John Brockman‘s Edge Annual Question — 2006 is “WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?“.

Tor Nørretranders proposes the idea of Social relativity: The only thing that matters to human well-being is how one stands relatively to others.

The dilemma, however, is that whereas acknowledging the importance of social relativity (too) easily leads to acceptance of social inequality, new science also points to that inequality is in fact the prime cause for human disease. So – as Nørretranders warns – believing in social relativity can be dangerous to your health.

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