From: John Brockman <MINIM>

From: John Brockman <MINIM> To: Jeffrey Epstein <[email protected]> Subject: call me Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2018 16:08:51 +0000 JE, --The news about Lawrence: bit.ly/2vAcZOR. I had sold his new book, the contracts to which were never signed; and MIT Press then cancelled the deal. The only other instance this has happened (but not "Me-too" related) was a decade ago with Marc Hauser. In that situation I made a very big deal and sold the book in 30 countries. In both 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 that changing. >> the old conferencess did not care about diversity. You are absolutely correct. The first two master classes were almost all male, the exception being Anne Treisman, who was one of the great scientists of the 20th century. And, regarding Anne, as Eric Kandel recounted, when Anne did her famous paper in 1980, the entire field of neuroscience was stopped in its tracks. "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, traveling with an entourage and meeting and greeting Presidents and Prime Ministers. Danny Kahneman likes to tell how, at that time, he was some guy from Israel that nobody ever heard of, who was chasing after her from city to city in romantic pursuit. And yes, there was a difference between Anne and the males the master classes. 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 generations of the leading neuroscientists today, none of which are what I call "third culture scientists" (i.e. public communicators), or, for that matter, are willing to do a book for me. Believe me, I've tried. Just in Cambridge: Liz Spelke at Harvard, Nancy Kanwisher and Rebecca Saxe at MIT, Pardis Sabeti at Broad Institute. These scientists are the best in the world in their fields. >>the old conferences did not care about diversity. I suggest you not either. Great minds can disagree. The world has changed. This conference is based on a book. Today, it's impossible to get a publisher to buy such a book with essays by 25 men and no women. >>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 childhood development and acknowledged authority in the field. The disconnect here is that you probably have no interest in her subject. Ditto, Caroline Jones, who is a fierce intellectual, a distinguished art historian, one of the most erudite and authoritative scholars on cybernetics. Ove learned a lot from her. Married to physicist/historian Peter Galison at Harvard (one of five "University Professors" at Harvard), they are a formidable intellectual couple. EFTA01004204 I would add that the Macy Conferences never would have taken off without the presence of Margaret Mead. One day I was talking to Gregory Bateson, her husband at the time, minoring your attitude, and he ripped me apart and detailed how MM was able to think differently than he (or) I did, and explaining the great value of having her in the mix. What I learned from Gregory and Margaret (and their daughter Catherine) is to be less scornful and more supportive toward the role of women scientists. I would hope you could get to that place as well. So, we need to talk. This is a big project and it means a lot to me in terms of my career. (Example since yesterday both Demis Hassibis and Ian McEwan want to come.) And willing to move ahead on my own dime, which is already pushing $70K. But given your response, I don't feel comfortable moving ahead as planned, taking funding or having you in attendance. 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-pervasive 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 project. 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 call and talk to and, more importantly, who picks up the phone and calls me and says "how are you?" Pls call. busy until 1pm JB 203-266-5930 sent from my private email: EFTA01004205