HOUSE OVERSIGHT 023456 >> >> >> EDITORIAL MARCHING ORDERS >> Of course, your own explanations are deep, elegant, and beautiful. But give it a rest for this exercise and please avoid citing your own theory, idea, explanation. Also, think of examples that are not completely obvious—we don't want a hundred people nominating natural selection, or relativity, or Turing machines. >> Say something new, true, and interesting based on your own experience, in 1,000 words or less. >> Go deeper than the news. Tell us something we don't know. This is not a purely scientific question: this is question about our culture and ourselves. The ideas we present on EDGE can offer a new set of metaphors to describe ourselves, our minds, the way we think, the world, and all of the things we know in it. >> >> As usual, no politics ("Democrat" "Republican") or politicians ("Obama" "Romney" "Clinton" "Gingrich", etc.). No editorials, Op-eds, opinion pieces, flippancy. No ad hominem comments. No self-promotion: no referencing your books, papers, courses. No "selling from the stage", pushing your well-known agenda. No footnotes, credits, or hyperlinks in the text: stay on the page. No anecdotes about spouses, significant others, kids, family pets. Write a stand-alone piece: don't respond to the pieces of other contributors already posted. >> This is the annual opportunity for the EDGE community to give something back, to provide an important public service, to make a statement by presenting uncompromisingly sophisticated science-minded thinking to a wide global audience. Be imaginative, exciting, compelling, inspiring. Tell a great story. Make an argument that makes a difference. Amaze and delight. Surprise us! >> >> >> TO THE EDGE PRESS LIST >> Last year's EDGE Question ("What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?" - http://goo.gl/bEzNP - generated 165 essays (115,000 words) and received global press attention - http://goo.g1/Ygxs7 >> For so