Big Pickles

Have I posted about the Edge before? Every year, they pose a question to a bunch of scholars, mostly scientists, and then print up their answers in a book. This year's question is "What have you changed your mind about?"

(Check out the questions from past years as well, if you haven't before.)

I liked Richard Dawkin's explanation of how changing one's mind is frowned upon in politics but encouraged in science. It's something I've tried to explain more than once recently.

I can think of two things I've changed my mind about in recent years. One is my opinion of the virtues of free markets. I used to default to the pro-capitalism side on any issue involving privatization, deregulation, unionization, etc. I'd still say I'm a capitalist, but I no longer reflexively think that free market forces are the cure to all ills.

Another is my optimism about the world in general. I used to take it as given that the world is getting worse and worse all the time, and it would continue to do so until we eventually destroyed ourselves, but I no longer believe that. In many ways, it's getting better all the time. Whether we're talking about technology or ethics or international relations, as bad as things sometimes seem, you can almost always argue that things are better now than they have ever been.

Labels: answers, questions