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

This is a little book of profound questions—unknowns that address the secrets of our world, our civilization, the meaning of life. Here are the deepest riddles that have fascinated, obsessed, and haunted the greatest thinkers of our time, including Nobel laureates, cosmologists, philosophers, economists, prize-winning novelists, religious scholars, and more than 250 leading scientists, artists, and theorists. In The Last Unknowns, John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, asks “a mind-blowing gathering of innovative thinkers” (Booklist): “What is ‘The Last Question,’ your last question, the question for which you will be remembered?”

Foreword by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

Why is the world so beautiful? • Is the actual all that is possible? • Why are there no trees in the ocean? • Will humanity end up with one culture? • Why don’t naked mole rats age or get cancer? • Are humans capable of building a moral economy? • Is love really all you need? • If we discover another intelligent civilization, what should we ask them? • Is immortality desirable? • How diverse is life in the universe?

Featuring the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel JARED DIAMOND • Nobel Prize–winning economist RICHARD H. THALER • Harvard psychologist STEVEN PINKER • religion scholar ELAINE PAGELS • author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics CARLO ROVELLI • Booker Prize–winning novelist IAN McEWAN • neuroscientist SAM HARRIS • philosopher DANIEL C. DENNETT • MIT theorist SHERRY TURKLE • decoder of the human genome J. CRAIG VENTER • Nobel Prize–winning physicist FRANK WILCZEK • MIT cosmologist MAX TEGMARK • Whole Earth Catalog founder STEWART BRAND • economist TYLER COWEN • psychologist JUDITH RICH HARRIS • Princeton physicist FREEMAN DYSON • musician BRIAN ENO • environmental scientist JENNIFER JACQUET • Duke economist DAN ARIELY