What Have You Changed Your Mind About?
Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything
Edited by John Brockman
with An Introduction by Brian Eno
Preface: The Edge Question
Introduction by Brian Eno
Seeing Through a Carbon Lens
The biggest thing Iāve changed my mind about is climate changeā¦. I was a climate skeptic and now Iām a carbon zealot. I seem to annoy traditional environmentalists just as much, but I like to think that Iāve moved from behind to in front
Pan-Sentience
I have changed my mind about the general validity of the mechanical worldview that underlies the modern scientific understanding of natural processes.
Optimizing Our Design
Like many people, I onceā¦imagined there were real boundaries between the natural and the artificial, between one species and another, and thought that with the advent of genetic engineering we would be tinkering with life at our peril. I now believe that this romantic view of nature is a stultifying and dangerous mythology.
The Popperian Sound Bite
It long seemed to me that Popperās falsifiability test was basically right and enormously useful. But then I started to read Popperās work carefullyā¦and to look to scientific practice to see whether his theory survives the test of falsifiabilityā¦. And Iāve changed my mind.
Specialized Intelligences
When reporters interviewed me in the 1970s and ā80s about the possibilities for Artificial Intelligence I would always say that we would have machines as smart as we are within my lifetimeā¦. I no longer believe that will happen.
What Could a Neuron āWantā?
Iāve changed my mind about how to handle the homunculus temptation: the almost irresistible urge to install a ālittle man in the brainā to be the Boss, the Central Meaner, the Enjoyer of pleasures, and the Sufferer of pains.
āWhere Are You, Sue?ā
Perhaps there were no paranormal phenomena at all. As far as I can remember, this scary thought took some time to sink in.
Solving the Hard Problem
Just suppose that the Cartesian theater of consciousness, about which modern philosophers are generally so skeptical, is in fact a biological reality.
Neuroscience and Philosophy
I have changed my mind about the relevance of neuroscience to philosophersā questions, and vice versa.
Wiggle Room
I stopped believing in God long ago, but he still casts a long shadow.
We Are Custodians of a Posthuman Future
We need to keep our minds open, or at least ajar, to the possibility that humans themselves could change drastically within a few centuries.
Finite and Edgeless
I wonāt claim I ābelieveā the universe is finite, just that I recognize that a finite universe is a realistic possibility for our cosmos.
Reconsolidating Memory
Like many scientists in the field of memory, I used to think that a memory is something stored in the brain and accessed when used.
