Can the human mind be explained as a solely material thing? Can a machine ever be conscious?
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Scientists from Harvard, Caltech, and the Max Planck Institute have succeeded in keeping a bit of quantum information, or qubit, stable in an artificial diamond for more than a second.
The next housing boom will be far more radical than the last housing boom. Instead of moving middle-class families into McMansions they can’t possibly afford, this next housing boom will […]
Interview with Jason Silva by Frank Rose One afternoon recently I spent a couple of hours with Jason Silva, the longtime Current TV host who’s been making much-talked-about micro-videos about the […]
The European Space Agency has committed to building a new space telescope whose sole purpose will be to unravel the cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
Two European physicists are attempting to explain black holes in the language of quantum mechanics. If successful, they could reconcile competing theories of how gravity works.
It’s difficult to categorize Siri Hustvedt. She is, first and foremost, a writer and a thinker. Her well-known novels include What I Loved and The Sorrows Of An American. They […]
Tropical lakes of methane recently discovered on the surface of Titan hint at subsurface oases, which could produce compounds analogous to proteins and information-carrying molecules.
The Turing Test, which is based on language processing, is seen by many as imperfect. That is why a group of scientists at the University of Exeter in England have proposed a “Turing Test 2.0.”
China has become just the third nation to dock spacecraft in orbit. The country’s progress in space technology has been rapid despite being excluded from the International Space Station.
As paralysis continues to grip the corridors of power in Brussels and Berlin, even the dark humour for which central Europeans are noted is in short supply. But at least, […]
In this Age of the Austerians, anything considered non-essential is being denied the financial means to survive. Despite mountains of research findings, arts programs in schools fall under the austerity […]
I had a run-in with an old adversary lately, and after I’ve sent him on his way, I always feel compelled to point out some of the hopeful things he […]
Feeling threatened changes people’s perceptions of other people. Before World War II, for example, American university students described the Japanese as artistic and progressive, while the Chinese were supposedly treacherous […]
The conventional wisdom is that China’s economy is based on stealing intellectual property and underpricing it. If we look at aerospace technology, we see a different story.
The fictional island has all the attributes necessary for a classic adventure story – including a bunch of intriguing place-names
A new report by the Pew Global Attitudes Project reinforces the widespread judgment that America is in decline. It observes that “perceptions of China’s economic power continue to grow” among […]
How has Twitter changed the cultural and literary landscape aside from knowing what your friends had for lunch? For one thing, it has rescued the aphorism from our self-obsessed culture.
Christian Lorentzen makes an excellent point excellently: Tougher for the novelist are the tasks of rendering convincing characters across the class spectrum and capturing economic intricacies in a way that’s […]
In the 50 years since Silent Spring was published, the environmental movement it helped create has accomplished a great deal. It may be less popular to suggest, but it […]
What’s the Big Idea? A Florida teenager will have a bad headache for a while after being shot through the head with a three-foot fishing spear, but doctors expect a […]
Millions of people log on to Lumosity daily to flex their brain muscles–and hopefully improve memory, attention and general cognitive performance in the process. But this brain training site has […]
There are few in this world who can say they’ve never sat, solemnly, in some sort of traffic. This New York Times article reported that the average American commuter spends a […]
If you want to know why you are still single you might try posting a dating profile on a Scandinavian website. According to a friend of mine, online searchers there […]
In Google’s latest bi-annual transparency report, the company says it has received more requests from western democracies than ever before to take down political information.
Forget Google. Larger data-gathering corporations combine decades of pre-Internet consumer research with online tracking tools to create a frighteningly powerful database.
The Internet’s standards body is debating technology that allows users to make their surfing habits unavailable to advertisers. How far should the body enter the policy making realm?
A team of Danish researchers are working to help villagers in eastern Namibia preserve their cultural traditions, which are becoming more difficult to pass down in an age of urban migration.
If you took the three-question quiz I posted last week, chances are you answered some items incorrectly. Like some of my smart, accomplished friends and family members who took the […]
As you may be aware, Leah Libresco at Unequally Yoked had a startling announcement yesterday: she’s converting to Catholicism. I have to admit, though others will no doubt chastise me […]