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Wednesday, Jan 02, 2008
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World’s best brains think new on the big questions

James Randerson

Scientists and philosophers, all confessed to a change of heart while discussing questions of life

London: They are the intellectual elite, the brains the rest of us rely on to make sense of the universe and answer the big questions. But in a refreshing show of new year humility, the world’s best thinkers have admitted that from time to time even they are forced to change their minds.

When tackling subjects as diverse as human evolution, the laws of physics and sexual politics, scientists and philosophers, including Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Paul Davies and Richard Wrangham, all confessed on Monday to a change of heart.

The display of scientific modesty was brought about by the annual new year’s question posed by the website edge.org, which drew responses from more than 120 of the world’s greatest thinkers. Edge’s publisher, John Brockman, asked the intellectual cream what they had changed their mind about and why. “Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?” said the brief.

A common theme in the responses is that what distinguishes science from other forms of knowledge and from faith is that new ideas can rapidly overturn old ones as new evidence emerges. So there’s nothing to be ashamed about in admitting an intellectual switch. Some responses, such as Dennett’s change of heart on how the mind works, resist paraphrasing in 100 words, but here is a selection of the rest.

What was the turning point in human evolution?

Interview with Richard Wrangham, British anthropologist who studied under Jane Goodall. Now at Harvard University, his research includes primate behaviour and human evolution.

“I used to think that human origins were explained by meat-eating. After all, the idea that meat-eating launched humanity has been the textbook evolutionary story for decades, mooted even before Darwin was born.

“But in a rethinking of conventional wisdom I now think that cooking was the major advance that turned ape into human ... Cooked food is the signature feature of human diet. It not only makes our food safe and easy to eat, but it also grants us large amounts of energy compared to a raw diet, obviating the need to ingest big meals. Cooking softens food too, thereby making eating so speedy that as eaters of cooked food, we are granted many extra hours of free time every day.”

Is the universe flat?

Interview with Laurence Krauss, physicist at Case Western Reserve University and prominent opponent of the Intelligent Design movement. His books include The Physics of Star Trek.

“I was relatively certain that there was precisely enough matter in the universe to make it geometrically flat ... according to general relativity [geometrically flat] means there is a precise balance between the positive kinetic energy associated with the expansion of space, and the negative potential energy associated with the gravitational attraction of matter in the universe so that the total energy is precisely zero... We are now pretty sure that the dominant energy-stuff in our universe isn’t normal matter, and isn’t dark matter, but rather is associated with empty space! Our whole picture of the possible future of the universe has changed. An accelerating universe will carry away almost everything we now see, so that in the far future our galaxy will exist alone in a dark, and seemingly endless void. ” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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