Perlmutter, Campbell and MacCoun on Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense

Join a Nobel Laureate physicist, a psychologist and a philosopher for a conversation about the tools and frameworks that scientists have developed to keep from fooling themselves, to chart a course through the profusion of possibilities, to better understand the world, and to make intelligent decisions. These trust-building techniques, which the authors call Third Millennium Thinking, can be used to tackle problems both big and small.

Ironically, the deluge of information over the internet has made it even harder to distinguish the revelatory from the contradictory. How do we make health decisions in the face of conflicting medical advice? Does that article on GMOs even show what the authors claim? How should we navigate our next Thanksgiving discussion with our in-laws, who follow completely different experts on climate?

Based on a popular UC Berkeley course, Third Millennium Thinking offers a novel approach for making sense of the nonsense by thinking critically, making sound decisions, and solving problems - individually and collectively - using scientists’ tricks of the trade.

Panel:

• John Campbell, UC Berkeley
• Robert MacCoun, Stanford University
• Saul Perlmutter, Nobel Laureate, UC Berkeley
• George Hammond, Commonwealth Club, Moderator