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What are You Optimistic About?
 
 

What are You Optimistic About? (Hardcover)

by John Brockman (Editor)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 374 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (5 Nov 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1847371000
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847371003
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.8 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 313,902 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
In 2007 the leading online forum for scientists and thinkers, www.edge.org, issued its third annual question: 'What are you optimistic about, and why?' As with its predecessors -- 'What do you believe to be true but cannot prove?' and 'What is your dangerous idea?' -- the question created an instant media storm, with global reaction to the answers posted by some of the world's most eminent scientists and thinkers. WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT is the third collection of answers to the Edge question. Featuring responses from Richard Dawkins, Brian Eno, Steven Pinker, Sir Martin Rees and Matt Ridley, and covering topics as diverse as the decline of violence, the path to enlightenment and mankind's enduring ability to solve problems, this collection is guaranteed to make you look on the bright side. Global warming, the war on terror and rampant consumerism getting you down? Lighten up! And read some of the world's brightest brains on their reasons to be cheerful.

About the Author
John Brockman is a writer, agent and publisher of the 'Third Culture' website www.edge.org, the forum for leading scientists and thinkers to share their research with the general public. He is the author of THE THIRD CULTURE and the editor of several anthologies including WHAT WE BELIEVE BUT CANNOT PROVE and WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?. He lives in New York.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A feelgood tonic - but too feelgood?, 25 Feb 2009
By Charles "mrfreedom" (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
Feeling in need of a pick-me-up in this doom-laden world I chanced upon this volume. It kind of did the job. It gives a page or two to a couple of hundred of the world's finest brains and they speak about their own area of specialisation and why we have reasons to be hopeful of a better future.
Much of it does indeed fill you with hope, but you sometimes wonder whether these guys are being OVER optimistic. When I see what happens in the capital of England's schools and police stations and job centres I'm not sure I can share their optimism.
The book expounds science and reason; yet the growth in the last 50 years of the numbers of Muslims in Europe - people who mostly reject science and reason and liberal democracy - to many, many million, does not exactly give me a surfeit of hope for Europe. I hope I'm wrong and I hope these people throw off their stone-age beliefs and embrace secular western liberalism. I hope.
The subjects the brains discuss neatly interlink, and one section concerns man-made global warming. I'm no scientist but I understand that a lot of scientists do not attribute global warming to man-made causes. Are we sure the guys here are correct?
I enjoyed the book but it is best read in small chunks. You just couldn't read it all in a few very long sittings - the shining optimism would drive you crazy. Well done to the editor for pulling together all these fine names for a project that's brimming with the ambitious driving spirit of the best of the human race.
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