Daniel Rourke /stream

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In the past few years, we’ve been deluged with discussions of how artificial intelligence (AI) will either save or destroy the world. Self-driving cars will keep us alive; social media bubbles…

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In the current issue of Salvage journal, Sølvi Goard uses Ghost in the Shell as an entry point for a discussion of how capitalism shapes bodies, especially trans bodies.

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The following is an excerpt from Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy, by Lynne Segal (Verso, November 2017). This essay is recommended by Longreads contributing editor Dana Snitzky.

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As a kid, I saw the 1968 version of Planet of the Apes. As a future primatologist, I was mesmerized. Years later I discovered an anecdote about its filming: At lunchtime,…

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Dale Baker was introduced to simulation theory five years ago as an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Iowa. The idea that our reality may be nothing more than a computer-generated…

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Preeminent scientists are warning about serious threats to human life in the not-distant future, including climate change and superintelligent computers. Most people don't care.

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Imagine a world where there is no food for us to feed on, and the only way to survive is to resort to cannibalism. A group of British researchers has envisaged…

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The model shows catastrophic outcomes: while the project is running, habitats are well-protected from climate change and animals cease chasing new latitudes they can survive in.

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In December, Motherboard discovered a redditor named 'deepfakes' quietly enjoying his hobby: Face-swapping celebrity faces onto porn performers’ bodies.

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Some of the first people to be called “engineers” operated siege engines. A siege engine is a very old device used to tear down the walls of an enemy city.

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A few days ago, I came across an old post on the Web site Bored Panda called “10+ Times People Accidentally Found Their Doppelgängers in Museums and Couldn’t Believe Their Eyes.”…

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Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin have soared in value over the past year, thanks to continued interest from a range of investors.

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The first time Ivan Yanakiev heard an instrument tuned to 432 Hertz, he says, it was like he'd heard God speak.

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What lurks in the Arctic’s thawing permafrost? From the air, the coast of Greenland appears vast and tranquil. Hundreds of fjords, their surfaces a mirror of blue sky and cloud bottoms,…

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Honeycreepers, small birds inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands, have a rich assortment of beak shapes. Some species have long, thin beaks suited to plucking insects from leaves. Others possess thick beaks good…

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NOTE 1: The original piece talked about Cultural Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I retracted the language of the proposal, because of appropriate criticism, since I realized it might be too…

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In cramped quarters at Russia’s Higher School of Economics, shared by four students and a cat, sat a server with 13 hard drives. The server hosted Sci-Hub, a website with over…

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In the past few years, we’ve been deluged with discussions of how artificial intelligence (AI) will either save or destroy the world. Self-driving cars will keep us alive; social media bubbles…

Bookmark

The following is an excerpt from Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy, by Lynne Segal (Verso, November 2017). This essay is recommended by Longreads contributing editor Dana Snitzky.

Bookmark

As a kid, I saw the 1968 version of Planet of the Apes. As a future primatologist, I was mesmerized. Years later I discovered an anecdote about its filming: At lunchtime,…

Bookmark

Dale Baker was introduced to simulation theory five years ago as an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Iowa. The idea that our reality may be nothing more than a computer-generated…

Bookmark

Preeminent scientists are warning about serious threats to human life in the not-distant future, including climate change and superintelligent computers. Most people don't care.

Bookmark

When you are the first person to arrive in a meeting room, do you think of it as being empty or full? If you were raised in the West, a meeting…

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The model shows catastrophic outcomes: while the project is running, habitats are well-protected from climate change and animals cease chasing new latitudes they can survive in.

Bookmark

Some of the first people to be called “engineers” operated siege engines. A siege engine is a very old device used to tear down the walls of an enemy city.

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Let us begin by citing an authoritative man: According to Vivek H. Murthy, a former American surgeon general, the world is awash with an epidemic of loneliness.

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Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin have soared in value over the past year, thanks to continued interest from a range of investors.

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Is civilization good for us? Has it made us any happier?

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What lurks in the Arctic’s thawing permafrost? From the air, the coast of Greenland appears vast and tranquil. Hundreds of fjords, their surfaces a mirror of blue sky and cloud bottoms,…

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NOTE 1: The original piece talked about Cultural Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I retracted the language of the proposal, because of appropriate criticism, since I realized it might be too…

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Levandowski’s church will enter a tech universe that’s already riven by debate over the promise and perils of AI. Some thinkers, like Kevin Kelly in Backchannel earlier this year, argue that…