The Essential Questions are coming...

Hi I'm Chris Labash. Welcome to the Essential Questions blog. If you've come here from my web page, you already know why you're here. If you've come from elsewhere, here's what this is about:

I teach in Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College (more on me and it here) and like most teachers, I try to ask provocative questions in class that go beyond the usual class-oriented content. It's easy to ask questions about best practices in communication or innovation (the subjects I most often teach); harder to ask questions of an existential nature. And while I'm not trying to turn my classes into philosophy classes, I do want to stimulate critical thought, especially as we move increasingly forward in a world where evidence, intelligence and humanity seem to matter less and less.

Inspired by John Brockman and edge.org's Annual Question, I ask students to create evidence-supported final presentations that address such "essential questions" as, "Does it matter if there are poor people?" and "What's the logical next step in human evolution?" and "Should a species ever be intentionally eliminated?" and "What does it mean to be human in the age of AI?" and "Does Art Still Matter?" 

Over the next month or so (so, by the end of January 2025) I'll be getting this blog up and running, and then will share some of the interesting perspectives that an array of bright, motivated graduate students have on some of (to me, at least) the most important topics of our time.

So please give me your patience for a bit, as I get the blog to a point where it's worth your reading, and, I hope, encourages you to add your own voice.

Thanks.