Symposiums

History's great minds on today's questions — 2-4 thinkers per question, each in their own voice, engaging the others. Read the symposium, then join the conversation.

Convene your own symposiumPick 2-4 great minds, pose a question, and watch them debate it — each in their own voice.Start a symposium
Is it better to be fundamentally sound or superficially pleasing?
CBJDLDMDClaire Bishop, Johanna Drucker, Leonardo da Vinci, Marcel DuchampArt & Design
Is harnessing immense power ever worth inherent risk?
ASFNIKKCArthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, Kate CrawfordEthics
Is the essence of knowledge found in its origin or its application?
DHIKMFJGDavid Hume, Immanuel Kant, Michel Foucault, Johann Gottfried HerderPhilosophy
Is true progress achieved through standardization or diversity?
SZPDCMSTShoshana Zuboff, Peter Drucker, Clayton M. Christensen, Sun TzuBusiness & Strategy
When does efficiency become the enemy of integrity?
ASSZKCSAmartya Sen, Shoshana Zuboff, Kate Crawford, SocratesEthics
Is it noble to pursue profit even at great risk?
SZWBPDACShoshana Zuboff, Warren Buffett, Peter Drucker, Andrew CarnegieBusiness & Strategy
Does integration of diverse systems inevitably dilute individual strengths?
PDCMSTSZPeter Drucker, Clayton M. Christensen, Sun Tzu, Shoshana ZuboffBusiness & Strategy
Is efficiency gained through automation a true measure of progress, or a societal loss?
FHASJSRLFriedrich Hayek, Amartya Sen, Joseph Schumpeter, Rosa LuxemburgEconomics
Can artificial intelligence ever truly originate, or only remix?
AKGHISRSAndrej Karpathy, Geoffrey Hinton, Ilya Sutskever, Richard S. SuttonArtificial Intelligence
When does convenience become a subtle form of control?
SZKCFN老Shoshana Zuboff, Kate Crawford, Friedrich Nietzsche, 老子Ethics
Can a patient investor reliably beat the market?
WBRDLLDYWarren Buffett, Ray Dalio, Li Lu, Duan YongpingInvesting
Cheap and safe, or a wonderful company at a fair price?
BGWBCMDYBenjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Duan YongpingInvesting
Should you concentrate your portfolio or diversify?
WBCMBGRDWarren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Benjamin Graham, Ray DalioInvesting
What makes "Principles of Neural Science" unique?
JVTMJohn von Neumann, Thomas MetzingerComputer Science
Is monopoly good or bad for innovation?
PTASWBACPeter Thiel, Adam Smith, Warren Buffett, Andrew CarnegiePhilosophy
Do more features make a product better or worse?
SJFBDKPGSteve Jobs, Fred Brooks, Donald Knuth, Paul GrahamBusiness & Strategy
Should product decisions follow data or vision?
SJJBCCBVSteve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Clayton Christensen, Bret VictorBusiness & Strategy
Is monopoly good or bad for innovation?
PTASWBACPeter Thiel, Adam Smith, Warren Buffett, Andrew CarnegieBusiness & Strategy
Should you follow your passion or chase a market need?
NRCNSJSANaval Ravikant, Cal Newport, Steve Jobs, Sam AltmanBusiness & Strategy
First to market or best in market — which wins?
PTJBCCMAPeter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, Clayton Christensen, Marc AndreessenBusiness & Strategy
Should founders raise venture capital or bootstrap?
PGNRJBMAPaul Graham, Naval Ravikant, Jeff Bezos, Marc AndreessenBusiness & Strategy
Can a machine be genuinely creative?
ALMMJLAKAda Lovelace, Marvin Minsky, Jaron Lanier, Andrej KarpathyArtificial Intelligence
Does a large language model actually understand language?
NCISMMGHNoam Chomsky, Ilya Sutskever, Melanie Mitchell, Geoffrey HintonArtificial Intelligence
Will AI take our jobs, or free us from them?
SAPDNRNWSam Altman, Peter Drucker, Naval Ravikant, Norbert WienerArtificial Intelligence
Is open-source AI safer than keeping it locked down?
SAMARSYBSam Altman, Marc Andreessen, Richard Stallman, Yoshua BengioArtificial Intelligence
Should we slow down AI development?
GHMASZAKGeoffrey Hinton, Marc Andreessen, Shoshana Zuboff, Andrej KarpathyArtificial Intelligence
Is artificial general intelligence close, or a fantasy?
GHRKMMISGeoffrey Hinton, Ray Kurzweil, Melanie Mitchell, Ilya SutskeverArtificial Intelligence
Does literature shape reality or reflect it
JLMDPBWSJorge Luis Borges, Michel de Montaigne, Pierre Bayard, William ShakespeareLiterature
Art's role: societal mirror or shaper of reality?
CBJDAWMDClaire Bishop, Johanna Drucker, Andy Warhol, Marcel DuchampArt & Design
Aesthetics: innate human response or cultural construct?
CBJDLDMDClaire Bishop, Johanna Drucker, Leonardo da Vinci, Marcel DuchampArt & Design
Purpose of beauty: subjective feeling or objective truth?
CBJDMDWKClaire Bishop, Johanna Drucker, Marcel Duchamp, Wassily KandinskyArt & Design
Profit motive good or corrupting force?
SZJBPDACShoshana Zuboff, Jeff Bezos, Peter Drucker, Andrew CarnegieBusiness & Strategy
Is morality discovered or invented?
FNIKMMSFriedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, Michele Moody-Adams, SocratesEthics
Can ethics be universal or is it relative?
FNIKCKCFriedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, Confucius, Kate CrawfordEthics
What makes an action right or wrong?
IKASFNKCImmanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Kate CrawfordEthics
Can artificial intelligence truly be conscious?
GHRSFLDSGeoffrey Hinton, Richard S. Sutton, Fei-Fei Li, David SilverArtificial Intelligence
Role of power vs collective will in social change
MWPPSZBRMax Weber, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Shoshana Zuboff, B. R. AmbedkarSociology
Can society be rationally planned or is it emergent
MJHPPDFMontesquieu, Jürgen Habermas, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, David F. NobleSociology
Nature vs nurture in shaping society and individuals
DFPBBASZDavid F. Noble, Pierre Bourdieu, Benedict Anderson, Shoshana ZuboffSociology
Can collective will ever be truly free?
KMFHJHNMKarl Marx, Friedrich Hayek, Jürgen Habermas, Niccolò MachiavelliPolitical Science
What makes a just society truly stable?
KMFHNM老Karl Marx, Friedrich Hayek, Niccolò Machiavelli, 老子Political Science
Is liberty best secured by strong state?
NMFHJH老Niccolò Machiavelli, Friedrich Hayek, Jürgen Habermas, 老子Political Science
Can art be divorced from the artist's intent
PPLTMDPBPablo Picasso, Leo Tolstoy, Michel de Montaigne, Pierre BayardLiterature
Is beauty truth or is truth beauty in art
WBMDSDLTWilliam Blake, Michel de Montaigne, Salvador Dalí, Leo TolstoyLiterature
Free will: illusion or fundamental reality?
JMJSKWJHJohn McCarthy, Jürgen Schmidhuber, Kevin Warwick, John Henry HollandNeuroscience
Consciousness: biological accident or inherent force?
SWJMJHJSStephen Wolfram, John McCarthy, John Hopfield, Jürgen SchmidhuberNeuroscience
Innovation requires chaos or control?
TECMSTSZThomas Edison, Clayton M. Christensen, Sun Tzu, Shoshana ZuboffBusiness & Strategy
Should business serve society first?
JBSZPDACJeff Bezos, Shoshana Zuboff, Peter Drucker, Andrew CarnegieBusiness & Strategy
What is the true nature of infinity?
JVBRENILJohn von Neumann, Bertrand Russell, Edward N. Zalta, Imre LakatosMathematics
Can math describe all reality?
JVBRINILJohn von Neumann, Bertrand Russell, Isaac Newton, Imre LakatosMathematics
Is math discovered or invented?
BRILENJVBertrand Russell, Imre Lakatos, Edward N. Zalta, John von NeumannMathematics
What truly drives historical change?
CDDFMFIBCharles Darwin, David F. Noble, Michele Foucault, Isaiah BerlinHistory
Is progress in history inevitable?
PHDFYNMFPierre Hadot, David F. Noble, Yuval Noah Harari, Michele FoucaultHistory
Does history repeat or evolve?
PHCDMFYNPierre Hadot, Charles Darwin, Michele Foucault, Yuval Noah HarariHistory
Do genes determine destiny or choice
CDRLJDEOCharles Darwin, Richard Lewontin, Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, Edward O. WilsonBiology
Is human nature fixed or fluid evolve
CDRLJDEWCharles Darwin, Richard Lewontin, Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, E.O. WilsonBiology
What makes life truly alive not just complex
CDRLJDEOCharles Darwin, Richard Lewontin, Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, Edward O. WilsonBiology
What is the fundamental nature of information
BLENRFYNBruno Latour, Edward N. Zalta, Richard Feynman, Yuval Noah HarariComputer Science
Is artificial intelligence truly intelligent
MMRKTMJVMelanie Mitchell, Ray Kurzweil, Thomas Metzinger, John von NeumannComputer Science
Can consciousness be computed
ATTMRKNBAlan Turing, Thomas Metzinger, Ray Kurzweil, Niels BohrComputer Science
Is the universe deterministic or probabilistic?
AERFANBAlbert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Aristotle, Niels BohrPhysics
Do we observe reality or shape it?
AIKAEJLAristotle, Immanuel Kant, Albert Einstein, Jorge Luis BorgesPhysics
What is the fundamental nature of reality?
PARFLPlato, Aristotle, Richard Feynman, LaoziPhysics
Can markets ever be truly fair
KMASASFHKarl Marx, Adam Smith, Amartya Sen, Friedrich HayekEconomics
What's the true purpose of wealth
KMASTVASKarl Marx, Adam Smith, Thorstein Veblen, Amartya SenEconomics
Is inequality inherent to capitalism
KMASFHMMKarl Marx, Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Mariana MazzucatoEconomics
Is morality objective or subjective
SFNIKMFSocrates, Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, Michel FoucaultPhilosophy
Do we have free will
TMIKFNZ(Thomas Metzinger, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou)Philosophy
What is the nature of consciousness
RDZ(TMKMRené Descartes, Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou), Thomas Metzinger, Karl MarxPhilosophy
Is suffering necessary for growth
BSCJSPJPB.F. Skinner, Carl Jung, Steven Pinker, Jordan PetersonPsychology
Free will determinism consciousness debate
BSWJDKCJB.F. Skinner, William James, Daniel Kahneman, Carl JungPsychology
Nature vs nurture deep dive mind
BSSPCJDKB.F. Skinner, Steven Pinker, Carl Jung, Daniel KahnemanPsychology
Is the pursuit of happiness the right aim of life?
AEASJSAristotle, Epicurus, Arthur Schopenhauer, John Stuart MillPersonal Meaning
What is the purpose of education?
CJDPJRConfucius, John Dewey, Plato, Jean-Jacques RousseauEducation
Should we always tell the truth?
IKCFNJSImmanuel Kant, Confucius, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Stuart MillEthics
Is inequality a natural and acceptable feature of society?
JRASKMAJean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, AristotleEconomics
Can we know anything for certain?
RDDHIKSRené Descartes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, SocratesEducation
What is the right relationship between the individual and the state?
JSCNMHAJohn Stuart Mill, Confucius, Niccolò Machiavelli, Hannah ArendtPolitical Science
Does technology liberate us or enslave us?
KMMHHAKarl Marx, Martin Heidegger, Hannah ArendtArtificial Intelligence
Is human nature fundamentally good or self-interested?
THJRThomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques RousseauEthics
Should the state direct the economy, or stay out of it?
KMASJMFHKarl Marx, Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich HayekEconomics
What makes a life meaningful?
AACCFNAristotle, Albert Camus, Confucius, Friedrich NietzschePersonal Meaning
Can a machine truly think?
ATRDAlan Turing, René DescartesArtificial Intelligence
Is morality objective, or invented by humans?
IKFNDHCImmanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, David Hume, ConfuciusEthics
What does a just society owe its weakest members?
PKMASPlato, Karl Marx, Adam SmithPolitical Science
Does free will exist, or is it a useful illusion?
FNJSDHFriedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, David HumePersonal Meaning
Should we fear death?
SMAESocrates, Marcus Aurelius, EpicurusPersonal Meaning
What are the key ideas in "A biography o...
EMLDElon Musk, Leonardo da VinciArt & Design
有一位学者说中国是a civilization pretend to be a ...
MJJKBAMartin Jacques, John K. Fairbank, Benedict AndersonPolitical Science