Well, before reading this year’s question from 165 top thinkers, I thought there were lots of people of color in this world, but  the empirical evidence, at least from looking at the Edge respondents, is that fewer than 1 in a 100 people are people of color. 

I started by searching the list for people talking about the Internet; I was looking for some new information. But as I scanned the pages,  it became apparent to me that vast majority of the respondents were white. I think of the 165 people one was black.

 It is embarrassing because the Edge, which gets lots of attention from bloggers and the worldwide media, bills itself as:

the highly acclaimed website devoted to discussions of cutting edge science by many of the world’s brilliant thinkers, the leaders of what he has termed “the third culture”.

So here is the question I emailed to John Brockman the editor:

I scanned through your list of 165 respondents to this year’s question looking for how the Internet changed minds. But then I noticed something odd, it became obvious that your community of intellectuals was overwhelmingly white. What’s up?