Will robots free people from slavery?

Even if automation makes human trafficking economically inefficient, that alone won't end this unethical practice.

  • Robotic automation may one day make slavery economically inefficient, but automation does not spring forth fully formed.
  • An interim period of piecemeal coverage may leave many at-risk, low-skilled workers in danger of exploitation.
  • Nor can automation sate the political and social motives for slavery found in some societies.
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Have we reached a humane alternative to the war on drugs?

Can treating addiction as a disease work better than treating it as a vice?

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  • The War on Drugs has taken fifty years of America's time, and an unfathomable amount of our blood and treasure.
  • A new method for dealing with drug abuse, treating it as a disease rather than a moral failure, is being tried.
  • Studies suggest this is a better way to deal with the problem, and programs using this view are seeing success.
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An astronaut may have committed identity theft on the ISS, NASA is investigating

The alleged identity theft may be the first space crime.

Image source: NASA
  • NASA astronaut Anne McClain was accused by her ex-wife for identity theft.
  • The alleged crime was committed on the International Space Station from a NASA computer.
  • Current legal channels exist to solve this dispute, but more heinous or international space crimes are going to be harder to reconcile.
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Opioid crisis: Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $572 million

What's next for the nation's opioid cases?

John Moore / Staff
  • Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay the state of Oklahoma $572 million for downplaying the dangers and overselling the benefits of opioids.
  • The state's lawyers argued that Johnson & Johnson had violated a public nuisance law, which concerns injuries to public health.
  • The first federal trial in the opioid crisis is scheduled for October. It's likely that the Oklahoma verdict doesn't help drug manufacturers and distributors.
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There are 12 million stateless people in the world. Who are they?

Without a country to belong to, many of these people lack some of the most fundamental rights.

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  • According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the world is host to 12 million people who don't officially belong to any state.
  • People can become stateless through a variety of means, including racial discrimination, sexist nationality laws, voluntary choice, or bureaucratic accidents.
  • Who are these millions of stateless individuals? What is life like for them? Can their situation be solved?
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