Vida multicelular inteligente: um acontecimento raro na história do universo

List of some of the special conditions that jointly had made intelligent life possible on earth, by Marcelo Gleiser:

• "The long-term existence of a protective and oxygen-rich atmosphere (A existência duradoura de uma atmosfera protetora e rica em oxigênio);
• "Earth's axial tilt, stabilized by a single large moon (A inclinação do eixo de rotação da Terra, estabilizado por uma única grande lua);
• "The ozone layer and the magnetic field, which jointly protect surface creatures from lethal cosmic radiation (A camada de ozônio e o campo magnético, que juntos protegem as criaturas terrestres da radiação cósmica letal);
• "plate tectonics, which regulates the levels of carbon dioxide and keeps the global temperature stable (as placas tectônicas, que regulam os níveis de dióxido de carbono e mantem a temperatura estável);
• "the fact that our sun is a smallish, fairly stable star not too prone to releasing huge plasma burbs (o fato de nosso sol ser uma estrela pequena e bastante estável, não muito propensa a descarregar enormes irrupções de plasma)", Brockman, J. (ed.) This Will Make you Smarter, p. 5

The Edge mission: what we know until now about us and about the world? Does it matter?

Next week the site edge.org will bring to us the result of an inquiry into the state of art of the social sciences in its various reserche fields. How the achievements of these sciences can enhance our comprehension of human nature? Pay attention to the role of statistical explanations, to the distinction between the two modes of thinking (the fast and the slow one), and finaly to the use of computational models in the study of social and human phenomena.