The Last Unknowns: Deep, Elegant, Profound Unanswered Questions About the Universe, the Mind, the Future of Civilization, and the Meaning of Life Kindle Edition

This "book" has one question per page in very large font size with who submitted it. Thats it. No discussion, no idea development, nada. It could have been printed on a few pages in pamphlet form. It should have been released on April 1st for us fools who expected more. The only unanswered question I have is "Why did I buy this??"

I got the kindle. There are 334 pages - minus a few pages of author index is why I say 300 pages. Each page has one short quote, followed by author, and a third text block of a affiliation + recent book.Some easy questions:Jonathan Haidt's question is: Why is it so hard to find the truth? Because we are so biased! Why are we so biased?NICHOLAS A. CHRISTAKIS: Will some things about life, consciousness, and society necessarily remain unseen? Yes, duh!STANISLAS DEHAENE: Is our brain fundamentally limited in its ability to understand the external world? Yes. Somethings will only be grasped by metaphor.ANDY CLARK: Will we soon cease to care whether we are experiencing normal, augmented, or virtual reality? not I!!!and a trés au courant question:JERRY A. COYNE If science does in fact confirm that we lack free will, what are the implications for our notions of blame, punishment, reward, and moral responsibility?(P.S. Science has a hard time proving the negative.)

I expected this to be similar to other books Brockman has edited—brief chapters by people in a range of fields expounding on a topic of interest. But each chapter in this volume is simply a single question, many of which I have already pondered myself. Nothing more. Many of the questions are interesting, but without any further exposition the book is a waste of paper and not worth paying for. This would be better as a $2 Kindle single.

Like the other folks who gave negative reviews, I was really disappointed when I realized this last installment of The Edge Question series was merely a collection of questions. But the more I read the more I realized that, just like all the other books, there was, nevertheless, still plenty of gold to be mined. If you use this book as a springboard you’ll be diving into some extremely deep waters. Good luck!

I preordered this thinking there would be discussion with all the big names. It's literally a list of questions. One per page in giant font so it can be really long. I don't know how this got published.

A "book" sans content. Philosophical ponderings by people of whose existence you probably were not aware.

John Brockman is the agent you want if you are a Nobelist with a book to write (or sell). He doesn't return calls or e-mails but who cares ... he cornered the market on getting academics into the public eye with his Third Culture. The coruscating brilliance of his rolodex/digital salon and the ingenuity of The Edge have been mainstays of public access to the intelligentsia at the bleeding edge of science.I guess he ran out of good ideas for the last go-round.If you enjoy reading a book of cosmic queries but NO ANSWERS, this is the book for you. I didn't, and it is a crying shame that the luminaries who posted these questions could not shine a little with the answers that they are eminently qualified to provide. Instead Brockman leaves the reader with nothing but the silence of the Sphinx when it comes to the denouement of 300+ pages of cosmic questions.Did I get it wrong? Is this a performance piece or series of Zen koans (and just what is the sound of one hand clapping anyway?) hearkening back to Brockman's salad days at Max's Kansas City and the Warhol factory? What I do know is that it isn't good or even passable scientific journalism by virtue of leaving the hapless reader waiting in vain for the punchline.Brockman can do better if he cares to but even the great ones can get bogged down (Einstein and his unified field theory but at least Einstein was trying "to read the mind of God") in late innings.John, it's not too late ... how about a sequel volume WITH the answers this time - call it "The Last Knowns ..."Don't let us down.

Hmmmm .... what a surprise .... a book of questions ... quite important questions ... and only questions from some very smart folks. 2 stars because it‘s really not much of a book ... 300 pages of questions and short bios of the questioners. So, as a reader of non fiction, cosmology, astrophysics, Quantum Mechanics ... Tectonics ... I was expecting a compendium of the most intriguing, difficult to answer or even conceive of questions facing the practitioners of the sciences today .... the questions, sure, but not even a briefsummary of the issues/problems and a paragraph or two of the directions toward the solutions ... i.e. where are we today in the search for understanding. O well ... an interesting idea for a book maybe, Not my cup o tea for sure ... Caveat Emptor ... REALLY. One commenter gave 5 stars because of all the questions and hopes of stimulating one to seek answers ... I suppose that is a reasonable thing .... I prefer questions, solutions/answers ... and all the possibilities ...

Il libro mi ha sorpreso dapprima. Poi un po' alla voltane ho apprezzato il valore problematico: è un insieme delle questioni aperte più rilevanti. Un'ottima guida panoramica sullo stato delle nostre conoscenze.

Or discussion. Or clarification. Or anything.Here’s one: what is the point of this book?Five more words are required.

I expected some detailed expositions on the "last unknowns" by the eminent authors, but found the book full of single-line questions. Not really stimulating. I was rather disappointed.

Do not bother. Just pages with a question in big print and a few words about the poser. No commentary. Nothing about the significance of the question, why it might be worth asking, why the answer has not been found… All rather pointless.

Lots of Space for thinking - hard thinking !