Edge 178: "The Selfish Gene: Thirty Years On"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Brockman <brockman () edge org>
Date: March 23, 2006 8:28:26 AM EST
To: 3culture () edge org (Third Culture Mail List)
Subject: Edge 178: "The Selfish Gene: Thirty Years On"

March 23, 2006

Edge 178
at
http://www.edge.org

(14,400 words)

This EDGE edition is available on the EDGE Website at: http:// 
www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge178.html

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THE THIRD CULTURE
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                       AN EDGE SPECIAL EVENT

"Social-constructionist "intellectuals", and perhaps even the  
"radical ism-ists" culture warriors of the New York Times Book Review  
might counter that science itself is but one more "superstition." But  
as Sir John Krebs points out below, Dawkins won't have any of this  
cultural relativism. Krebs quotes one of his favorite passages, not  
out of The Selfish Gene but from the book River Out of Eden:

"'Show me a cultural relativist at thirty thousand feet and I'll show  
you a hypocrite. Airplanes are built according to scientific  
principals and they work. They stay aloft and they get you to a  
chosen destination. Airplanes built to tribal or mythological  
specifications such as the dummy planes of the Cargo cults in jungle  
clearings or the bees-waxed wings of Icaraus don't.' "

                                -----

THE SELFISH GENE: THIRTY YEARS ON
Thursday 16 March 2006
6.45pm to 8.15pm
The Old Theatre (Old Building, LSE, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE)

Speakers: Daniel C Dennett (Tufts), Sir John Krebs, FRS (Zoology,  
Oxford), Matt Ridley, Ian McEwan, Richard Dawkins, FRS (Oxford);  
Chair: Melvyn Bragg; Organiser: Helena Cronin

The toughest ticket in London's West End last week wasn't for a new  
mega-hit musical from Cameron Mackintosh, or a new play by Tom  
Stoppard. The people who flocked to The Old Theatre were greeted by  
famed British radio and television presenter Melvyn Bragg ("Start the  
Week") with the following opening words:

"They are in you and me; they created us, body and mind; and their  
preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They have  
come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes,  
and we are their survival machines."

The words are from THE SELFISH GENE, by evolutionary biologist  
Richard Dawkins. And the evening was a celebration of the thirty year  
anniversary of the publication of his classic book. .....

Helena Cronin, founder and director of Darwin@LSE produced the event,  
and is the guest editor of this EDGE edition.

At the link you will find:

(a) the complete 1 hour and 22 minute audio, available in two  
formats. You can listen to it as online streaming audio, or you can  
download it as an mp3 (75 MB) file and play it on your computer,  
iPod, etc.

(b) the 12,000-word transcript of the audio which each of the  
participants has lightly edited.

Stream it. Download it. Listen to it. Print it out. Read it.

[more...continue for text, streaming audio, mp3 download: http:// 
www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge178.html

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EDGE CAMBRIDGE EVENT
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HARVARD BOOK STORE PRESENTS...
Wednesday, April 12th, 6:30 PM
@ Longfellow Hall, Askwith Lecture Hall
13 Appian Way

WHAT WE BELIEVE BUT CANNOT PROVE
edited by John Brockman
Introduction by Ian McEwan
Harper Perennial
$13.95

A discussion about Science in the Age of Certainty
with JOHN BROCKMAN, DANIEL C. DENNETT, DANIEL GILBERT, MARC D.  
HAUSER, ELIZABETH SPELKE & SETH LLOYD

We are excited to announce that on Wednesday, April 12th Harvard Book  
Store and Seed Magazine will cosponsor a discussion on Science in the  
Age of Certainty with John Brockman, Daniel C. Dennett, Daniel  
Gilbert, Marc D. Hauser, Elizabeth Spelke and Seth Lloyd. This event  
coincides with the publication of the new book What We Believe But  
Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of  
Certainty, edited by Mr. Brockman.

[more]... http://www.harvard.com/events/press_release.php?id=1637

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IN THE NEWS
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BOSTON GLOBE
On Science
Deeply held (and unverifiable) beliefs
By Anthony Doerr | March 19, 2006

What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science  
in the Age of Certainty

For the past eight years, the website www.edge.org has tried to  
provoke its distinguished roster of contributors with a big, elegant  
question. Last year's question was this: What do you believe to be  
true even though you cannot prove it?

A hundred and nine prominent thinkers, including folks as  
accomplished as Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Rebecca Goldstein,  
and Freeman Dyson, responded. Their answers are collected in a new  
book, ''What We Believe But Cannot Prove," and it makes for some  
astounding reading.

[more...]

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This EDGE edition is available on the EDGE Website at: http:// 
www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge178.html

----------------------------------------------------
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EDGE
John Brockman, Editor and Publisher
Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher
Copyright (c) 2006 by EDGE Foundation, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Published by EDGE Foundation, Inc., 5 East 59th Street, New York, NY
10022

EDGE Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit private operating foundation under
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

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