good point - when I was initially writing this post (I'm the original author) I was planning to include a section discussing "the Hilbert questions" in mathemat

good point - when I was initially writing this post (I'm the original author) I was planning to include a section discussing "the Hilbert questions" in mathematics. These questions not only guided the field, but just the conversation which preceded it was likely what catalyzed lots of the developments in 20th century math. I think biology is ripe for such a discussion. We just need to convince people that it's worth having!