Edge.org

edge.org
Website type
Group blog
CreatorJohn Brockman
Websiteedge.org

Edge.org is an online magazine exploring scientific and intellectual ideas. Its chief editor is the publisher John Brockman. The website was created in 1997 as an online re-branding of The Reality Club. It is legally established as Edge Foundation, Inc.

In 2019, BuzzFeed News reviewed Edge's IRS filings and reported that Jeffrey Epstein was "by far its largest financial donor", that "his association with Edge gave him access to leading scientists and figures in the tech industry", that he attended at least two Edge dinners in 2011 (two years after he had gone to prison for procuring a minor for prostitution), and that he was not listed by Edge among the attendees of those events.

The Third Culture

Echo markets The Third Culture as a movement towards reintegration of literary and scientific thinking. The name is a nod toward scientist C. P. Snow's concept of the two cultures of science and the humanities. John Brockman published a book of the same name whose themes are continued at the Edge website. Scientists and others are invited to contribute their thoughts in a manner accessible to non-specialist readers.

Edge Question

Edge poses its members an annual question:

Contributing authors

As of 2011, contributors included Anthony Aguirre, Stephon Alexander, John Allen Paulos, Adam Alter, Alun Anderson, Ross Anderson, Scott Atran, Mahzarin Banaji, Thomas Bass, Sue Blackmore, Paul Bloom, Giulio Boccaletti, Stefano Boeri, Josh Bongard, Nick Bostrom, Stewart Brand, David Buss, William Calvin, Nicholas Carr, Sean M. Carroll, Nicholas Christakis, George M. Church, Andy Clark, Gregory Cochran, James Croak, Satyajit Das, Richard Dawkins, Aubrey De Grey, Daniel Dennett, Emanuel Derman, Keith Devlin, Rolf Dobelli, George Dyson, David Eagleman, Brian Eno, Juan Enriquez, Dylan Evans, Christine Finn, Stuart Firestein, Helen Fisher, Susan Fiske, Tecumseh Fitch, Richard Foreman, Howard Gardner, Amanda Gefter, David Gelernter, Neil Gershenfeld, Gerd Gigerenzer, Marcelo Gleiser, Nigel Goldenfeld, Rebecca Goldstein, Daniel Goleman, Alison Gopnik, Joshua Greene, Jonathan Haidt, Diane Halpern, Kevin Hand, Haim Harari, Sam Harris, Marti Hearst, Roger Highfield, W. Daniel Hillis, Donald D. Hoffman, Gerald Holton, Bruce Hood, Nicholas Humphrey, Jennifer Jacquet, Xeni Jardin, Daniel Kahneman, Kevin Kelly, Douglas Kenrick, Christian Keysers, Vinod Khosla, Marcel Kinsbourne, Jon Kleinberg, Brian Knutson, Bart Kosko, Kai Krause, Lawrence Krauss, Rob Kurzban, George Lakoff, Jaron Lanier, Jonah Lehrer, Garrett Lisi, Seth Lloyd, Stephen M. Kosslyn, Gary Marcus, Hazel Rose Markus, John McWhorter, Thomas Metzinger, Geoffrey Miller, Evgeny Morozov, P.Z. Myers, David Myers, Richard Nisbett, Tor Norretranders, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Gloria Origgi, Neri Oxman, Mark Pagel, Greg Paul, Irene Pepperberg, Clifford Pickover, Steven Pinker, David Pizarro, Ernst Pöppel, V.S. Ramachandran, Lisa Randall, Martin Rees, Andrew Revkin, Matt Ridley, Matthew Ritchie, Jay Rosen, Carlo Rovelli, David Rowan, Rudy Rucker, Douglas Rushkoff, Paul Saffo, Scott D. Sampson, Robert Sapolsky, Dimitar Sasselov, Richard Saul Wurman, Roger Schank, Kathryn Schulz, Gino Segre, Charles Seife, Terrence Sejnowski, Martin Seligman, Michael Shermer, Clay Shirky, Lee Smolin, Dan Sperber, Tom Standage, Victoria Stodden, Linda Stone, Nassim Taleb, Don Tapscott, Max Tegmark, Richard Thaler, John Tooby, Eric Topol, J. Craig Venter, Eric Weinstein, Frank Wilczek, Dave Winer and Milford Wolpoff. Carl Zimmer was also a former contributor but asked for his content to be removed after learning of the role of Jeffrey Epstein as a supporter of the foundation.

References

  1. ↑ Naughton, John (8 January 2012). "John Brockman: the man who runs the world's smartest website". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  2. ↑ Schappell, Elissa Schappell. "A Mental Spring Cleaning". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  3. ↑ Upbin, Brian (5 October 2011). "Forbes Is Seeking Edge Thinkers". Forbes. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  4. ↑ "Origins of Edge". Nieman Reports. June 14, 2010. Retrieved February 25, 2026. The Edge project was inspired by the 1971 failed art experiment entitled "The World Question Center" by the late James Lee Byars...he planned to gather the 100 most brilliant minds in the world in a room, lock them behind closed doors, and have them ask each other the questions they were asking themselves...A decade later, Brockman picked up on the idea and founded The Reality Club, which, in 1997, went online, rebranded as Edge.
  5. 1 2 "How Jeffrey Epstein Bankrolled An Exclusive Intellectual Boys Club And Reaped The Benefits". BuzzFeed News. 26 September 2019. Retrieved 2021-10-03.
  6. ↑ "In 2011, Jeffrey Epstein Was A Known Sex Offender. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, And Sergey Brin Dined With Him Anyway". BuzzFeed News. 9 September 2019. Retrieved 2025-12-18.
  7. ↑ John Brockman (1995). The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-82344-6.
  8. ↑ "Annual Question". www.edge.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  9. ↑ Brockman, John (1998). "1998: WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF?". www.edge.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
  10. ↑ "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?". edge.org. 2005. Archived from the original on 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  11. ↑ What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty. Free Press, UK. 2005. ISBN 9781416522614.
  12. ↑ "What is your dangerous idea?". edge.org. 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  13. ↑ What Is Your Dangerous Idea?: Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable. Harper Perennial. 2007. ISBN 978-0-06-121495-0.
  14. ↑ "What are you optimistic about? Why?". edge.org. 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  15. ↑ John Brockman, ed. (2007). What Are You Optimistic About?: Today's Leading Thinkers on Why Things Are Good and Getting Better. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-143693-2.
  16. ↑ "What have you changed your mind about?". edge.org. 2008.[permanent dead link]
  17. ↑ John Brockman, ed. (13 January 2009). What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-168654-2.
  18. ↑ "What Will Change Everything? What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?". edge.org. 2009.[permanent dead link]
  19. ↑ John Brockman, ed. (2010). This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape The Future. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-189967-6.
  20. ↑ "How has the Internet changed the way you think?". edge.org. 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-02-09. Retrieved 2010-01-09.
  21. 1 2 Brockman, John, ed. (2011). Is the Internet changing the way you think? : the net's impact on our minds and future (1st ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 9780062020444. OCLC 641534355.
  22. 1 2 "What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?". edge.org. 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-01-27. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  23. ↑ "What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?". edge.org. 2012.
  24. ↑ Brockman; John, eds. (2013). This explains everything : deep, beautiful, and elegant theories of how the world works (1st ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 9780062230171. OCLC 795758008.
  25. ↑ "What should we be worried about?". edge.org. 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  26. ↑ Brockman, John, ed. (2014). What should we be worried about? : real scenarios that keep scientists up at night (First ed.). New York, NY: HaperCollins. ISBN 9780062296238. OCLC 849787401.
  27. ↑ "What scientific idea is ready for retirement?". edge.org. 2014. Retrieved 2015-12-21.
  28. ↑ Brockman, John, ed. (17 February 2015). This idea must die : scientific ideas that are blocking progress (First ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 9780062374349. OCLC 881042113.
  29. ↑ "What Do You Think About Machines that Think?". edge.org. 2014. Retrieved 2015-01-19.
  30. ↑ Brockman; John, eds. (6 October 2015). What to think about machines that think : today's leading thinkers on the age of machine intelligence (First ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 9780062425652. OCLC 922877862.
  31. ↑ "WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?". www.edge.org. Retrieved 2017-01-01.
  32. ↑ Know this : today's most interesting and important scientific ideas, discoveries, and developments. Brockman, John, 1941- (First ed.). New York, NY: Harper Perennial. 7 February 2017. ISBN 9780062562067. OCLC 964787935.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  33. ↑ "2017: What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?". edge.org. 2017. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  34. ↑ This idea is brilliant : lost, overlooked, and underappreciated scientific concepts everyone should know. Brockman, John, 1941- (First ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. 16 January 2018. ISBN 9780062698216. OCLC 1019711625.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  35. ↑ "2018: What is the last question?". edge.org. 2018. Retrieved 2018-08-07.