EDGE 203

EDGE 203

This EDGE edition, which includes graphics and links, is available online at here and includes these following stories and more.

Falling In Love
By Marvin Minsky
What is Love, and how does it work? Is this something that we want to understand, or is it one of those subjects that we don't really want to know more about? And should machines have feelings, too?

An Early Environmentalist, Embracing New 'Heresies'
By John Tierney
Stewart Brand who is now 68 and lives on a tugboat in Sausalito, CA, has stayed ahead of the curve for so long that as a publisher, writer, techno-guru, enviro-philosopher, supreme networker, he's become a cottage industry in academia. Read what he says about environmentalism and the direction in which it should be going. When Stewart talks, everybody tunes in.

Mosh Pit Meets Sandbox
By David Brooks, who declares Fatwa on hipster dads
Can we stop hearing about downtown parents who dress their babies in black skull slippers, Punky Monkey T-shirts and camo toddler ponchos until the little ones end up looking like sad-parody club clones of mom and dad? Can we finally stop reading about the musical Antoinettes who would get the vapors if their tykes were caught listening to Disney tunes, and who instead force-feed Brian Eno, Radiohead and Sufjan Stevens into their little babies' iPods? I'm over the 'hipster dad' stories, too, but only because it's been done to death. I don't know how I feel about an actual Hipster dad because I don't believe I know of any.

A Familiar and Prescient Voice, Brought to Life
By Dennis Overbye
Carl Sagan has rejoined the cosmic debate from the grave, with "new" words on the boundary between science and religion. The respect people had for Carl Sagan bordered on cult worship-- but in a good way. Nice to hear that his words live on.

EDGE 203