Inventing the Future
Humanizing Technology
The advent of the internet has been called "the Information Revolution." But throughout history, there have been many revolutions in information technology: the invention of the printing press, the telegraph, and broadcast radio, for instance. The Internet is just one case study among many in the complexity of the human relationship to technology. James Gleick describes how the telegraph forever changed the way human beings understand time, giving rise to our modern synchronicity and scheduling.
Every new invention brings a new way of seeing things, and a new set of questions. How do we cope with the flood? How much is too much? Can we keep from destroying information that might be relevant later? Do we create it, or does it create us? How do we make sense of it all?
-
Human Beings are Information-Seeking Creatures
We’ve long been fascinated by the endless streams of data available in the world around us, and we especially love to try to make sense of them. (The word "information" is derived from a Latin stem informe which means to give form to the mind.)
-
Should Information Have an Expiration Date?
How can we keep from destroying information that might be relevant later? -
Information Overload? There Has Always Been Too Much to Know
The backlash against the information overload of the modern Internet era is getting stronger than ever. After years of sharing everything with everyone and breathlessly embracing the latest site du jour on the social Web, people are realizing that they can no longer keep up. Signs of this are all ... -
It's Time to Go on an Information Diet
Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet, says you can’t rely on “the media” or the internet to control your information consumption. Here he suggests a few pieces of software that have helped him to regulate his own information diet.
-
Meet the Urban Datasexual
Dominic Basulto
Digital Thinker, Electric Artists
-
Braingasm: How Porn "Shuts Down" Women's Brains
Megan Erickson
Associate Editor, Big Think
-
A Marriage Ruined by Monogamy
Pamela Haag
Essayist
-
563 - Pop by Lat and Pop by Long
Frank Jacobs
Author, Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities
-
Killing Creativity: Why Kids Draw Pictures of Monsters & Adults Don't
Sam McNerney
Science writer
Latest
-
On Tuesday, May 22, I delivered a lecture as part of the National Academies' Sackler Colloquium on the "Science of Science Communication," reviewing the role of the media in science policy debates. The video of the lecture along with those of my fellow panelists Dominique Brossard and William ... Read More
-
What's the Big Idea? All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” - Albert Einstein In the latest RSA Animate production, Manuel Lima explores the power of network visualization in our increasingly complex world. A senior UX design lead at Microsoft, Lima explains how the ... Read More
-
What is the Big Idea? Voters in Egypt went to the polls today for day two of the country's presidential election. Kate Woodsome from Voice of America, Asia curated Tweets, Twitpics and social media from the ground at this historic event. See below for images and multimedia. What's the ... Read More
-
"It's time to say goodbye to Gordon Gekko behavior," Anthony Scaramucci told Big Think. "It's not good for society. Money has an intoxicating effect on people." Scaramucci is the founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital and author of the new book, The Little Book of Hedge Funds: What ... Read More
-
What could it mean to say that the self is an illusion? Here’s Bruce Hood, author of the new book The Self Illusion , in an interview at Sam Harris’ joint: Most of us have an experience of a self. I certainly have one, and I do not doubt that others do as well – an autonomous individual with a ... Read More
-
What's the Latest Development? Physicists at the University of Innsbruck have taken an essential step toward creating quantum computers, which may prove vastly more powerful than today's chip-based technology. By creating a network that interfaces between a single ion and a single proton, in a ... Read More
-
It’s easy to see why, for most of human history, a creative insight was thought of as a divine spirit that came from “some distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reason,” as Elizabeth Gilbert notes. In an instant, impasse gives way to revelation. And is it not peculiar that ... Read More
-
Jonathan Pryce is the complete actor, able to shape-shift, seemingly without effort, from a charming Mephistopheles (Mr. Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes), to a hapless, heartbreaking everyman (Sam Lowry in Terry Gilliam's Brazil), to a scheming, jabbering, dangerous interloper (Davies, in ... Read More
-
First of all, I am not an analyst nor do I own any stock in any public company. The last time I did invest in a promising Internet company ended in a disaster, thanks to Deutsche Telekom. Nonetheless, I believe the Facebook stock is undervalued. Everyone who believes in the company will tell ... Read More
-
What's the Big Idea? Is the Internet making us stupid? Will our capacity for contemplation be fried by the minute-to-minute updates of Facebook, Twitter, and instant messaging? Actually, no, says James Gleick, author of The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. The Internet has ... Read More
-
Art isn’t usually a life or death matter, but the controversy over South African artist Brett Murray’s The Spear (detail shown above) might end in bloodshed. When Murray decided to paint South African President Jacob Zuma along the lines of a famous poster of Lenin, but with the added detail of ... Read More
-
What is the Big Idea? During his presidential campaign, François Hollande voiced his support for gay marriage and adoption for LGBT couples. He said he'd pursue the issue in 2013 if he won. Now that he has been inaugurated, he is being watched closely by both gay rights activists and ... Read More
- See All Blogs
Sign up for our newsletter
IdeaFeed
Big ideas in the news from across the Web
Sign up for the IdeaFeed newsletter
-
Quantum Computing
Physicists Build the First Quantum Interface
By linking a single ion with a single proton, physicists at the University of Innsbruck have established the first quantum interface between quantum processors and optical information channels.
-
nanotechnology
Take Two Quantum Dots and Call Me in the Morning
In the future, your doctor may one day prescribe you two spoonfuls of quantum dots. The new technology may vastly improve the procedure of electronic medical imaging.
-
Dangerous Ideas
Should Babies Receive a Bar Code at Birth?
Science fiction writer Elizabeth Moon discusses whether universal identification markers would make future wars less bloody by allowing soldiers to better identify innocent bystanders.
-
Creative Boosts
New Device Injects Drug Without Needles
A new medical device developed by engineers at MIT can inject drugs into the body without using a needle. Benefits include improving patient compliance rates and preventing accidental pricks.
-
sustainable development
Fleet of Electric Freight Trucks Coming to California
Like San Francisco's iconic cable cars, a new system of cable trucks is set to be installed between the port of Long Beach and Los Angeles, cutting emissions by as much as 30%.
-
Market Solutions
Now Open for Business: The Outer Orbit Economy
SpaceX's successful rocket launch is the proof of concept not only for private space missions but for an entirely new economy based on taking individuals and businesses to and from space.