Have you ever been to a lecture where the speaker is so smart people are afraid to ask a question? [View all]

I went to this lecture on Wednesday:

The Natural History of Reality: An Introduction to Complexity Science

The speaker was David Krakauer, President of the Santa Fe Institute. There were maybe 200 or so people there.

It was an amazing talk, 90 minutes, traveling through the history of science to identify areas of "emergence," where interdisciplinary thought is greater than the sum of its parts, to put it in an overly simplistic way.

Now the topic was a little arcane, out of the box.

Afterwards the host asked if there were any questions. No one raised their hands. This was Princeton University.

The host said, "Let's take a break and come back with questions." Most of the audience left without coming back; there were maybe 30 or 40 of us who stayed, whereupon some questions were finally asked, sophisticated questions overall, but I had the feeling that the initial questioners were still somewhat intimidated. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but that's what I thought.

I managed to ask one linking the Uncertainty Principle and orbital symmetry, to which he politely replied satisfactorily and briefly.

Very cool. I love going to talks like that, where the brilliance is overwhelming, where I feel like the dumbest person in the room.