What Should We Be Worried About?: Real Scenarios That Keep Scientists Up at Night

What should we be worried about

This is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ( The world’s smartest website -The Guardian), posed to 150 of the world brightest and most influential minds. Some of the most troubling, potentially earth-shattering problems of the future (including the effects of hyperactive media on children, and the growing number of newly synthesized narcotics) are barely on the public radar. At the same time, some of our most culturally entrenched fears (like overly-sophisticated artificial intelligence, or aggressive extraterrestrials) can confidently be abandoned. We worry because we are built to anticipate the future. Nothing can stop us from worrying, but science can teach us how to worry better, and when to stop worrying.

Contributors include: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Martin Rees, Frank Wilczek, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Arianna Huffington, Daniel C. Dennett, Steven Pinker, and many more.