18 Jan 2011 23:40:26
Frank Wilczek, 2004 Nobel laureate in physics, uses this example from chess of how the Internet has multiplied the skill of computer users: "Pioneering programs allowing computers to play chess by pure calculation debuted in 1958," he notes, "they rapidly became more capable, beating masters (1978), grandmasters (1988), and world champions (1997)."
He foresees: "Some not unrealistic possibilities ... lossless power transmission, levitated supertrains, and computers that aren't limited by the heat they generate ... batteries that would enable cheap capture and flexible use of solar energy and wean us off carbon burning, superstrong material that could support elevators running directly from Earth to space."
Editor John Brockman has also edited or written 22 other books on mostly scientific subjects. He maintains a scientific impartiality on this one.
He gives prominence to a dismissal by Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard. Pinker's reply to the question about the Internet bringing changes in people's thinking is titled, "Not at All." It pokes a little fun at the idea of the Internet enabling users to accomplish many tasks at once.
"So-called multitaskers," he writes, "are like Woody Allen after he took a speed-reading course and devoured `War and Peace'" — Leo Tolstoy's 1,500 page-novel — "in an evening. His summary: 'It was about some Russians.'"
Brockman also allows two and a half pages to a reply from Andy Clark, a philosopher at the University of Edinburgh, under the title, "What Kind of a Dumb Question Is This?"
He foresees: "Some not unrealistic possibilities ... lossless power transmission, levitated supertrains, and computers that aren't limited by the heat they generate ... batteries that would enable cheap capture and flexible use of solar energy and wean us off carbon burning, superstrong material that could support elevators running directly from Earth to space."
Editor John Brockman has also edited or written 22 other books on mostly scientific subjects. He maintains a scientific impartiality on this one.
He gives prominence to a dismissal by Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard. Pinker's reply to the question about the Internet bringing changes in people's thinking is titled, "Not at All." It pokes a little fun at the idea of the Internet enabling users to accomplish many tasks at once.
"So-called multitaskers," he writes, "are like Woody Allen after he took a speed-reading course and devoured `War and Peace'" — Leo Tolstoy's 1,500 page-novel — "in an evening. His summary: 'It was about some Russians.'"
Brockman also allows two and a half pages to a reply from Andy Clark, a philosopher at the University of Edinburgh, under the title, "What Kind of a Dumb Question Is This?"
