
What Is the Last Question? - Cwwm
https://www.edge.org/the-edge-question%E2%80%942018
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arstin
I hate being a downer, but was anyone else struck by how...uninteresting so
many of these answers were? I love reading this series, but it seems this
year's question was just too hard. Seriously, I have no clue what I'd answer
either...though it is fun to think about how to put a wider eyed spin on
what's there! Like:

how can changing the tax rate affect motivation (how about "are there levers
for manipulating motivation which go too far?"),

or what kinds of minds can solve the mind-body problem (us lol, instead what
about "what is the history of understanding what we are in relation to the
world and which new concepts might we use instead through which a sense of
intractable puzzlement doesn't arise?"),

or can we design a machine that can correctly answer every question (how about
"if we could design a machine to answer every question, what are its values
such that it knows when to stop in any particular case?"),

or is there a fundamental difference between the physical and the biological
world (how about "how should we understand the causal role of normative
characterization in a kind of explanation which has been particularly well
suited to biology?").

EDIT: of course some were very thoughtful! Like Aaronson asking "Can we
program a computer to find a 10,000-bit string that encodes more actionable
wisdom than any human has ever expressed?" or Bostrom "Which questions should
we not ask and not try to answer?" or Dennett "How can an aggregation of
trillions of selfish, myopic cells discover the unwitting teamwork that turns
that dynamic clump into a person who can love, notice, wonder, and keep a
promise?" or Pagel "Is a single world language and culture inevitable?".

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Dylan16807
I skipped to page 12 and got "Would you like to live 1,000 years?", so I see
what you mean. A tenfold lifespan increase is quite comprehensible and seems
like a flat yes.

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BatFastard
The last question is "How do you turn this thing off?"

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Avshalom
With the penultimate being "What's this button do?"

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zerostar07
I dislike this 'crowdsourcing' of philosophy. If you want a profound answer
you have to search for the profound person who can give it first. I wonder if
anyone mentioned "What is a question" as an answer.

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bbctol
To be fair, these aren't random people off the street; it's crowdsourcing from
a pool of interesting people chosen by a fairly proven editor. (That, and a
policy of answering questions by finding the single person who can grant
absolute truth is surely worse.)

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zerostar07
most of them are scientists giving a scientific question of their interest as
the last question. it's like a classified listing. a debate would be a better
format.

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Jaruzel
For a moment, I though this was Asimov's Last Question...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question)

Warning, Spoilers if you haven't read it.

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hopfog
Me too! I like this comic book adaption:
[https://imgur.com/gallery/9KWrH](https://imgur.com/gallery/9KWrH)

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littlestymaar
Awsome ! Thanks for sharing

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ifdefdebug
as long as the answer is 42...

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andyjohnson0
I'm curious as to why so few women were invited to participate. Especially
given the diversity of fields represented.

