1. Are Intelligent Machines a Threat to ‘Human Exceptionalism’? “Is it time to take seriously the prospect of artificial intelligence emulating human abilities?” Yes, says Ray Kurzweil in his book How to Create a […]
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I was reading about “the nasty effect” that Internet comments have on an original article. A summary at Gawker (in case you don’t have a New York Times subscription) details […]
Many years later it dawned on me that what I wanted to be when I was 14 was “erudite.” I should have known the word back then, as I had […]
“The latest fashion… is absolutely necessary for a painting,” artist Édouard Manet announced in 1881. “It’s what matters most.” When most people think of Impressionism, they may think of flowers, […]
In the past 18 months, the country has added an extra tax to certain packaged foods in an attempt to curb what some see as a public health crisis.
In addition to limiting how much executives and directors can make, the new referendum includes prison time and fines for “golden parachutes” and similar bonuses.
Far from the aloof practitioner of new-age feel-good solutions, viewing dilemmas as opportunities rather than life-crushing problems—in a word, being optimistic—has real benefits.
The tongue-in-cheek phrase “There’s an app for that” is symptomatic of a more worrying social trend, says author and critic of philanthropic technology, Evgeny Morozov.
Researchers were surprised to find that fruit flies were given to impulsive eating patterns, similar to humans who will eat more of a food if it contains large amounts of sugar and fat.
Psychologists have observed that children who have a realistic—not inflated—understanding of how they are seen by others tend to be more resilient and less crest-fallen later on.
Engineers have improved on the original and groundbreaking brain-computer interface by creating a wireless device that has successfully been implanted into the brains of monkeys and pigs.
One of cartography’s most persistent myths: mapmakers of yore, frustrated by the world beyond their ken, marked the blank spaces on their maps with the legend Here be monsters. It’s […]
The state of Colorado, one of the first in the country to legalize the general use of marijuana, is now facing a dilemma over how, and whether, to criminalize driving under its influence.
Steep budget cuts to federal spending, amounting to $85 billion in total, will hit the healthcare sector particularly hard, affecting no other portion of the economy more than defense.
When seeking intellectual stimulation on the Internet, TED can be regarded as one of those special “signals within the noise”. The site releases one talk a day, helping to create […]
Some in America find their only path to healthcare is to manipulate the system, whether than means always going to emergency room or committing crimes to receive medical attention.
A new study out of Finland has found that having a boy may shorten mothers’ lifespans for biological and environmental reasons. Researchers will now look for more current data.
By studying how viruses work in plants, biologists are coming to see that far more species are symbiotic than purely independent. In other words, viruses can confer benefits on plants.
Full citizenship is the idea in which all members of society see themselves as change agents.
In yet another nod to its country’s aging population, Japan’s Fujitsu presented at this week’s Mobile World Congress conference a prototype of a cane containing 21st-century technology.
Software company Opower teams with utilities to provide customers with reports showing how well they’re doing compared to their neighbors. These and other small nudges have worked to reduce costs as well as environmental impacts.
The second-largest desert city also has exceptionally high levels of humidity, which the billboard converts into water that citizens can access via a simple spigot.
In a new study at the journal BMC Medical Ethics, my colleague Declan Fahy and I analyze the journalistic and critical reception of Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 best-selling book The Immortal Life of […]
This brings me to an ancient Greek, the master himself, Socrates of Athens. In a segment of Gorgias that foresees decades of modern psychological research, the erudite interlocutor observes that […]
The project is designed to make recycling as simple as possible by taking the sorting process out of the hands of residents and putting it into those of various companies.
Peter Gabriel and Vint Cerf are two of the people behind the proposed Interspecies Internet, a platform that is exactly what it sounds like.
Before the end of the Second World War, officials from the Allied nations met up at a resort town in New Hampshire to create a new economic order for the […]
1. “First the pope and now Andrew Mason!?!” Andrew Mason continued the popular Silicon Valley “I’ve just been fired” meme with a blunt note to employees at Groupon: “After four and a […]
A little over a year ago, I wrote aboutThe Herb Block Foundation’s gloom and doom report titled The Golden Age for Editorial Cartoonists at the Nation’s Newspapers is Over. Founded […]
Here’s a published dialogue that I did with my friend Deepak Chopra in which we discuss the challenges of standing up for Spirit in a secular culture. Enjoy! __________________________________ ANDREW […]