Some contributors believe that a "cognitive toolkit" should incorporate the scientific method to educate our minds to think critically and rationally, overcoming bias and uncertainty and encouraging experimentation in the context of everyday life. Others, like biologist P.Z. Myers, advocate an acceptance of human mediocrity and a recognition that life occurs as a consequence of natural circumstances. J. Craig Ventner stresses the need for humans to accept they are not the center of the universe. For Kathryn Schulz, the realization that human truths today become falsehoods tomorrow should force us to consider contradictory viewpoints. Neuroscientist Robert A. Provine gets his universal truth from Robert A. Heinlein's TANSTAAFL: "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
Brockman's collection demonstrates that our futures depend on our abilities to take classroom lessons that can stretch the limits of intellectual capabilities and apply them to the patterns of life. The principles of lifelong learning and social conscientiousness his panel of experts advocate would do much in improving everybody's cognitive toolkit. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer