this explains everything

[Darren Dirt]

...what a fascinating title for a book!

Every year since 1998, intellectual impresario and Edge editor John Brockman has been posing a single grand question to some of our time?s greatest thinkers across a wide spectrum of disciplines, then collecting the answers in an annual anthology. Last year?s answers to the question ?What scientific concept will improve everybody?s cognitive toolkit?? were released in This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking, one of the year?s best psychology and philosophy books.

In 2012, the question Brockman posed, proposed by none other than Steven Pinker, was ?What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?? The answers, representing an eclectic mix of 192 (alas, overwhelmingly male) minds spanning psychology, quantum physics, social science, political theory, philosophy, and more, are collected in the edited compendium This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works

In This Explains Everything, John Brockman, founder and publisher of Edge.org, asked experts in numerous fields and disciplines to come up with their favorite explanations for everyday occurrences. Why do we recognize patterns? Is there such a thing as positive stress? Are we genetically programmed to be in conflict with each other? Those are just some of the 150 questions that the world's best scientific minds answer with elegant simplicity.

With contributions from Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, Nassim Taleb, Brian Eno, Steven Pinker, and more, everything is explained in fun, uncomplicated terms that make the most complex concepts easy to comprehend.

also see Deep Thoughts excerpts online: http://www.edge.org/annual-question/what-is-your-favorite-deep-elegant-or-beautiful-explanation (and previous years' question @ http://www.edge.org/annual-question )

[Darren Dirt]

update: not just excerpts; ALL 192 responses are online @ http://www.edge.org/responses/what-is-your-favorite-deep-elegant-or-beautiful-explanation