Daniel Rourke /stream

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Undiagnosed by the mainstream media and much of the academic community, a major intellectual renewal is underway across the left. It is energetic and tech-savvy, building platforms such as Novara Media.

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In 2006 a man walked into an internet cafe in Kassel, Germany, and shot dead Halit Yozgat, a 21-year-old member of the Turkish-German family who owned it. It was the ninth in a series of racist killings by…

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

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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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There are good reasons to worry about the future of humanity. Do we have a future, and if so, how much and what kind? For most people, it’s easier to feel these existential concerns for our species than…

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The end of the world is a growth industry. You can almost feel Armageddon in the air: from survivalist and ‘prepper’ websites (survivopedia.com, doomandbloom.net, prepforshtf.

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Glitch art resonates with the increasingly complex love-hate relationship humans have with technology. Errors, and by extension the changes, that can occur within software source code and data can provide a fertile foundation for the imagination.

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One of the big trends we’ve seen over the last five years is automation. At the same time, we’re also seeing more intelligence built into tools we already have, like phones and computers. Where do you see this…

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Humans invented it—and not that long ago. How and why did the modern world and its unprecedented prosperity begin? Many bookshelves are full of learned tomes by historians, economists, political philosophers and other erudite scholars with endless explanations.

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Throughout history, the world’s greatest minds have been obsessed with immortality. The scientists and entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are no exception “I’ve already lowered my biological age and upgraded my IQ,” says Silicon valley entrepreneur Dave Asprey.

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Fig. 1: Illustration for Lautréamont’s Les Chants de Maldoror (1868-1869). Marco Saccaperni, 2011. I am filthy [Je suis sale]—writes Lautréamont—I am riddled with lice. Hogs, when they look at me, vomit.

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Trevor Paglen is a photographer, writer and investigator. His work takes aim at the U.S. government’s network of secret facilities and programs that have burgeoned since September 11; as he puts it, this means that “there is very…

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If the transhumanists have their way, technology will, slowly but surely, erase metaphorical and physical borders.

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When I read Donna Haraway's Manifesto for Cyborgs in 1989, I was intrigued and inspired. Here was a piece that resonated with my political, feminist and moral values.

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The things we create define us, as a culture and as a species. Yet, so often, as we hurtle into the future, our creations seem to take on a life of their own.

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Last year, a man in an exoskeleton kicked off the Men’s World Cup. Juliano Pinto, a 29-year-old from Brazil, was outfitted by a team of scientists from the Walk Again Project with a complex framework of braces and…

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Later this year, a nuclear power reactor will open in the US for the first time in two decades. But this reactor, called Watts Bar Unit 2—one of two near Spring City, Tennessee—isn’t quite new.

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German artist Ralf Baecker gives technology a life of its own. His new piece Irrational Computing, which debuts International Triennial of New Media Art, use semiconductor crystals (quartz sand) and connects them to interlinked modules to create a…

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What makes us different from all these things? What makes us different is the particulars of our history, which gives us our notions of purpose and goals.

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Undiagnosed by the mainstream media and much of the academic community, a major intellectual renewal is underway across the left. It is energetic and tech-savvy, building platforms such as Novara Media.

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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.” The post consisted of around thirty photos…

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

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There are good reasons to worry about the future of humanity. Do we have a future, and if so, how much and what kind? For most people, it’s easier to feel these existential concerns for our species than…

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The inequality of badly-run or corrupt states is boosted by the power of technology – but it’s also easier than ever to destabilise these states, thanks to technology. The question is: which future will prevail?

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Glitch art resonates with the increasingly complex love-hate relationship humans have with technology. Errors, and by extension the changes, that can occur within software source code and data can provide a fertile foundation for the imagination.

Bookmark

One of the big trends we’ve seen over the last five years is automation. At the same time, we’re also seeing more intelligence built into tools we already have, like phones and computers. Where do you see this…

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Human-level intelligence is familiar in biological hardware – you’re using it now. Science and technology seem to be converging, from several directions, on the possibility of similar intelligence in non-biological systems.

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Throughout history, the world’s greatest minds have been obsessed with immortality. The scientists and entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are no exception “I’ve already lowered my biological age and upgraded my IQ,” says Silicon valley entrepreneur Dave Asprey.

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Anyone who has a smartphone is capable of whipping out a high-resolution camera and filming injustice in progress. That technology is how we've become exposed to police abuses nationwide and helped inspire a new wave of police reform…

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If the transhumanists have their way, technology will, slowly but surely, erase metaphorical and physical borders.

Bookmark

When I read Donna Haraway's Manifesto for Cyborgs in 1989, I was intrigued and inspired. Here was a piece that resonated with my political, feminist and moral values.

Bookmark

The things we create define us, as a culture and as a species. Yet, so often, as we hurtle into the future, our creations seem to take on a life of their own.

Bookmark

Silicon Valley’s sunny outlook on technology and opportunity ignores systematic inequalities. Just over a century ago, an electric company in Minnesota took out a full-page newspaper advertisement and listed 1,000 uses for electricity.

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Later this year, a nuclear power reactor will open in the US for the first time in two decades. But this reactor, called Watts Bar Unit 2—one of two near Spring City, Tennessee—isn’t quite new.

Bookmark

What makes us different from all these things? What makes us different is the particulars of our history, which gives us our notions of purpose and goals.

Bookmark

Why has the narrative of computer history come to be defined more by images of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg than by the pioneering work of Ada Lovelace, who is often recognized as the world’s first computer programmer?…