John Brockman - What Should We Be Worried About?

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acceptance versus worry, 209

access tiers, 408

accidental multiverse, 189

activity rhythm, 43

actual threats, 370–71

Adam and Eve, 61

Adams, Douglas, 50–51

adaptive language of fitness (Wright), 265–66

ADHD, 313, 376

Afghanistan, 2, 115, 158, 215, 299, 347

afterlife, 200, 225

Age of Anxiety, 403–4

Age of Reason, 337

aggregators, data, 347

aggression, 5

aging population, 59, 119–20, 124, 225–37, 283–84, 289, 292–94, 370–71, 407, 478

AIDS/HIV, 46, 126, 201

airport security, 437

air-traffic control, 12

Akin, Todd, 140

alcohol use, 46, 84, 370

Alexander, Stephon H., 438–39

aliens, space, 72–76

Allen, Woody, 136

alloparents, 381–82

Almheiri, Ahmed, 183

Alter, Adam, 399–400

Altmeyer, Robert, 279

Alzheimer’s disease risk profile, 407

American Mathematical Society (AMS), 388

American Psychiatric Association (APA), 84

Amish, 65

anesthesia, 29

AngelList, 445

Animal Liberation Front, 50–51

Aniston, Jennifer, 156

anomalies, 180–83

Anonymous, 353

anthropocebo effect, 213

Anthropocene Age, 10, 210–11, 213

anthropology, 51, 82, 146–49, 418

antibiotics, 201

anti-matter, 356–57

anxiety, 284, 285, 370, 373–76, 403–4

Apple Computer, 320–21

Archilochus, 51

Archimedes, 421

Argentina, 450

Arikha, Noga, 427–30

Aristotle, 105, 207, 336

Armageddonists, 3, 10, 60–64, 62–64, 72

Armstrong, Lance, 269, 270–71

Armstrong, Neil, 268

arrogance, 269–71

art, 215

artificial intelligence (AI), 349–51, 413, 448–49. See also robots; Singularity, The

asteroids, 147

Atran, Scott, 80–82

augmented reality, 77

auroras, 19

Australia, 119

authoritarianism, 15, 277–79

autism, 201, 263, 292–93, 299–301, 376–78

bacteria, 201–2, 295–98, 338–39

Baldwin, Stanley, 379

Barlow, John Perry, 316–17

Baron-Cohen, Simon, 417–20

Bateson, Mary Catherine, 456–57

Bayes’ Theorem, 471

Beethoven Ludwig van, 206–7

behavioral economics, 104

behavioral genetics, 104

bell curve, 468–69, 472

Benford, Gregory, 67–71

Bergen, Benjamin, 48–49

Berlin, Isaiah, 51

Berlinski, David, 389

Berreby, David, 233–37

Big Bang, 195

Bigelow Aerospace, 69

binomial probabilities model, 470–71

BioBricks, 23

biocomputers, 22

biofuels, 149

Bio-Lego, 23

biological engineering, 22–23

biometric data privacy, 284, 406–9

biophilia, 313

biosphere, 109

biotechnology, 448–49

bioterrorism, 12, 20

Bjork, Robert, 398

black-hole information-loss paradox, 182, 185, 187

Blackmore, Susan, 306–9

Black Plague, 120, 210

blacks, 438–39

Black Swans, 464–67, 469

Blake, William, 127

Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne, 45–47

Boccaletti, Giolio, 332–35

Bohm, David, 193

Bohr, Niels, 186, 192, 282

Boko Haram, 63–64

Bomblies, Kirsten, 431–32

bonding, 86–89

Borges, Jorge Luís, 450, 452

Born, Max, 282

Borwein, Jonathan, 385

Bosch, Hieronymus, 40

Bostrom, Nick, 448

Botox, 167

Bowles, Samuel, 360

BP (British Petroleum), 35

Brahms, Johannes, 415

brain. See neuroscience

Brassier, Ray, 216

Brazil, 233

breast cancer, 286–88

Bredekamp, Horst, 215

Brockman, John, 417–18

Broecker, Wallace S., 448

Bronze Age, 210

Brooks, Rodney A., 123–24

Brower, David, 50

Buddhism, 62, 81

bullying, 94, 166, 269–71

Buss, David M., 154–57

calculators, 384

calibrated peer evaluation, 385

cancer, 201, 230, 270–71, 286–88, 293, 295–98, 303, 370, 471–72

cannabis, 46

capture concept, 35–37

carbon cycle, 210–12, 237

Carlin, George, 48

Carr, Nicholas G., 41–44

cascading crises, 12–13, 16, 436–37

catastrophic risks, 9–13, 146–49, 204

catharsis, 206–8

Catholicism, 62–63, 65

cell phones, 14

censorship, 48–49, 316–17. See also freedom of expression

CERN, 174–80, 183, 197, 198–99, 273, 280

Challenger disaster, 268

Chalupa, Leo M., 424–26

cheating, 269–71, 331, 432, 458

chemotherapy, 287, 295

chess, 39

children, 220–21, 244, 247–48, 313, 399–400, 437

brain development, 45–47

language acquisition and, 48–49, 419–20

parents and, 31, 379–82

reproductive biotechnology, 23, 118–22

with special needs, 376–78

technology use, 39–40, 93–97, 319–20, 399–400

China, 5, 68, 102, 111, 114–17, 123–24, 233–35, 238–39, 317, 440, 442

Chinese Room thought experiment, 28–29

Chomsky, Noam, 135

Christadelphians, 62

Christakis, Nicholas A., 421–23

Christian, David, 107–9

Christianity, 62–63, 65, 81

CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), 283

circle of empathy (Lanier), 359

Clark, Andy, 349–51

Clarke, Arthur C., 168

Clausewitz, Carl von, 4

climate change, 2, 9, 11–12, 59, 68, 82, 211, 308–9, 358, 366, 371, 373, 448, 449, 456–57

cloning, 23

clouds, 34

coal, 69

Cohen, Joel E., 233–34

cold war era, 6–8, 10–11

Colombia, 251

coma, measuring consciousness, 414

complementarity, 185–86

complex systems, 19–21, 78–79, 101

computers. See also artificial intelligence (AI); Internet

augmented reality, 77

automation trend, 289–90

blind spots related to, 210–12

cognitive consequences of electronics, 461–63

data disenfranchisement, 171–73

digital revolution, 31, 134

Druid/Engineer divide, 50–52

fascism and, 166–67

illusion of knowledge and understanding with, 396–98

loss of intellectual humility, 396–98

objects of desire, 93–97

positive contributions of, 244–45

posthuman geography and, 352–54

risk to liberal democracy, 240–45

“smart” solutions, 53–55

stifling of progress, 56–57

touch interface and, 310–11, 454–55

use by children, 39–40, 93–97, 319–20, 399–400

virtual reality, 38–40

wearable monitoring devices, 284, 406–9

conjugacy, 471–72

connectedness, 12–13, 16, 17–18, 78–79, 280–82, 436–37

conquest, as aggression, 5

conscientiousness, 478

consciousness, 26–29, 32–33, 135–38, 414, 473–74

contraception, 62–63

conversation, fear of, 93–94

cooperation, 358–67, 371–72, 376–78

Copenhagen Institute, 282

Copernicus, Nicolaus, 198

copyright, 255, 316, 317

coronavirus, 202

corporations, 352–53, 459

Correlates of War Project, 105–6

corruption, 244, 250–53, 269–71

coupling, 78–79

courseware, 320

crash of 1987, 464

Creation, 61

credit agencies, 172

creolization of the world (Glissant), 214–17

Crick, Francis, 267

crime, 221–22, 238–39, 244, 250–53, 259–60, 284, 315–18, 408–9, 437, 440–43

Cronin, Helena, 127–30

crowd sourcing, 408

crowd wisdom, 79

Crutchfield, James, 20–21

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 38–40

Cuban missile crisis, 10, 11

cultural evolution, 431–32