Marcelo Gleiser
Marcelo Gleiser is a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. He is the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College.
Gleiser is the author of the books The Prophet and the Astronomer (Norton & Company, 2003); The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang (Dartmouth, 2005); A Tear at the Edge of Creation (Free Press, 2010); and The Island of Knowledge (Basic Books, 2014). He is a frequent presence in TV documentaries and writes often for magazines, blogs and newspapers on various aspects of science and culture.
He has authored over 100 refereed articles, is a Fellow and General Councilor of the American Physical Society and a recipient of the Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House and the National Science Foundation.
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If we are able to create intelligent machines, how can we guarantee they will keep us alive and well, as opposed to wiping us out? Nick Bostrom explores the question in Superintelligence.
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Commentator Marcelo Gleiser says the prospect of making living creatures is as exciting as it is terrifying — and the stakes are so high, that the discussion must be brought into the open.
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We've learned so much, yet we still don't know the composition of 95 percent of the cosmos. Commentator Marcelo Gleiser says it is good to stay humble and keep an open mind as the search continues.
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Life doesn't necessarily lead to intelligence. So, says commentator Marcelo Gleiser, the fact that we are thinking, molecular machines should mean something — and redefine the way we relate.
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Our quest for knowledge will never end because we just can't know everything, no matter how hard we try, says commentator Marcelo Gleiser. But that's a good thing. Here's why.
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New human possibilities materialized with the arrival of the the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. Commentator Marcelo Gleiser says its time to pick up the banner and move forward again.
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If nature is like a game played by the gods, scientists are the observers trying to figure out the rules. Physicist Marcelo Gleiser asks: Can our knowledge ever be complete?
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Recent results cast doubt on claims that a much-hyped experiment has detected signals from the Big Bang itself. That's just another example of science in the making, says commentator Marcelo Gleiser.
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Humanity is slowly transforming, evolving into a new species, growing together with its technology. Marcelo Gleiser asks: How will we maintain our sense of self as we become something else?
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There is no end to how much we can know of reality. But we can never know everything, says commentator Marcelo Gleiser.