What Is Your Dangerous Idea?: Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable

The author of What We Believe but Cannot Prove returns with another iconoclastic collection in which some of the world's leading scientific thinkers discuss ideas that are perilous for their potential practical uses and philosophical implications. n nThe world's leading scientific thinkers explore bold, remarkable, perilous ideas that could change our lives--for better . . . or for worse . . .n nFrom Copernicus to Darwin, to current-day thinkers, scientists have always promoted theories and unveiled discoveries that challenge everything society holds dear; ideas with both positive and dire consequences. Many thoughts that resonate today are dangerous not because they are assumed to be false, but because they might turn out to be true.n nWhat do the world's leading scientists and thinkers consider to be their most dangerous idea? Through the leading online forum Edge (www.edge.org), the call went out, and this compelling and easily digestible volume collects the answers. From using medication to permanently alter our personalities to contemplating a universe in which we are utterly alone, to the idea that the universe might be fundamentally inexplicable, What Is Your Dangerous Idea? takes an unflinching look at the daring, breathtaking, sometimes terrifying thoughts that could forever alter our world and the way we live in it.n nContributors include nDaniel C. Dennett - Jared Diamond - Brian Greene - Matt Ridley - Howard Gardner and Freeman Dyson, among othersn