Here's a talk I gave at the Long Now Foundation about my optimistic hopes that the advent of the internet will mitigate threats that brought down previous civilizations.
This is an idea I've been working on for several years. It started as a short piece in Nature, then a short essay on Edge.org, and finally debuted as an iPad app called Why the Net Matters. For over a week this was the most watched video on fora.tv.
Our ignorance of the cosmos is too vast to commit to atheism, and yet we know too much to commit to a particular religion. A third position, agnosticism, is often an uninteresting stance in which a person simply questions whether his traditional religious story is true or not true. I call myself a possibilian. Find out why.
Think it's unlikely for a scientist to be featured on the cover of an Italian fashion magazine? Me too! But strange things happen...
I had the honor of being selected as one of Houston Modern Luxury's Men of Style.
Communicating science to the public can take time away from a busy research career. So why should scientists do it? I offer a manifesto of six reasons in the Journal of Neuroscience.
David's iPad app "Why the Net Matters, or Six Ways to Avert the Collapse of Civilization" was recently called a "superbook" by the New York Times Magazine. For a taste of the argument, read David's article in WIRED or watch a video of his talk at the Long Now Foundation. Don't have an iPad? The manuscript is now available as an eBook.
David has been named a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. He will use the fellowship opportunity to pursue the genetics and neuroimaging of synesthesia.
David has won the Science Educator Award from the Society of Neuroscience.
