The key of Conversation Flow The persistent paradox of our era and other stunning questions
Science today is more a process of collaboration than moments of individual “eurekas.” This book recreates that kind of synergy by offering a series of interconnected dialogues with leading scientists who are asked to reflect on key questions and concepts about the physical world, technology, and the mind. These thinkers offer both specific observations and broader comments about the intellectual traditions that inform these questions; doing so, they reveal a rich seam of interacting ideas. The persistent paradox of our era is that in a world of unprecedented access to information, many of the most important questions remain unsolved.
These conversations (conducted by a veteran science writer, Adolfo Plasencia) reflect this, with scientists addressing such issues as intelligence, consciousness, global warming, energy, technology, matter, the possibility of another earth, changing the past, and even the philosophical curveball, “is the universe a hologram?”The dialogues discuss such fascinating aspects of the physical world as the function of the quantum bit, the primordial cosmology of the universe, and the wisdom of hewn stones. They offer optimistic but reasoned views of technology, considering convergence culture, algorithms, “Beauty â Truth, ” the hacker ethic, AI, and other topics. And they offer perspectives from a range of disciplines on intelligence, discussing subjects that include the neurophysiology of the brain, affective computing, collaborative innovation, and the wisdom of crowds.
A Dialogue about Dialogues Ever since Plato’s dialogues, we have known that one of the best ways to seek truth.
Traditionalists may find the conversational format jarring, but overcome your reservations and you’ll be swept into Plasencia’s operatic overview of technological advancement, given a whirlwind tour of some of the most pressing questions in fundamental and applied science, and left amazed at what you didn’t know. What really shines through all the tech talk is the passion of the interviewees, who range from Nobel prize-winning chemists pondering politics to computer scientists musing on Plato. Between the lines of the polite, professorial discussions sits a convincing argument for the indefatigable optimism and ingenuity of the human race, in defiance of the challenges of the twenty first century. To borrow a phrase from one of its contributors, Is the universe a hologram? is a book capable of making ‘critical Utopians’ of us all.
What Our Readers Are Saying Now if we did not convince you, maybe a few words from our readers will!
Joi Ito Director, MIT Media Lab
The biggest questions explored in a refreshing and engaging dialogue format by Plasencia with some of the best thinkers our times. Is the Universe a Hologram? provides insight into these questions in a multi-dimensional way and shows us that our future is the collective imagination of all of us together.