A real grab bag of ideas

A quick look at This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking. This volume is very different from any other book that I have read. I will admit that I have not read the entire book. But in this case, that is not necessary. This is a collections of articles, most only 1-3 pages in length. They answer the question posed by the editor to an online (as far as I understand) community of scientists and general big thinkers. The question was "What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit?".

The answers, and there are 152 of them, are mind boggling far reaching. Some are just mind boggling, like the following from Stefano Boeri, a professor and architect.


A PROXEMICS OF URBAN SEXUALITY


In every room, in every house, in every street, in every city, movements, relations, and spaces are also defined with regard to logics of sexual attraction-repulsion between individuals. Even the most insurmountable ethnic or religious barriers can suddenly disappear in the furor of intercourse; even the warmest and most cohesive community can rapidly dissolve in the absence of erotic tension. To understand how our cosmopolitan and multigendered cities work, we need a proxemics of urban sexuality.

That selection, which is the entire article by that author, is at one end of the spectrum. Most are more prosaic. Such as the one by Stewart Brand, about our interconnectedness and dependance on Microbes, or by Robert R. Provine about TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch). Others choose the concept of the Double Blind experiment, because they feel the general public is too dependent on stories and anecdotes instead of hard scientific procedures to make decisions.

As a logical thinking engineer, I can follow and agree with a lot of the concepts suggestion, though some take a decidedly anti-religious stance. Despite that, I find this is a worthwhile book, to at least pick up in the library or bookstore to browse. The greatest benefit I find is the opportunity to meet some contemporary authors. Their current job, and at least one of their published books is listed with their short article.


How would you answer the question at the heart of this book?