Introduction : the new humanists / by John Brockman
Part I. Homo sapiens: A new scientific synthesis of human history / Jared Diamond
A biological understanding of human nature / Steven Pinker
Getting human nature right / Helena Cronin
Natural born cyborgs? / Andy Clark
Animal minds / Marc D. Hauser
The evolution of cooking / Richard Wrangham
The computational perspective / Daniel C. Dennett
What shape are a German shepherd's ears? / Stephen M. Kosslyn
Part II. Machina sapiens?: Software is a cultural solvent / Jordan B. Pollack The second coming: a manifesto / David Gelernter
Making living systems / Rodney Brooks
Making minds / Hans Moravec
Quantum computation / David Deutsch
What comes after minds? / Marvin Minsky
The singularity / Ray Kurzweil
One half a manifesto / Jared Lanier
Part III. Evolving universes...: How fast, how small, and how powerful? Moore's law and the ultimate laptop / Seth Lloyd
A golden age of cosmology / Alan Guth
The cyclic universe / Paul Steinhardt
Theories of the brane / Lisa Randall
Loop quantum gravity / Lee Smolin
A look ahead / Martin Rees
Epilogue. Responses to "The new humanists": Nicholas Humphrey, Jaron Lanier, Joseph LeDoux, John Horgan, Timothy Taylor, Carlo Rovelli, Steven Johnson, Lee Smolin, Douglas Rushkoff, Piet Hut, Marc D. Hauser, Mihalyi Csikzentmihalyi, Denis Dutton, Daniel C. Dennett, Howard Rheingold, Chris Anderson.