My project's end is still not in sight, but it requires at least a peripheral understanding of most of the topics covered in this new book I discovered at the bookstore last week.
John Brockman interviewed several prominent thinkers on the leading edge of the soft sciences, then translated their responses into a series of articles in this book, which I cannot put down. If you've never heard of Steven Pinker or Ray Kurzweil, you need to buy this book and read it. If you have heard of either of them, you should still buy the book and read it.
Evolution (specifically, selection and adaptation) is a process that is definitely not restricted to biology. Social science pundits of all persuasions have reasons to resist the encroachment of Darwin's theory on their fields—our evolved tendency to employ "belief preservation" is our fundamental reason for resisting—but resistance is futile. Evolution explains a lot more than most of us had thought, and it's helping to explain things in the social sciences, such as economics and psychology, that are upsetting traditional applecarts.
I guess that's why I'm enjoying the book so much. I love it when innovation and discovery upsets cherished applecarts.
The book is Science at the Edge, by John Brockman. If you buy it from that link, I'll make almost fifty cents from Amazon. If you can't wait for Amazon to deliver it, go get it at your bookstore.
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