The Edge Annual Question of 2008 is: What

The Edge Annual Question of 2008 is: What have you changed your mind about? Why? Lots of fascinating responses from interesting people, mostly science-related. My response would be a bit more personal: I've changed my mind about wanting to be a dad. I never thought much about having kids and didn't see the point of it, fulfillment-wise. I'm sure my life without Ollie would have been nice but nothing compared to this. (Happy 6 mo. bday, little guy!)

What are you optimistic about?

Each year John Brockman asks his nebulous band of futurists and pundits a question. The Edge Annual Question for 2007 is:

What are you optimistic about? Why?

I wasn't asked to participate, but if I had been, my answer would have been something like the following.

I'm not an optimist by nature, so a question like this is a bit difficult to answer. But as I look around at friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances, what gives me hope is while these people might sometimes be pessimistic in what they say, they are optimistic in what they do. The cost of saying something, publishing something even, is cheap these days, but actually doing something still costs emotionally, physically, economically, socially. As a barometer of how we're all doing, this is a good sign...in spite of what we hear in the media and from each other.

What are you optimistic about? Why?

The Edge's annual question of the year

The Edge's annual question of the year for 2006 is "what is your dangerous idea?" Last year's question (what do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?) prompted some conversation on kottke.org.