Postcards From The Edge (Of Science)

mcadam writes: "As my graduate school thesis deadline approaches, I find myself looking for increasingly ingenious ways of wasting time. One of my favourites is reading through Edge.org. Edge is a meeting place for some of the most interesting people working in AI, the cognitive sciences, anthropology, cosmology, and pretty much everything else you're likely to read about on this site. Over recent months, contributors such as Daniel C. Dennett, Rodney Brooks, Stephen Jay Gould, and Ray Kurzweil have left the commentaries and contributions to the site in either text form or streaming video. Everything you find here is as important as it is fascinating. Kurzweil comments on theories of the singularity, the late Ken Kesey advises us about God, Freeman Dyson is there in video to ponder whether life is analog or digital. Why do I bring this up now? Because each year the site's users send in postcards from their various summer retreats, this year's postcards are in and they are fascinating without exception."

Comments

Great Idea!

[n-baxley]

This site a is a great idea and seems to be pulled off very well. I only have one concern. Are sites like this, with no advertising, bound to be drowned in their own success? The more popular they become, the more their cost of existence goes up. They may become more popular and respected, but they may eventually have to close because they are serving too many people. Maybe this is too synical a view, and I've forgottent that as they become more popular, they will also recieve more donated support and thereby expand through the combined resources of all the interested parties.

Thoughts?