The welcome letter to this year’s Pop!Tech conference contained a kick-ass quote from Harvard Psychologist Dan Gilbert, which we felt framed the question of Dangerous Ideas perfectly:

The most dangerous idea is… the idea that ideas can be dangerous.

We live in a world in which people are beheaded, imprisoned, demoted, and censured simply because they have opened their mouths, flapped their lips, and vibrated some air. Yes, those vibrations can make us feel sad or stupid or alienated. Tough shit. That’s the price of admission to the marketplace of ideas. Hateful, blasphemous, prejudiced, vulgar, rude, or ignorant remarks are the music of a free society, and the relentless patter of idiots is how we know we’re in one. When all the words in our public conversation are fair, good, and true, it’s time to make a run for the fence.

This superb quote was taken from the equally amazing Edge.org, run by the literary-agent-cum-third-culture-mastermind John Brockman. It was part of Edge’s 2006 Question to their network of thought leaders, posing “What Is Your Dangerous Idea?”. Due to an editing oversight, the credit to John and Edge.org got cut from that letter, but we wanted you to know where it came from. John continues to be an inspiration to me and to the entire Pop!Tech community.