What should we be worried about? - John Brockman

Drawing from the horizons of science, today's leading thinkers reveal the hidden threats nobody is talking about-and expose the false fears everyone else is distracted by.

What should we be worried about? That is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ("The world's smartest website"-The Guardian), posed to the planet's most influential minds. He asked them to disclose something that, for scientific reasons, worries them-particularly scenarios that aren't on the popular radar yet. Encompassing neuroscience, economics, philosophy, physics, psychology, biology, and more-here are 150 ideas that will revolutionize your understanding of the world.

Steven Pinker uncovers the real risk factors for war
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi peers into the coming virtual abyss
Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek laments our squandered opportunities to prevent global catastrophe
Seth Lloyd calculates the threat of a financial black hole
Alison Gopnik on the loss of childhood
Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains why firefighters understand risk far better than economic "experts"
Matt Ridley on the alarming re-emergence of superstition Daniel C. Dennett and george dyson ponder the impact of a major breakdown of the Internet
Jennifer Jacquet fears human-induced damage to the planet due to "the Anthropocebo Effect"
Douglas Rushkoff fears humanity is losing its soul
Nicholas Carr on the "patience deficit"
Tim O'Reilly foresees a coming new Dark Age
Scott Atran on the homogenization of human experience
Sherry Turkle explores what's lost when kids are constantly connected
Kevin Kelly outlines the looming "underpopulation bomb"
Helen Fisher on the fate of men
Lawrence Krauss dreads what we don't know about the universe
Susan Blackmore on the loss of manual skills
Kate Jeffery on the death of death
plus J. Craig Venter, Daniel Goleman, Virginia Heffernan, Sam Harris, Brian Eno, Martin Rees, and more