in the context of human progress is to recognize that income inequality is not a fundamental component of well-being."

Where are the four "horsewomen" of new atheism? Well, here are two of them, secular scholars Rebecca Goldstein and Susan Jacoby. 

Even if free will doesn’t exist, some say we should allow a belief in it to remain.   

With the May 1st grand opening to the public of its new building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, the Whitney Museum launches a new era not only in the New York City art scene, but also, possibly, in the very world of museums. Thanks to a Renzo Piano-designed new building built, as Whitney Director Adam D. Weinberg put it, “from the inside out” to serve the interests of the art and the patrons first, the new Whitney and its classic collection of American art stretching back to 1900 has drawn excited raves and exasperated rants from critics. Their inaugural exhibition, America Is Hard to See, gathers together long-loved classic works with rarely seen newcomers to create a paradox of old and new to mirror the many paradoxes of the American history the art embodies and critiques by turns. This shock of the new (and old) is the must-see art event of the year.

If you actually look at Facebook's effect on our brains, it’s like taking a drug. The problem, according to Jonathan Harris, is that with software that makes you come back over and over again, you become the product.

Jeff Jarvis, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Peter Diamandis, Jonathan Harris, and Jaron Lanier on a better technological future informed by the best of human nature.

Artist Jonathan Harris describes four trends that are reshaping culture in the digital age: Compression, Disposability, Curation, and Self-Promotion, and takes steps to counteract them.

Facebook and Twitter enable us to share ideas and discoveries with incredible speed and efficiency. At the same time, there’s a growing awareness that our identities in these virtual spaces are being constrained in ways we’re only beginning to understand. 

Swamped this week. Here’s a post originally published on my personal blog to fill the void.  Like many features of the human condition, the first psychological account of disgust comes […]

Big Think is excited to announce Humanizing Technology, a virtual expo in partnership with Bing, whose goal is to identify new technologies that integrate themselves seamlessly into our lives, capitalize on our unique strengths, and amplify the best of human nature.    

Decades of research suggest that we are not only initially attracted to likeminded people but that familiarity is essential for healthy marriage. 

This article was previously published on AlterNet. For the vast majority of human history, the only form of government was the few ruling over the many. As human societies became […]

In the current issue of Contagious Magazine (subscription required), Noah Brier and Faris Yakob of Naked Communications have prepared a tour de force article about the new age of social […]

Is it true that deep, sustained reading is an experience only a small minority of people “naturally” enjoy? And if so, does it follow that since “some current college students […]

A novelist and two neuroscientists came by Big Think’s offices this past week. Jonathan Safran Foer, one of the most acclaimed young novelists of the past decade, spoke to us […]

This spring in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter […]