If the “self” is not real, then we are slaves to a billiard ball universe, trapped in a nihilistic nightmare in which we cannot change our fate.
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You searched for: Big Think
The Universe is grand, awe-inspiring, and greater than we likely imagine. Even astrophysicists get anxious thinking about it, but we cope.
Asking the wrong questions can hold you back. Natalie Nixon explains how to ask divergent questions to become a great thinker.
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Popular media often frame scientists as having a cold, sterile view of the world. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Flies are in no way smart, but they experience time in an almost Matrix-like fashion.
The answer may lie in the particular way sand forms on Titan.
Contrary to popular research, people with more money are happier, but it’s their spending habits, not their account balances, that move the dial.
Plants at room temperature show properties we had only seen near absolute zero.
“Of course, the spleen is the biggest organ in the body.”
A wide-scale examination of early Neolithic human skeletons reveals the violent history of a supposedly peaceful period.
Your subjective experience might not end the moment your heart stops, research on near-death experiences suggests.
If our goal is to effect the greatest possible progress, what would it look like to approach this holistically? What might need to dispositionaly in how we approach solving our most important problems—at an individual level, a community level, or at a civilizational or global one? We asked our experts to think big picture about how what new thinking would be required to create a larger pro-progress framework.
Being more creative doesn’t require a ‘Muse.’ It’s about pairing intelligence and imagination.
Football is a risky sport, but bicycling to work is far more dangerous.
Ancient helium-3 from the dawn of time leaks from the Earth, offering clues to our planet’s formation. A key question is where it leaks from.
We all spend way too much time worrying what other people think of us — it’s time to cut loose.
From health to leadership abilities, a good sense of humor can help improve many aspects of life.
Modern memory athletes use this ancient technique to memorize thousands of digits of pi.
Many conversations start awkwardly and derail from there, but a few simple techniques can put them back on track.
Intentions tend to get mangled by overreach in every complex organization — so dial up the charisma and the clarity.
The authors call it “wildly theoretical” — but let’s take a look, anyway.
Boredom isn’t the enemy; it’s a catalyst for changing your relationship to work.
In work and life, the rules of success are being redefined.
“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself — and there isn’t one.”
How Stacy Madison — founder of Stacy’s Pita Chips and BeBOLD Foods — discovered that reinvention is not a one-off deal but an ongoing process.
The power of play: our forgotten lifehack.
Maybe the brain isn’t “classical” after all.
For a plan to go as smooth as clockwork, be prepared to pounce on opportunity.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
We all employ heuristics to help us deal with the world. But when we make a hasty generalization, we risk making a big error in our thinking.