Santa (well, my colleague Wendy Sullivan) brought me 'What's Your Dangerous Idea?' edited by John Brockman.

Most thought-provoking of the essays I've read so far is this pithy piece by Daniel Gilbert:

"'Dangerous' does not mean exciting or bold, it means likely to cause great harm. The most dangerous idea is the only dangerous idea: The idea that ideas can be dangerous.

"We live in a world where people are beheaded, imprisoned, demoted and censured simply because they have opened their mouths, flapped their lips, and vibrated some air. Yes, those vibrations can make us feel sad or stupid or alienated. Too bad. That's the price of admission to the marketplace of ideas. Hateful, blasphemous, prejudiced, vulgar, rude or ignorant remarks are the music of a free society, and the relentless patter of idiots is how we know we're in one. When all the words in our public conversation are fair, good and true, it's time to make a run for the fence."

When all the words are perceived as being 'what they really are', rather than run for the fence, maybe we can celebrate that we are no longer projecting misconceptions of our own made up stuff. I feel we will have a long long wait for that day to happen globally.