culture

Until robots understand jokes and sarcasm, artificial general intelligence will remain in the realm of science fiction.

By toppling medieval Europe’s mightiest political power, the Protestant Reformation ushered in a new age of freedom, religious and otherwise.

Far from being inappropriate, many of the most controversial acceptance speeches highlighted important issues in the film industry. 

Most people have a distorted view of what being a scientist is like. Scientists need to make a greater effort to challenge stereotypes.

Memes communicate complex ideas quickly and efficiently, but that’s precisely what makes them so dangerous. 

Like witchcraft, “racecraft” refers to a kind of magical thinking — one that treats race as if it were scientifically meaningful.

Too many people still view stay-at-home dads as feckless deadbeats, but their acceptance is an important step toward gender equality.

Some economists predict China’s economy will overtake the U.S. economy by 2028.

When we fail to help in a bad situation, we are morally responsible. So, why don’t we pick up others’ litter?

George Washington, for example, was quite happy to engage in deception, if that deception would help protect the United States.

In “Off the Edge”, journalist Kelly Weill dives down the strange rabbit hole of the flat-Earther community.

Online Shinto communities have existed since the birth of the internet as we know it.

According to surveys, approximately half of artificial intelligence experts believe that general AI will emerge by 2060.

This century alone has already had a couple of Onesdays (1/11/11 and 11/11/11).

Washington first took the oath of office of the president of the United States with just one natural tooth remaining.

After it became clear that the world wasn’t 6,000 years old, some proposed that northern peoples had emerged independently from others.

To clear Scotland’s roads in winter, the local traffic agency employs heavy machinery with punny names. Can you grit and bear it?

Long before the Wordle mania, there was the crossword puzzle craze. And newspapers around the world condemned them as an “invasive weed” that caused mental illnesses and even murder.

The quadratic formula isn’t just something that teachers use to torture algebra students. The Babylonians once used it to calculate taxes.

If your partner is not helping build a better you, is it time for a better partner?

Although saying the wrong thing could often get you killed in ancient civilizations, history shows that the ideal of free speech has deep roots.

Should we take people’s drunken behavior as evidence of their true character?

Many first-hand accounts from the golden age of piracy were grossly embellished, meaning it’s extremely difficult to separate Blackbeard the legend from Edward Thatch the person.

Iceland consistently ranks as the most gender-equal nation. It is also the nation where men and women are most likely to pursue sex-typical jobs.

More than a decade ago, Armenia made chess a required subject in school because it teaches kids how to think and cope with failure. The U.S. should follow suit.

Wordle activates both the language and logic parts of our brain and give us a nice boost of dopamine, whether we win or lose.

If you want to have foamy beer inside the comfort of your own home, you need to invest in a special nucleated glass.

The death of God didn’t strike Nietzsche as an entirely good thing. Without a God, the basic belief system of Western Europe was in jeopardy.

What was once an art form has been drained of color and personality by ruthless algorithms. Can we make chess human again?

Despite losing most of his extended family to the guillotine, Tocqueville grew up to become a fervent supporter of democratic revolution.