Devil's Advocate

What's the Big Idea? Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson says there is a lot of delusion when it comes to the future ambitions of space exploration. Tyson, an astrophysicist and the author of the new book The Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier , signals out recent claims by ... Read More

What’s The Big Idea? A 1993 paper in Nature announced that subjects listening to Mozart displayed increased cognitive activity through “enhanced spatial-temporal reasoning.” All the sudden, people started running to the local record store to pick up Wolfgang’s greatest hits. Search “Mozart” and ... Read More

What's the Big Idea? Big Think co-founder Peter Hopkins is fond of thinking against the grain, and when it comes to the current debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Hopkins's thinking is true to form.  According to Hopkins, while SOPA has been "vilified and grossly mischaracterized ... Read More

“We don’t only have to worry about warming,” the physicist argues. “It could very well be the climate gets colder. Nobody knows”—and we waste time arguing when we should be preparing. Watch the video here: In the video below, Dyson talks about how he has responded to critics. When the ... Read More

People without a conscience don’t need to satisfy the drive to bond and can focus entirely on the drive to acquire, making them more likely to seek leadership positions.   Read More

While cell phones offer liberating possibilities for the world, they also threaten personal privacy. Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Ziitrain worries about peer-to-peer privacy in particular. He argues that "anytime anything of any note happens, there are three arms holding cell phones with ... Read More

James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute, explains how future fourth generation nuclear power plants will be cleaner and safer because they will be able to burn highly radioactive spent fuel rods. Harnessing this technology will be pivotal for America’s future, he says. James ... Read More

Belief in the coming Singularity is no different than any messianic religion, argues Silicon Valley visionary Jaron Lanier. The only difference is this new religion is "just for digital geeks." Building off the argument he spelled out in an op-ed piece in The New York Times, Lanier argues that ... Read More