John Brockman’s in town to talk about his latest book, What We Believe But Cannot Prove, at a
Harvard Bookstore event.* Some of the many people whose unproved beliefs he included will also be there–the press release mentions Daniel C. Dennett, Daniel Gilbert, Marc D. Hauser, Elizabeth Spelke and Seth Lloyd.
I first heard about John in the early 1980s, as the go-to agent for popular science books. But being a literary agent and collecting smart people for his varied salons are just sidelines, in my opinion, to John’s real calling, being Tom Sawyer. Instead of recruiting help for whitewashing a fence, John wants to get smart people to talk and argue and make some kind of collegial sense of the universe. (Dave Winer casts a wider net, but with similar goals.)
John also seems to know everyone on the planet. A recent Guardian article has a photo of John with Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol, but that’s just a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction. Meeting him in 1982, I was showing up very late to a long and varied party.
John’s partner Katinka Matson is doing some amazing art photography–not with a camera, but with a flatbed scanner.
Wednesday’s discussion group should be pretty exciting; I recommend it!
* Wednesday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. in Longfellow Hall.