Daniel Rourke /stream

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By Ursula K. Le Guin These are some thoughts about utopia and dystopia. The old, crude Good Places were compensatory visions of controlling what you couldn’t control and having what you…

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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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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…

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It’s ok. You can say it. Everyone else seems to be saying it now anyway. It might even make you feel better. It’s too late.

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Until that night, I thought scary was airplane turbulence. I thought it was telling that one girl how much you like her. I thought it was movies about dudes who wear…

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Second Life was supposed to be the future of the internet, but then Facebook came along. Yet many people still spend hours each day inhabiting this virtual realm. Their stories—and the…

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ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM day in the middle of March, I traveled from New Hampshire to the moist, dim sanctuary of the New England Aquarium, hoping to touch an alternate reality.…

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A new report suggests that the marriage of AI and robotics could replace so many jobs that the era of mass employment could come to an end If you wanted relief…

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Museum curators have made a surprise discovery in Vincent Van Gogh's Olive Trees: a grasshopper embedded in the paint. The experts from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City discovered…

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The Triassic Period was a gnarly time to be alive on Earth, and not only because it was Act One of the age of dinosaurs. This epoch stretched from 251 to…

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Mainstream philosophy in the so-called West is narrow-minded, unimaginative, and even xenophobic. I know I am levelling a serious charge.

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Joi Ito's Resisting Reduction manifesto rejects the idea of reducing the world to a series of computable relationships that will eventually be overtaken by our ability to manipulate them with computers…

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The parallel between Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon and CCTV may be clear, but what happens when you step into the world of data capture? The philosopher Jeremy Bentham famously requested in his…

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Earlier this year I went to an event in Austin, Texas, billed as a sneak preview of the evolution of our species.

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Bitcoin “miners” are electromagnetic alchemists, effectively turning megawatt-hours of electricity into the world’s fastest-growing currency.

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When the ancestors of modern humans migrated out of Africa, they passed through the Middle East and Turkey before heading deeper into Asia and Europe.

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ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM day in the middle of March, I traveled from New Hampshire to the moist, dim sanctuary of the New England Aquarium, hoping to touch an alternate reality.…

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As someone who identifies as poly, I've often experienced negativity from those who don't think outside of how their relationships function. At times, this judgment has come from those close to…

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A new report suggests that the marriage of AI and robotics could replace so many jobs that the era of mass employment could come to an end If you wanted relief…

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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.

Bookmark

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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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…

Bookmark

It’s ok. You can say it. Everyone else seems to be saying it now anyway. It might even make you feel better. It’s too late.

Bookmark

Until that night, I thought scary was airplane turbulence. I thought it was telling that one girl how much you like her. I thought it was movies about dudes who wear…

Bookmark

Second Life was supposed to be the future of the internet, but then Facebook came along. Yet many people still spend hours each day inhabiting this virtual realm. Their stories—and the…

Bookmark

As someone who identifies as poly, I've often experienced negativity from those who don't think outside of how their relationships function. At times, this judgment has come from those close to…

Bookmark

A new report suggests that the marriage of AI and robotics could replace so many jobs that the era of mass employment could come to an end If you wanted relief…

Bookmark

The Triassic Period was a gnarly time to be alive on Earth, and not only because it was Act One of the age of dinosaurs. This epoch stretched from 251 to…

Bookmark

We are witnessing the beginning of Silicon Valley institutionalizing its religious beliefs.

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Joi Ito's Resisting Reduction manifesto rejects the idea of reducing the world to a series of computable relationships that will eventually be overtaken by our ability to manipulate them with computers…

Bookmark

The parallel between Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon and CCTV may be clear, but what happens when you step into the world of data capture? The philosopher Jeremy Bentham famously requested in his…

Bookmark

Earlier this year I went to an event in Austin, Texas, billed as a sneak preview of the evolution of our species.

Bookmark

Bitcoin “miners” are electromagnetic alchemists, effectively turning megawatt-hours of electricity into the world’s fastest-growing currency.

Bookmark

ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM day in the middle of March, I traveled from New Hampshire to the moist, dim sanctuary of the New England Aquarium, hoping to touch an alternate reality.…

Bookmark

A new report suggests that the marriage of AI and robotics could replace so many jobs that the era of mass employment could come to an end If you wanted relief…

Bookmark

Museum curators have made a surprise discovery in Vincent Van Gogh's Olive Trees: a grasshopper embedded in the paint. The experts from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City discovered…