EFTA02600326.pdf

From: jeffrey E. <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, August 3, 2018 4:13 PM To: John Brockman Subject: Re: call me sorry, so iam clear I fund you and=what you like. My views on having women there are not re=evant to my funding. I made a commitement and will always stick by i=.. my attendance is not important . so no worry,=C2 . I dont have the patience that you have. On Fri, Aug 3, 2018 a= 12:08 PM, John Brockman wrote: JE, --The news about Lawrence: bit.ly/2vAcZOR <http://bit.ly/2vAcZOR> . I had sold his new book, the contracts to which were never signed; and MIT =ress then cancelled the deal. The only other instance this has happened (b=t not "Me-too" related) was a decade ago with Marc Hauser. In th=t situation I made a very big deal and sold the book in 30 countries. In b=th books, the coauthor was Noam. Go figure. Unfortunately for Lawrence (as=was the case with Marc) he's unpublishable, and sadly I don't see =hat changing. » the old conferencess did not care about diversity. =A0 You are absolutely correct. The first two master classes were almost all ma=e, the exception being Anne Treisman, who was one of the great scientists =f the 20th century. And, regarding Anne, as Eric Kandel recounted, when Anne did her famous pap=r in 1980, the entire field of neuroscience was stopped in its tracks. &qu=t;We all had to go back to the drawing boards and rethink everything"= Eric said. And at that point, Anne was hottest scientist in the world, tr=veling with an entourage and meeting and greeting Presidents and Prime Min=sters. Danny Kahneman likes to tell how, at that time, he was some guy fro= Israel that nobody ever heard of, who was chasing after her from city to =ity in romantic pursuit. And yes, there was a difference between Anne and the males the master class=s. I could never get her to do an interview or to give a talk. "John", she said, "I don't do fancy". Anne didn't write, didn't play the intellectual game that you=and I relate to, but her own work was hugely important and she mentored ge=erations of the leading neuroscientists today, none of which are what I ca=l "third culture scientists" (i.e. public communicators), =r, for that matter, are willing to do a book for me. Believe me, I've =ried. Just in Cambridge: Liz Spelke at Harvard, Nancy Kanwisher and Rebecc= Saxe at MIT, Pardis Sabeti at Broad Institute. These scientists are the b=st in the world in their fields. »the old conferences did not care about diversity. I suggest y=u not either. Great minds can disagree. The world has changed. This conference is b=sed on a book. Today, it's impossible to get a publisher to buy su=h a book with essays by 25 men and no women. EFTA_R1_01787254 EFTA02600326  »the women are all weak I completely disagree. Two women will be participants at the table at=the conference: Alison Gopnik is the leading cognitive psychologist in chi=dhood development and acknowledged authority in the field. The disconnect =ere is that you probably have no interest in her subject. Ditto, Car=line Jones, who is a fierce intellectual, a distinguished art historian, o=e of the most erudite and authoritative scholars on cybernetics. Ove learn=d a lot from her. Married to physicist/historian Peter Galison at Harvard =one of five "University Professors" at Harvard), they are = formidable intellectual couple. I would add that the Macy Conferences never would have taken off without th= presence of Margaret Mead. One day I was talking to Gregory Bateson, her =usband at the time, mirroring your attitude, and he ripped me apart and de=ailed how MM was able to think differently than he (or) I did, and explain=ng the great value of having her in the mix. What I learned from Gregory a=d Margaret (and their daughter Catherine) is to be less scornful and more =upportive toward the role of women scientists. I would hope you could get =o that place as well. So, we need to talk. This is a big project and it means a lot to me in term= of my career. (Example since yesterday both Demis Hassibis and Ian McEwan=want to come.) And I'm willing to move ahead on my own dime, which=is already pushing $70K. But given your response, I don't feel com=ortable moving ahead as planned, taking funding or having you in attendanc=. And the latter is a serious risk. Today's news on Lawrence shows=that Me-Too is not going away; it's growing, it's all-perv=sive and we're now in a McCarthy-ism moment on steroids. This is all very depressing to me when I should be celebrating a fantastic =roject. The depressing part is that since we've met you've=been my most dependable friend, and ally, the person I know I can always c=Il and talk to and, more importantly, who picks up the phone and calls me =nd says "how are you?" Pls call. busy until 1pm JB sent from my private email: 2 EFTA_R1_01787255 EFTA02600327  =AO please note The information conta=ned in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privi=eged, may constitute inside information, and is intended only for th= use of the addressee. It is the property of JEE Unauthorized use, d=sclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strict=y prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communic=tion in error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail or by e-ma=l to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> , and destroy this communication and all copies thereof,<=r>including all attachments. copyright -all rights reserved --000000000000fa43ea05728a33ef-- conversation-id 311034 date-last-viewed 0 date-received 1533312786 flags 8590195713 gmail-label-ids 7 remote-id 841643 3 EFTA_R1_01787256 EFTA02600328