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The 150 Things the World's Smartest People Are Afraid Of.
Motherboard ^ | 7/16/2013 | Brian Merchant

Posted on 07/16/2013 7:08:31 PM PDT by Usagi_yo

Every year, the online magazine Edge--the so-called smartest website in the world, helmed by science impresario John Brockman--asks top scientists, technologists, writers, and academics to weigh in on a single question. This year, that query was "What Should We Be Worried About?", and the idea was to identify new problems arising in science, tech, and culture that haven't yet been widely recognized.

... snip ...

(Excerpt) Read more at motherboard.vice.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Conspiracy; History
KEYWORDS:
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I was particularly interested in the concept of "Black Swan Event".
1 posted on 07/16/2013 7:08:31 PM PDT by Usagi_yo
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To: Usagi_yo

I’m afraid of going to a website that makes me click through 150 items just to boost their hit count...

So I ain’t gonna do it.


2 posted on 07/16/2013 7:10:10 PM PDT by djf (Rich widows: My Bitcoin address is... 1ETDmR4GDjwmc9rUEQnfB1gAnk6WLmd3n6)
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To: djf

Agreed - really hating the one-click-per-item on the list web site.


3 posted on 07/16/2013 7:11:42 PM PDT by T. P. Pole
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To: djf

Actually it isn’t one of those... ya just keep scrolling allll the way down :)

(I don’t like those either ; )

Dear Lord, guide us.
Tatt


4 posted on 07/16/2013 7:15:33 PM PDT by thesearethetimes... ("Courage, is fear that has said its prayers." Dorothy Bernard)
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To: Usagi_yo

I was very intrigued by this topic.

I went there and started reading the list. At first I was a bit impatient, but gradually I realized.

The “world’s smartest people” don’t appear to have a flipping clue.

Good grief.


5 posted on 07/16/2013 7:16:25 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: Usagi_yo

Spiders. I still hate spiders.


6 posted on 07/16/2013 7:16:56 PM PDT by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off. -786 +969)
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To: djf

I’m unsure of what you mean, the link takes you directly to the article ... I made sure of that before posting.

Perhaps you’re not scrolling down?

Cheers


7 posted on 07/16/2013 7:17:10 PM PDT by Usagi_yo
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

No doubt “climate change” is on the list.


8 posted on 07/16/2013 7:18:04 PM PDT by Zeneta (No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.)
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To: Usagi_yo
The movie Idiocracy. If you haven't seen it, please do.
9 posted on 07/16/2013 7:18:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can't invade the mainland US There'd be a rifle behind each blade of grass.)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network

“The “world’s smartest people” don’t appear to have a flipping clue.”

And this surprised you? Clearly you have not been paying good attention.

The world’s smartest people are here at Free Republic, ignore the others.


10 posted on 07/16/2013 7:19:48 PM PDT by jocon307
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To: Usagi_yo

How did Mrs. Riley’s chicken not make the list?


11 posted on 07/16/2013 7:22:23 PM PDT by Tanniker Smith (Rome didn't fall in a day, either.)
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To: djf

http://www.edge.org/responses/q2013

Direct link.

When the first fear is that we don’t copy the inhuman eugenics programs of the Chinese Communists, I saw the sight for what it is. Intellectually self aggrandized morons.

Thank you, no.


12 posted on 07/16/2013 7:23:10 PM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: Usagi_yo
Well, nobody asked me. What if there were a hops blight and hence NO MORE BEER? Hmm?

Don't even get me started on a chocolate crisis.

13 posted on 07/16/2013 7:23:52 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Usagi_yo

>> “4. That pseudoscience will gain ground.” <<

.
Since Darwin, psuedoscience has been the biggest gainer on the scene.


14 posted on 07/16/2013 7:24:02 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Usagi_yo

The Black Swan is a catastrophic event that we cannot anticipate because it goes against everything we have ever known to be true. But once it occurs, there is the tendency to believe that we should have seen of coming. Basically, a black swan is the unknown unknown that we cannot prepare for because we never see it coming.

Taleb says the 9/11 was such an event but many of my colleagues disagree because some of them did see 9/11 coming.

Spent many hours in my Risk Analysis class talking about black swans.


15 posted on 07/16/2013 7:24:38 PM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Electrolytes. They’re what plants need.


16 posted on 07/16/2013 7:25:03 PM PDT by CollegeRepublican
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To: Usagi_yo

There were some interesting ones on the list, but there was a hell of a large number of contributors who I would not choose to pick up my garbage, but less designate them “smartest people on the planet”. Hence, many of the concerns are utter rubbish.


17 posted on 07/16/2013 7:25:49 PM PDT by drbuzzard (All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.)
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To: editor-surveyor

Exactly. Darwinism IS pseudoscience on steroids.


18 posted on 07/16/2013 7:28:17 PM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: Usagi_yo
9. That the internet is ruining writing. – David Gelernter, Yale computer scientist

Definitely agree with that one!!

BTW, Gelernter was one of the Unabomber's last victims.

19 posted on 07/16/2013 7:28:56 PM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: Zeneta

Not that I saw.

Only one seemed genuinely serious (to me, in a list of 150 things)

#27. That people will stop dying.

There was a funny one:

#148: Stupidity.

And one almost too true:

21. Not much. I ride motorcycles without a helmet.

:)


20 posted on 07/16/2013 7:28:59 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
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