Question of the Year

At the beginning of each new year, I eagerly anticipate an updated post from the World Question Center, a somewhat mysterious association of “scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world.” Each year, a new question is posed to a few dozen of the world’s biggest brains. In the past their answers have left me as breathless as a great conversation with a new friend: Why don’t people talk like this all the time?

I was a little bit skeptical when I saw this year’s question, “How has the internet changed the way you think?” Initially this seemed like well-traveled territory, but the variety, quality, and especially the depth of the answers somehow makes the question seem as though it hasn’t been asked enough.

And if you’re unfamiliar with the site, I recommend browsing back to earlier years. I think my favourite is still 2005’s “What do you believe is true though you cannot prove it?”