It’s a truism that what we see about the world is a small fraction of all that exists. At the simplest level of physics and biology, our senses are drastically limited; we only see a narrow spectrum of electromagnetic waves, and we only hear a narrow band of sound. We don’t feel neutrinos or dark matter at all, even as they pass through our bodies, and we can’t perceive microscopic objects. While science can help us overcome some of these limitations, they do shape how we think about the world. Ziya Tong takes this idea and expands it to include the parts of our social and moral worlds that are effectively invisible to us — from where our food comes from to how we decide how wealth is allocated in society.
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Ziya Tong received a B.A. in psychology and sociology from the University of British Columbia, and an M.A. in communications from McGill University. She has served as host, writer, director, producer, and reporter from a number of science programs, most notably Daily Planet on Discovery Canada. She is a Trustee of the World Wildlife Fund, and served on the Board of WWF Canada. Her book The Reality Bubble: How Science Reveals the Hidden Truths that Shape Our World was published in 2019.
AMA | July 2021
154 | Reza Aslan on Religion, Metaphor, and Meaning
153 | John Preskill on Quantum Computers and What They’re Good For
152 | Charis Kubrin on Criminology, Incarceration, and Hip-Hop
151 | Jordan Ellenberg on the Mathematics of Political Boundaries
AMA | June 2021
150 | Simon DeDeo on How Explanations Work and Why They Sometimes Fail
149 | Lee Smolin on Time, Philosophy, and the Nature of Reality
148 | Henry Farrell on Democracy as a Problem-Solving Mechanism
147 | Rachel Laudan on Cuisine, Culture, and Empire
AMA | May 2021
146 | Emily Riehl on Topology, Categories, and the Future of Mathematics
145 | Niall Ferguson on Histories, Networks, and Catastrophes
144 | Solo: Are We Moving Beyond the Standard Model?
143 | Julia Galef on Openness, Bias, and Rationality
AMA | April 2021
142 | Charlie Jane Anders on Stories and How to Write Them
141 | Zeynep Tufekci on Information and Attention in a Networked World
140 | Dean Buonomano on Time, Reality, and the Brain
139 | Elizabeth Anderson on Equality, Work, and Ideology
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